Germany’s first game of the November international break sees them host Turkey at the Olympiastadion in Berlin on Saturday evening.
This will be Julian Nagelsmann’s first home game as Germany head coach as the previous international break saw Germany travel to the US to face both the USA and Mexico which provided a mixed bag of results.
Against the USA, after initially going a goal down, Germany turned the game around to win 3-1 with goals from İlkay Gündoğan, Niclas Füllkrug and Jamal Musiala. The second game against Mexico proved to be more difficult and saw them draw 2-2 in Philadelphia and after initially taking the lead, Germany had to come from behind to rescue a draw.
These games against Turkey and Austria will once again be fine-tuning for Nagelsmann as he tries to address the issues within the squad and find his strongest team whilst also getting his ideas across with only one more international break before Germany kicks off their tournament on June 14th.
The main problem areas that need addressing in the team are the right-back position which will hopefully be fixed with the calling up of RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Henrichs, while midfield also continues to be a problem area as the returning Joshua Kimmich, Leon Goretzka and Gündoğan have shown that they are not able to fully coexist in the Germany midfield. During his press conference yesterday, Goretzka addressed the competition in the midfield: “We have a good squad in which the competition is very fierce. But I’m convinced of my qualities and I’m certain that I can help the team.”
There will also be a chance for new boys Marvin Ducksch, Janis Blaswich and Grischa Prömel to stake a claim that they deserve to be in the final Euro 2024 squad, especially for Prömel due to the aforementioned midfield issues.
Ahead of the game against Turkey, Goretzka commented on what the atmosphere of the game will be like due to Germany having a large Turkish community: “I’m looking forward to a great football game. At the home game against Galatasaray, we got a little taste of what the atmosphere would be like. I hope it’ll be a great game after which people will shake each other’s hands”
GGFN | Jack Meenan
