After the France game showed what the Germans are capable of, Julian Nagelsmann must now prove that the results are replicable. Against the Netherlands, the former Bayern Munich coach will get a chance to do just that — but only if he resists the impulse to experiment.
Team news
Nothing new in the way of news to report. Assuming that Nagelsmann is taking this seriously, he will probably go with the same lineup we saw against France. That would mean something that looks like this:
That XI did rather well against France, but there are places where it could be improved. Some options include:
- Thomas Müller in for İlkay Gündoğan at attacking midfield. Gündoğan wasn’t particularly impressive in his advanced role vs France, so it could be in Nagelsmann’s best interests to try a different AM option next to Havertz up top. Müller got rather close to scoring shortly after coming on in the France game, and his recent form with Bayern speaks for his inclusion. If the captaincy is the problem, well … there’s no reason why he couldn’t take the armband from Gundo as well.
- Pascal Groß for Robert Andrich at defensive midfield. Andrich had a solid but not spectacular outing against France, while Groß has been one of the bright spots of the German midfield in the post-Flick era. With Toni Kroos currently an inextricable part of the setup, the question of who gets to play next to him will be an important one to answer.
- David Raum (or Benjamin Henrichs) for Maximilian Mittelstädt at left-back. This is a pretty unlikely move for Nagelsmann to make, though it wouldn’t be surprising if it happened. Maximilian Mittelstädt had a torrid time on his national team debut, struggling to contain the likes of Ousmane Dembélé on his side of the pitch, and not making a particular impact on the offensive front either. The coach will probably still persist with the Stuttgart man, but he has options if he wants to change it up.
Those are the three most likely changes Germany could make ahead of the game vs the Netherlands. What others would you like to see? Comment below!
Looking for more thoughts and analysis on Germany’s big match against the Netherlands and some thoughts on if — or how — Leroy Sané might eventually fit in? Then we’ve got you covered with our Bavarian Podcast Works — Preview Show, which is available on Spotify or below:
