News (engl.)

The Germany national team have met up in Wolfsburg for their final camp of the year ahead of their crucial World Cup qualifiers against Luxembourg on Friday (20:45 CET) and Slovakia next Monday (20:45 CET). Wins in both games could secure Germany’s ticket to the 2026 World Cup in USA, Canada and Mexico. Head coach Julian Nagelsmann spoke to us about the balance within the squad and the lessons learned from the defeat against Slovakia last time out.

Julian Nagelsmann on…

…his squad: We need a good balance within the team. We want every position to be covered twice, so the structure has to fit. We’re convinced that we have the right players to pick up six points in the two games and qualify for the World Cup. That’s the top priority.

…the qualifying group: We’re not dependent on other results - only on our own performance. Despite a poor start, we’ve earned ourselves a solid position in the group. Now we have to keep building on that. The players have just come through an intense period and have played a lot of games. We want to work our way into the matches through defending as a unit and we also need to be more dangerous in attack than we were in the October games.

…Said El Mala and other youngsters: I’m not a big fan of hyping and pushing young players too early, but I do want open communication with them. El Mala isn’t an established national team player yet, but he has the chance to show what he can do in training - it’s very hard to judge players based only on scouting. There are also other players who could be interesting for us, like Lennart Karl, Assan Ouedraogo, or Nicolo Tresoldi. It’s about different types of player that we don’t necessarily already have in the squad. Lennart is doing well at Bayern, but he first has to go through the U21s and ideally take on a leading role there.

…Leroy Sane’s return: Leroy is getting a chance to prove himself. We currently don’t have many out-and-out wingers. We’re communicating frequently. I’m not 100% satisfied with him yet. He knows what’s expected and that there won’t be many more chances to prove himself under my leadership in the national team. He has it all - he just needs to bring it onto the pitch, but he knows that. He still has steps to take, both here and at club level.

…leaving out Angelo Stiller: He’s been developing well in the past few weeks. I’ve told him that, but it’s about balance. Right now, I see Felix Nmecha and Aleksandar Pavlovic slightly ahead of him in the defensive midfield role. In the last camp, I had five defensive midfielders, and three of them didn’t play a single minute - including Stiller. Now our structure is a bit different. Nmecha and Pavlovic are both having strong seasons as key players for their clubs. Angelo can take a breather now and keep building on his improving form. The door is still open for him.

…Nico Schlotterbeck’s injury from the game against HSV: “Schlotti’s” foot swelled up overnight. It doesn’t look great so we’ll have to just see how it develops over the week.

…calling up Malick Thiaw: Malick has settled in and is doing very well as a regular for Newcastle. He hasn’t been with us for quite a while, partly because he hardly played for six months in Milan. He’s earned his place back in the team.

…his left-backs: It’s like the situation in defensive midfield. Maximilian Mittelstädt has been doing great at Stuttgart, but we have no reason to make changes. David Raum is doing very well and his personality is great for the team. He really glues the team together and gets along with everyone. The captaincy in Leipzig has been good for him, and he’s taking on more responsibility with us as well. Nene Brown has also made big defensive progress recently.

…the defeat to Slovakia: We were slow and sluggish, and we allowed Slovakia into the game while also doing very little to try and turn it around. Our approach now has to be completely different from what it was last time. We know they can play and cause us problems if we don’t give it everything we’ve got. We can’t afford any more slip-ups – we’ve already had one. We have to win both games and cannot underestimate either opponent.