Who are the next wave of Germany stars?
The international break comes at a strange time in the schedule of the big five European domestic leagues. The final quarter of the season is ahead for all of the teams and while the intensity ratchets up for the South American contingents from each league heading to the World Cup qualifying bloodbath known as CONMEBOL, the European players drop a notch or five to play friendlies or qualifiers against teams like the 107th ranked Lithuania and the 89th ranked Azerbaijan.
Germany had time to honor Lukas Podolski with a friendly against England. While Gareth Southgate’s squad came away pleased with a 1-0 loss to the current world champions, the German squad was almost more notable for who wasn’t there, then who was there to help celebrate Podolski’s career for his chosen country.
Injuries have forced out a number of first choices in the German XI. Goalkeeper Manual Neuer, holding midfielder İlkay Gündoğan, winger Marco Reus, defender Jerome Boateng and attacking substitute World Cup winning goal-scorer Mario Götze. German manager Joachim Low had to replace that level of talent and proved that Germany has an embarrassment of riches at every position to choose from.
From this, the idea was born for a series here on playingfor90.com to name a squad of players that is not currently with their national team and see if they could compete with England to fairly (or unfairly) expose the depth of talent available to England in comparison to the countries with the strongest leagues in Europe.
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Monday – Germany
Tuesday – Spain
Wednesday – France
Thursday – Italy
Friday – England (… is there hope on the horizon)
Current Squad (March 2017 qualifiers)
Germany
Manager: Joachim Low
Keepers: Bernd Leno, Kevin Trapp, Marc-Andre ter Stegen
Defenders: Jonas Hector, Benedikt Howedes, Mats Hummels, Joshua Kimmich, Shkodran Mustafi, Antonio Rudiger, Sebastian Rudy, Niklas Sule
Midfielders: Julian Brandt, Emre Can, Julian Draxler, Sami Khedira, Toni Kroos, Mesut Ozil, Julian Weigl
Forwards: Mario Gomez, Thomas Muller, Lukas Podolski, Leroy Sane, Andre Schurrle, Timo Werner
Injured: GK Manuel Neuer, CB Jerome Boateng, DM İlkay Gündoğan, AM Marco Reus, AM Mario Götze
Germany – The Alternate Squad: 3-3-2-2
GK: Timo Horn (FC Köln)
CB: Holger Badstuber (Schalke)
CB: Niklas Stark (Hertha Berlin)
CB: Matthias Ginter (Dortmund)
RWB: Benjamin Henrichs (Leverkusen)
LWB: Diego Contento (Bordeaux)
DM: Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich)
CM: Leon Goretzka (Schalke)
CM: Serge Gnabry (Bremen)
F: Max Kruse (Bremen)
F: Kevin Volland (Leverkusen)
Sub GK: Loris Karius (Liverpool)
Sub D: Timo Baumgartl (Stuttgart)
Sub D: Sebastian Jung (Wolfsburg)
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Sub M: Bastian Schweinsteiger (Chicago Fire)
Sub M: Christoph Kramer (Borussia Mönchengladbach)
Sub W: Leonardo Bittencourt (FC Köln)
Sub F: Davie Selke (RB Leipzig)
Analysis:
Lahm is brought in to captain this club and be a steadying presence for a number of younger players that populate the squad. Twenty-three year old keeper Horn is one of the best keepers in the Bundesliga and even accounting for the return from his injury at the end of 2016, he is at best number five on Germany’s goalkeeping depth chart. Does England have a keeper of Horn’s promise in the pipeline? If they do, it is buried deeply in an academy.
Following the trend of playing with three center backs, Badstuber is the veteran presence with Stark and Ginter both capable of playing defensive midfield roles and playing the ball from the back. Contento narrowly edges Dortmund captain Marcel Schmelzer for the left wing-back role and Henrichs is quickly becoming the best right-sided defender in Germany.
Next: Manchester United swoop for Serie A star
Goretzka and Gnabry would bring industry and creativity to the midfield respectively and Kruse and Volland are strikers that would be able to break into any other national team side but their own. Would this team be able to give England’s best XI a game? I think the question is more would England’s best XI be able to challenge this squad in a winner-take-all scenario.