German national team head coach Jürgen Klopp has seen enough from this international break to have belief in where things are going, even if the results have not lived up to the massive amount of hype surrounding him.
Against Serbia on Thursday, Klopp is expecting to see similar tactics to the ones used by Greece over the weekend, but would like to see a different response from his squad, which will feature a new cast of players.
“Serbia’s approach won’t be much different from what Greece did. What
makes Serbia particularly difficult to play against is their experience. They also have some excellent footballers. They know all the tricks of the trade, so we have to be prepared for that. They have a special mentality. It’s not the best period in Serbian football at the moment, but the players themselves know what’s at stake and have fought for one another. An opponent that sits deep is a major challenge for any team, at any stage of development,” Klopp said (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “We will build a team that can cause problems for all teams. We’re just getting started in this process. We are all interested in bringing German football back to where we all want it to be.”
As for who will lead the group on the pitch with Joshua Kimmich back at Bayern Munich and Nico Schlotterbeck felled by an injury, Klopp gave reporters a homework assignment to figure it out for themselves.
“Whoever has the most international caps in the starting lineup will wear the armband tomorrow. Feel free to ask, but I don’t reveal the starting lineup now. You can look them up yourselves. I can only say that Jonas Urbig won’t wear the armband in his first international match,” Klopp noted.
Join the conversation!
Sign up for a user account and get:
- New, improved notifications system!
- Fewer ads
- Create community posts
- Comment on articles, community posts
- Rec comments, community posts
