Jürgen Klopp has sent a clear signal to Germany as the former Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund and Mainz manager has named 44 players in two, separate blocks for his first squad as German national team manager for the four upcoming UEFA Nations League matches. Germany will take on the Netherlands, Greece, and Serbia and Klopp plans on using a mix of the two different blocks of players for each pair of matches.
They’ll be a total of eleven players from Klopp’s two squads that will be making their debuts
for the senior national squad and there will still be a solid foundation of veteran players. One thing is for certain, though’ Klopp is ready to shake things up a bit and get a look at a many players as possible.
As is often the case with national team selections, there are usual suspects in the squad and highly notable omissions. Of course, with this being Klopp’s first window as national team manager following Julian Nagelsmann’s disappointing World Cup, there’s added hype around the international break, but he’s not pulling any punches and has made his intentions clear.
Unsurprisingly, there are a handful of players that were in the World Cup squad this past summer that Klopp has not chosen to call up this time around. Most notably, he’s made the decision to leave out VfB Stuttgart’s Deniz Undav, Aston Villa’s Leon Goretzka, and Galatasaray’s Leroy Sané. For the case of Undav, who was Germany’s sparking hero in their 2-1 win over Côte d’Ivoire at the World Cup, Klopp has spoken to him about the squad omission, but recently revealed the same can’t yet be said for Goretzka or Sané.
“Leroy hasn’t really found his footing this season yet. I’ll speak to him, but I haven’t done that yet. I haven’t spoken to Leon Goretzka either, but Leon is injured. I’ve had more than 50 or 60 phone calls. There needs to be some substance to them, not just: ‘Hi, here I am!’ – If there’s something to discuss, we’ll talk,” Klopp explained in his press conference where he announced his first official full squad for the upcoming international break (via @iMiaSanMia).
For Goretzka, the decision is a little more cut and dry since he currently has an injury and has not yet played for Villa since he joined them this summer. For Sané so far this season, he’s made a total of six appearances across all competitions but is yet to have found the back of the net or to have provided an assist for Galatasaray. His minutes have been impacted by the arrival of Rafael Leão this summer, having made the move from AC Milan.
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