He was recently considered a mainstay: Dietmar Hamann ‘surprised’ by DFB call-up for Bayern Munich player
Nathaniel Brown was recently regarded as a regular member of the Germany squad. TV pundit Dietmar Hamann nevertheless questions the left-back’s latest call-up by national team coach Jürgen Klopp.
"What surprised me a little was Brown's selection," Hamann said on Sky. The versatile 23-year-old was "currently the third-choice left-back" at Bayern Munich, he noted. "They don't seem to trust him at the back."
In the two most recent matches, others got the nod at left-back. The resurgent Alphonso Davies started in the 2-2 draw against Borussia Dortmund, while Josip Stanisic started in the 2-0 win at Atletico Madrid. But amid the injury crisis, interim head coach Aaron Danks also kept the versatile Brown in reserve as an attacking option from the bench. He brought him on as a No. 10 in both matches, a role Brown had already filled at the start of the season.
Brown's positioning back then prompted Klopp to make a jokey dig at Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany. "Now we finally have a left-back, and then he plays as a No. 10," Klopp joked in a TV interview on Sat1. Hamann saw it differently: "If you're a good footballer, anyone can play as a No. 10 in Munich because you have 80 per cent possession."
How has Nathaniel Brown fared so far under Jürgen Klopp?
In the weeks that followed, Brown mainly alternated with Davies at left-back for Bayern Munich. He has started there in six of their 14 competitive matches so far this season, including three in the past three weeks against RB Leipzig, SC Freiburg and 1. FC Magdeburg.
Before the World Cup, Brown had established himself as the German national team's first-choice left-back. He emerged as one of the few German bright spots in an otherwise disappointing tournament, then moved from Eintracht Frankfurt to Bayern Munich for €50 million.
Klopp's first international period brought two rather disappointing performances from Brown before he had to leave the team as part of the planned squad reshuffle. The established Maximilian Mittelstädt and David Raum then got their chances, but neither made a convincing case. Mittelstädt is in the squad again, but Raum is absent from the squad for the upcoming Nations League matches against Serbia (13 November) and Holland (16 November).
