Sports Weekly all-media reporter Huang Sijun
At the same time as the Champions League quarter-final draw, the German national team announced the first big list of the "Qatar World Cup year", coach Flick called up as many as 26 players, and it was full of surprises: Mainz 05 midfielder Anton Stach (23), who participated in last year's Under-21 European Youth Championship and Tokyo Olympics, was selected for the first time, while 3 "returnees" Draxler (Paris Saint-Germain), Robin Koch (Leeds United) and Weigel (Benfica), Leipzig RB full-back Henriques was re-inducted after a long time.
Draxler's last chance?
This international match week, Germany will first face Israel in Sinsheim (home of Hoffenheim) on March 26, and then face the Netherlands in Amsterdam on the 29th. In order to prepare for two friendly matches in the zone, Frick not only had to deal with the unexpected situation of multiple standing players injured (Jules, Goretzka, Wiltz, Jonas Hoffmann), but also to get up close and personal with the players, especially those who had not been selected in the past six months, such as Draxler, Koch and Weigel, three players who played in foreign leagues.
Draxler was selected for the national team last November and then retired due to injury.
Draxler is certainly not unfamiliar, he was the next captain of Loew's plan, but after joining Paris Saint-Germain, his development has basically stagnated, and his position in the national team has gradually been marginalized, and he finally missed last summer's European Championship. After Flick took office, Draxler's situation in Paris did not change significantly. However, for this technically talented and experienced offensive midfielder, Flick is not willing to give up easily. As early as last November, during the international break, Flick asked Xiaode to return to the team on the grounds that his "level of football convinces us" and that he "can lead the team". Unfortunately, XiaoDe injured his muscles during training after reporting for duty, and eventually missed the 2 World Cup qualifiers that month. And that injury eventually led him to recuperate until mid-January this year.
The 28-year-old Haslaxler has made as many as 56 appearances for Germany and scored seven goals. In the 2017 Confederations Cup, he led the team to victory as captain. However, the last time he made his appearance for the national team was in October 2020. And since the 2018 World Cup, he has played only 10 games for Germany and has only 25% attendance. If he can't impress Flick through training and competition after this registration, especially to show characteristics that his younger competitors don't have, Draxler may soon fade out.
Weigel returned after a gap of 5 years
Unlike Draxler, Koch and Weigel, who were re-selected together this time, were originally just small characters of the national team. Koch, 25, is a centre-back and defensive midfielder, making his debut in a 2–2 home friendly against Argentina on 9 October 2019 and has since become Loew's standing player. Loew admired his ability to shoot the ball and used him primarily as a centre-back.
Koch is now Leeds United's main back.
Koch immediately became a key centre-back after moving from Freiburg to Premier League promotion Mariz United, who moved from Freiburg to Bielsa in the summer of 2020, but suffered a knee injury midway through the season and a sharp drop in playing time after his comeback. Despite this, he managed to make it into last year's Euro 26-man squad but failed to qualify. Shortly after the start of the season, Koch was again seriously injured and therefore has not been selected since Flick took office. However, after his comeback in late December, Koch quickly won back the main position, but gradually changed from a central defender to a defensive midfielder. Whether Flick will use Koch as a centre-back or a "No. 6" remains to be seen, but it is more likely that he will be positioned as a stand-in for Jules.
The 26-year-old Weigel can also play at the back and also play as a centre-back, but the center-back attribute is more forced to play for Dortmund in the middle and late stages, and he himself does not like it. After switching to Benfica in January 2020, the youngest captain in Munich's history in 1860 has been at the back. With Goretzka still recuperating from his injuries, Dahoud and Arnold were not selected, and Weigel and first-time Entrants Stacher will be Flick's focus on the No. 6 position.
Weigel has just helped Benfica eliminate Ajax in the Champions League to reach the quarterfinals.
Weigel rose to fame at a young age, making his first selection with Kimmich, Sane and Brant before Euro 2016, and eventually making it to the 23-man roster for that tournament, but did not get a chance to play. Due to a later bottleneck in Dortmund (including a fractured ankle at the end of the 2016/17 season), Weigel left the national team after completing his fifth appearance in a 1–0 home friendly against England on 22 March 2017. When he decided to go to the Portuguese Premier League, the possibility of returning to the national team was further reduced.
However, Weigel regained his stable playing time in Benfica as he wished, and his form and confidence gradually recovered. He has now been in a slump in his main position, having represented Benfica in as many as 40 official matches so far this season (including 180 minutes in two legs of the Champions League quarter-final against Ajax) and scoring three goals. It's understandable why the back, who is good at organizing and combing, can return to the national team after a gap of 5 years.
Flick finally got Henrix
In addition to the 3 "returnees", Henrix, who also spent abroad (playing for Monaco for 2 years), was also called up by Flick for the first time. Henriques, from Bayer Leverkusen, was a member of the 2017 Confederations Cup winners and later returned to Germany's U21 to play as a main left-back at the 2019 U21 European Youth Championship (runner-up) and last summer as the main right gate in Tokyo, and the last time he played for the national team was the 6-0 away defeat to Spain in November 2020.
Henrix played better and better under Tedesco.
After returning to Leipzig in the summer of 2020, Henriks was affected by injuries and did not play much. But since Tedesco took over Leipzig's coaching seal in mid-December, Henriques has been on the move and has recently replaced France's fringe international Muccaele as Leipzig's first choice for a right-winger. And so far this season, the winger all-rounder, who has scored only one goal in his first six professional seasons, has suddenly reactivated his goal-scoring skills (in fact, he was an offensive midfielder before his debut, and there were not many goals), and he has scored three goals in the Bundesliga, including one goal scored in the 6-1 sweep of vice-captain Fürth last Sunday.
With germany still not having a satisfactory candidate for right-back, especially jonas Hoffmann, who could not be selected due to injury, and the other two position rivals Klostermann and Baku were both lost, the return of the 25-year-old Henrix is completely reasonable. And he can play two locks in the four-back system, two wing-backs in the three-center-back system, and even the No. 6 and No. 8 positions, which can greatly enhance Flick's military agility. What's more, as early as the coaching of Bayern, that is, the winter window of the "Treble season", Flick had asked the top management to bring in Henriques to solve the problem of right-back manpower.
"Inspirational Guy" Stach
Compared to the four returnees, the first-time Stach selection is undoubtedly the biggest surprise of the 26-man list. Stacher's upbringing was very inspiring and interesting. Between 2011 and 2015, he spent four years at Werder Bremen under the current Wolfsburg manager Kofeldt. He then left his mark on The North West Club U19, Osnabrück U19, Jedlow II and Wolfsburg II in Oldenburg. Before joining Fürth in the Bundesliga in the summer of 2020, he was in the 4th division of the regional league and was not selected for any level of the national youth team – until march last year, as a "dark horse", he was named to the 23-man squad of Germany's U21 team for the group stage of the European Youth Championship.
Stach has just played against Emre Jan, who lost germany in the Bundesliga play-offs in midweek.
At 1.94 metres tall, Stach is also available at centre-back or even right-back. It was this all-rounder's attributes that became an important reason for Kuntz to take him to the final round of the U21 European Youth Championships and then to the Tokyo Olympics. Interestingly, whether it is the U21 European Youth Championships or the Olympic Games, Stach's father, the veteran sports journalist and commentator Matthias Stacher, has explained his son's game. The Stach father and son said and kicked, which became a unique landscape in German football last summer.
Stach's feet are well balanced, his toes are hard, and his debut ball in Fürth is a long-range shot at the world wave. It took him half a season to win the main position at the Clover, helping to promote the team alongside fellow U21 internationals Raum (left-back) and Jacques (centre-back). After the promotion, Raum and Jeckel moved freely to Hoffenheim and the Berlin League respectively, with Raum also selected for the national team at the beginning of the season, while Stach switched to Mainz for the highest price ever paid by Fürth for 3.5 million euros.
After Fürth and Germany's U21, Raum and Stach are now playing side by side with the national team.
After joining Mainz, Stach has experienced a small half of integration, successfully locked in the main back position, so far in the Bundesliga 23 appearances, contributing 1 goal and 3 assists, and now reunited with Raum in the national team. Flick said: "Stach's selection may surprise many people. He performed very well in Mainz. He is certainly not mature yet, and there is still room for improvement. But he already has some good qualities that come in handy in our team. Another Mainz rising star, striker Boucat, went on to report to the U21 team, which needed the captain to lead the way to break through the fierce U21 European preliminaries.
No. 2 in the Bundesliga was selected
In addition to Stach, Freiburg centre-back Niko Schlotbeck, who has been selected since Flick took office, is also expected to make his national team debut this month. Flick said: "He's going to finish his first game anyway, it's on plan. Schlotterbeck sat on the bench in five consecutive World Cups during the international breaks in September and October last year. After Germany's early qualification, the last two World Cup games in November were supposed to be Schroderbeck's debut opportunities, but he withdrew due to injury after being selected.
On 12 March, Niko Schroderbeek scored in the 87th minute as Freiburg beat Wolfsburg 3–2 at home.
Despite his delay in becoming a true German international, Schlotterbeck has grown more and more courageous in Freiburg, leading the team to a left-footed heavy cannon to beat Wolfsburg 3-2 at home with a left-footed heavy cannon just last weekend, and has scored four goals in the Bundesliga so far this season. The very good and confident left-footed centre-back is not a strict competitor in the national team, as the other centre-backs are right-footed players, especially when veteran Hummels has been in a slump so far this season and has not yet been called up by Flick. As with the previous times, Flick spoke to Old Hu on the phone beforehand. Due to the new crown infection, Fox has missed The Last 2 League Games at Borussia Dortmund, but has returned from quarantine at the beginning of the week.
In addition to Hummels, Reuss also missed the last 2 league games due to illness, and he also lost the German squad in this period. Coupled with the fact that healthy Emre Jan, Brent and Dahud also lost, Borussia Dortmund, who are currently only four points behind leader Bayern in the Bundesliga standings, have suffered the embarrassment of "clearing zero" in this 26-man list. Bayern, with Jules and Goretzka losing due to injury, still have Six players, Neuer, Thomas Müller, Kimmich, Sane, Gnabry and Musiara, as always, becoming the top international players, followed by Chelsea, who exported Rudiger, Havertz and Werner (who lost last November due to injury and are also returning this time).
Hummels and Reus both lost to Germany.
The 26-man list includes as many as 10 "returnees," but does not include Leno and Gosons. Leno, who sat on the bench at Arsenal, was finally abandoned by Flick (temporarily) and Trapp in Frankfurt became the third goalkeeper. Gossens, who switched from Atalanta to Inter Milan in the winter window, only returned earlier this month after a five-month injury break, and Flick did not immediately call him back to the team.
But Wolfsburg striker Lucas Nmesha, who also returned from an injury earlier this month, was selected again after making his debut last November. His younger brother Felix Nmeisha, on the other hand, was unsurprisingly selected for the German U21 team for the first time – he had just decided to "transfer" to Germany from England in early February. In the German U21 squad released on the same day, three other new faces appeared – Fürth right-back Asta, Bochum midfielder Osterhager and Championship Blackburn forward all-rounder Reda Khadra, a Lebanese descendant born in Berlin and from the Borussia Dortmund academy.
The latest roster for the German national team:
Goalkeepers: Neuer (Bayern Munich/0 in 108 games), Ter Stegen (Barcelona/0 in 27 games), Trapp (Frankfurt/0 in 5 games)
Defenders: Rudiger (Chelsea/2 in 49 games), Günter (Borussia Mönchengladbach/2 in 46 games), Claire (Paris Saint-Germain/0 in 16 games), Jonathan Tower (Leverkusen/0 in 14 games), Robin Koch (Leeds United/0 in 8 games), Henrix (Leipzig RB/5 with 0 goals), Guntel (0 goals in 4 games), Raume (Hoffenheim/3 games with 0 goals), Nico Schlotterbeck (Freiburg/0 games)
Midfielders: Kimmich (Bayern Munich/ 3 goals in 64 games), Draxler (Paris Saint-Germain/7 goals in 56 games), Gundogan (Manchester City/14 goals in 54 games), Neuhaus (Mönchengladbach/2 goals in 9 games), Musiara (Bayern Munich/1 goal in 9 games), Weigel (Benfica/0 goals in 5 games), Stach (Mainz 05/1st selection)
Forwards: Thomas Müller (Bayern Munich/ 42 goals in 110 games), Werner (Chelsea/21 goals in 47 games), Leroy Sane (Bayern Munich/11 goals in 40 games), Gnabry (Bayern Munich/20 goals in 31 games), Havertz (Chelsea/7 goals in 23 games), Adeyami (Red Bull Salzburg/1 goal in 3 games), Lucas Nmesha (Wolfsburg/2 games 0 goals)