It is no secret that Germany has had some real problems developing multiple important footballing profiles. There is an alarming shortage of German full-backs, strikers and wingers in the current day and age. Instead, the vast majority of Germany’s brightest talents are lightweight creative midfielders that prefer to play centrally. Which opens up yet another problem for the 2014 World Cup winners.
If so many players want to create, who can watch their backs?
At the moment, there are few to no German midfielders that can fulfill that role. That, at least, is the opinion of Germany manager Julian Nagelsmann.
“We’re really missing a truly stable, combative defensive midfielder in Germany – especially in the air. I’ve watched a lot of games from various candidates for the number six position. But we hardly have that profile, someone who can really win aerial duels and brings a certain physicality to the game,” Nagelsmann explained, as captured by @iMiaSanMia. “They’re all very similar types of players: Pascal Groß, Angelo Stiller, [Aleksandar] Pavlović, [Felix] Nmecha, even Robert Andrich – they all want the ball. They always need a partner next to them to coordinate with. That also applies to Joshua Kimmich, by the way. One drops back, the other stays in the number six position, then the other drops back, then one stays in the number six position. I actually have eleven number sixes on my list. All world-class footballers, but all with a similar basic structure.”
It is not an easy problem for Nagelsmann to solve, though the frankness in which he highlighted the problem is somewhat of a surprise. The question is what exactly the the former Bayern Munich head coach wants from his midfielders. Is he willing to sacrifice some of the technical quality he brought up for the “stable, combative” midfielder he wants? For now it, it is all a theoretical question given of any such alternative options. Outside of Anton Stach, but Nagelsmann has clearly written him off.
