Alan Shearer has already set the bar extremely high for Jürgen Klopp — and he is not convinced Germany currently has the talent to reach it.
The former England striker believes Klopp’s biggest challenge will be restoring Germany to the powerhouse status the country once enjoyed, arguing that the national team is going through a period where its talent pool simply is not at the level needed to compete consistently for major trophies.
“The big question Klopp has to answer taking over as Germany manager
is can he bring them back to being a powerhouse in international football because he’s coming at a time where German football isn’t at its best. We’ve seen Germany now in the last few years and I covered them a couple of times in the World Cup and they were really poor,” Shearer told Betfair. “I don’t think they’re blessed with great players. They’ve got one or two very, very good players, but I think in terms of the numbers, I’d be surprised if he was to get them back to the top level in competing for EUROs and for World Cups. I don’t see that happening for a while because I don’t think that they have the talent at the minute for them to achieve that, despite how great he is as a manager.”
That is quite the challenge for Klopp.
Germany clearly possesses high-end talent in players such as Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala, while a number of younger players are now breaking into the senior setup. But Shearer believes the overall depth is still lacking.
Klopp now has the opportunity to prove that the right manager can make the difference — even if Shearer does not believe Germany is ready to return to the very top just yet.
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