Jürgen Klopp is looking forward to Germany’s meeting with Serbia on Friday, describing the match as an important opportunity to evaluate how much progress his team has made during their time together. With the ultimate goal of preparing for the next major competition, Klopp wants to see tangible improvements translated onto the pitch and perhaps a little less drama off of it.
“I’m looking forward to it. It’s a test. We’re doing all of this with one ultimate goal in mind: to be ready for the competition.
Friday is a proper competitive match, and I expect it to be a very difficult game. Accordingly, it will be a real test for us to see where we stand and how far we’ve come. We would obviously like to show that we’ve made good use of the time,” Klopp said (as captured by @iMiaSanMia).
Klopp also took issue with headlines suggesting that Bayern Munich youngster Wael Mohya had been dropped from the squad. The 17-year-old will not be included in the 23-man matchday squad, but the Germany coach insisted that this should not be interpreted as a rejection.
“I’d like to say something about Wael Mohya because that’s been turned into a headline: ‘Dropped from the squad.’ That’s completely missing the point. It’s simply nonsense. We obviously haven’t dropped him. I spoke to Wael beforehand. Unless something changes, he won’t be in the squad. We want him to experience everything. If I imagine being 17 myself and someone telling me I could be part of a team like this, I would have taken absolutely any opportunity to make that happen. That’s exactly how it is. He’s training brilliantly and he’s in a great place, but he hasn’t been dropped. He’s here with us,” Klopp stated.
Finally, Klopp had a humorous response to the news that 5,000 Serbian children will be attending tomorrow’s match.
“Then tomorrow we’ll have to send 5,000 Serbian children home with the thought: In football, you don’t always win, but next time you’ll have another chance. I don’t want to threaten anyone, but the goal is to win the game, even though it’s being played in front of children,” Klopp said.
Clearly, Klopp is approaching this as a test, but he still wants Germany to come away with the victory.
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