When Julian Nagelsmann took over the German national team in September 2023 after the dismissal of Hansi Flick, few observers could have predicted how quickly the tactical identity of the Mannschaft would shift. Eighteen months on, with Euro 2024 on home soil in the rear-view mirror and the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, Canada, and Mexico closing in, Nagelsmann’s rebuild of the German squad has produced a team that looks noticeably different from the one Flick left behind.
The home Euro in the summer of 2024 offered the first full reading of the new system. Germany topped their group, dispatched Denmark comfortably in the round of sixteen, and were eliminated by eventual champions Spain in a quarter-final decided in extra time at Stuttgart. The performance persuaded the Deutscher Fussball-Bund to extend Nagelsmann’s contract through the 2028 European Championship, a vote of confidence that has let him build across a full competitive cycle rather than against a single tournament deadline.
The Post-Euro Squad Overhaul
The post-Euro 2024 window was always going to bring changes. Ilkay Gundogan announced his international retirement in the immediate aftermath of the Stuttgart defeat. Toni Kroos had already confirmed that the tournament would be his final national-team appearance. Thomas Muller and Manuel Neuer have since stepped away, with Neuer’s eventual successor in the Germany goal now one of the live tactical questions that Nagelsmann has to settle before the tournament opener on 11 June 2026.
The replacements have started to bed in across the 2024/25 season and into the current 2025/26 campaign. Marc-Andre ter Stegen remains the first-choice goalkeeper when fit, with Oliver Baumann and Alexander Nubel providing cover. Pascal Gross has stepped into the midfield anchor role that Kroos vacated. Robert Andrich has added a more physical profile to the central three. And the continued emergence of Aleksandar Pavlovic at Bayern Munich has given Nagelsmann a younger option to build around through the qualification window.
The Tactical Shape: A Flexible 4-2-3-1 With a Diamond Option
Nagelsmann inherited a side that had drifted tactically under Flick and has gradually settled on a base 4-2-3-1 that can collapse into a 3-4-3 in possession. The system is built around two pivots who can progress the ball through pressure, one of whom is almost always Joshua Kimmich. The former Bayern captain has been asked to operate slightly deeper than in his most recent club seasons, a decision that lets Germany retain defensive structure when they commit numbers forward.
Ahead of the double-pivot sits Jamal Musiala as the primary creator between the lines. Musiala’s dribbling at pace has become the single clearest tactical identity of the current Germany side, and Nagelsmann’s insistence on giving him free licence in the final third is the most visible tactical inheritance from Hansi Flick’s early Bayern seasons. On the flanks Leroy Sane and Florian Wirtz, now at Liverpool after his confirmed summer 2025 move from Bayer Leverkusen, rotate between inside-forward and wide-winger duties depending on matchup.
Harry Kane’s Influence on the German Game
Although Harry Kane is an English international, his arrival at Bayern Munich in August 2023 has shaped the German football landscape Nagelsmann is managing against. Kane’s goalscoring record in his first two Bundesliga seasons re-established Bayern as the league’s dominant scoring unit, and his presence has pulled attention away from domestic strikers who might otherwise have claimed Bundesliga goal-of-the-month coverage. For Germany, his Bayern partnership with Kimmich, Musiala, and Pavlovic has deepened the tactical chemistry those national-team players can carry into international windows.
Bayern’s 2024/25 league title under Vincent Kompany, sealed in April 2025, underlined how quickly Kane’s presence reset the Bundesliga order after Bayer Leverkusen’s 2023/24 invincible campaign under Xabi Alonso. The current 2025/26 title race has opened up with Dortmund under Niko Kovac, Leverkusen under their post-Alonso coaching team, RB Leipzig, and Bayer 04 all taking points from Bayern through the autumn window. The competitive pressure at club level has sharpened the German players Nagelsmann selects.
The Wirtz Factor and His Liverpool Move
Florian Wirtz’s transfer from Bayer Leverkusen to Liverpool in the summer of 2025 has been one of the defining storylines of the German football calendar. The fee reported across German and English outlets placed the deal among the highest for a German outfield player, and his Premier League adaptation has been watched closely from Frankfurt to Mainz as a proxy for how the modern German attacking midfielder translates abroad. Through the first half of the 2025/26 Premier League season, Wirtz has delivered consistent output for Arne Slot’s system, and his form has if anything strengthened his role in Nagelsmann’s Germany.
For Germany the Wirtz question has never been about whether he belongs in the eleven but where he plays best. At Leverkusen under Alonso he operated as a classic ten. At Liverpool he has moved between a false nine role behind Mohamed Salah and a deeper creative position next to Dominik Szoboszlai. Nagelsmann has experimented with similar variations across recent international windows, including a period in which Wirtz and Musiala were deployed together in a narrow front four that pushed Kai Havertz into a more central striking role.
The Defensive Line and the Neuer Question
Nagelsmann’s defensive rebuild has been less showy than the attacking overhaul but arguably as consequential. Antonio Rudiger, the Real Madrid centre-back, has remained the captain and the undisputed first-choice centre-back. Around him, Jonathan Tah’s move to Bayern Munich in the summer of 2025 provided a Bundesliga-based partner with strong cup-pedigree, and Waldemar Anton’s continued form at Borussia Dortmund has added a younger option in central defence.
At full-back, Joshua Kimmich continues to provide the option of a hybrid right-back whenever the double pivot allows for a flatter shape. On the left, Maximilian Mittelstadt’s emergence at Stuttgart during the 2023/24 run that took the Swabians to second in the Bundesliga remains one of Nagelsmann’s clearer discoveries, and David Raum continues to offer a more aggressive attacking profile when matchups demand it. The ter Stegen fitness question, which has dogged the goalkeeper across the current club season, remains the most watched variable in the defensive picture.
The 2026 World Cup Qualification Picture
Germany’s status as a European heavyweight automatically secures them in the European qualifying pool for the 2026 World Cup, with the draw structure ensuring a straightforward path provided they avoid the kind of slips that cost Italy back-to-back tournaments. The expanded 48-team format for 2026 gives Europe sixteen places, which leaves Nagelsmann with more room to experiment with squad composition during qualification windows than his predecessors enjoyed under the previous 32-team structure.
The tournament itself is scheduled across eleven US host cities, two Canadian host cities, and three Mexican host cities, with the final slated for the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on 19 July 2026. Germany’s potential group draw and path through to the knockout rounds are still being mapped, but the logistical challenges of a cross-continental tournament will shape the squad depth Nagelsmann needs to carry into the final roster.
How German Fans Are Following the Road to 2026
The run-up to a home-continent World Cup always reshapes how a fanbase consumes the national team, and Germany heading to North America has produced its own twists. Die Mannschaft’s friendlies and Nations League fixtures are distributed across ARD and ZDF terrestrial broadcasts, with RTL carrying specific qualification windows under the current rights arrangement. German-heritage supporters across the United States and Canada have access to a wider set of viewing options than in past cycles, and in discussions across North American digital sports platforms fans sometimes reference operator pages such as the BetMGM casino promo code alongside the usual matchday conversation, reflecting how the expanded US sports-media environment wraps around European national-team windows during a World Cup year.
The core audience on the German side of the Atlantic continues to follow the tactical and selection conversation through the DFB’s own channels, kicker magazine, Bild’s football desk, and longform specialist outlets. That ecosystem remains the primary reading for anyone tracking the detail of Nagelsmann’s squad decisions, and it is where the day-to-day narrative of the rebuild still lives.
The Bundesliga Pipeline Feeding the National Team
The current Bundesliga season has done more than simply set the 2025/26 title race. It has also served as an ongoing audition for Nagelsmann’s World Cup squad. Aleksandar Pavlovic’s minutes at Bayern have given Germany a younger midfield option. Nick Woltemade’s scoring form at VfB Stuttgart through early 2024/25 attracted national-team attention, and his continued development at the club level has kept him on the cusp of squad selection. Karim Adeyemi’s pace at Borussia Dortmund provides Nagelsmann with a different attacking dimension whenever matchup dictates it.
The youth pipeline deserves particular attention. Germany’s Under-17 title in 2023 and their subsequent Under-21 progression have given the senior setup a deeper pool to draw on than it had during Flick’s final months. Nagelsmann has made a conscious effort to integrate promoted youngsters into senior camps early, a policy that accelerates chemistry but also carries short-term selection risk. The balance between that pipeline and the experienced spine led by Rudiger, Kimmich, and Musiala will define how the final squad looks when the June 2026 deadline arrives.
What the Coming Qualification Windows Will Tell Us
Three questions will dominate the coverage of Germany’s road to the tournament over the next twelve months. The first is the identity of the starting goalkeeper if ter Stegen’s fitness does not fully settle, a question that could elevate Oliver Baumann, Alexander Nubel, or a late riser from the 2025/26 Bundesliga season. The second is how Nagelsmann balances Musiala and Wirtz in the same starting eleven, a tactical puzzle that has multiple defensible answers. The third is whether Havertz settles back at centre-forward full-time or continues to be rotated across the front line depending on opposition.
Beyond those top-line questions lies a longer list of tactical choices. How much does Nagelsmann lean into the 3-4-3 he has flirted with in training camps? Does Pavlovic make the leap to undisputed starter? Does Niclas Fullkrug continue to be called up as a target-man option even if his club minutes fluctuate? Each of those threads will be tested in the March 2026 and June 2026 friendly windows before the final roster is named. For readers tracking the developments as they happen, the mid-season Bundesliga form guide published by this site provides the backdrop against which the national-team selections are judged.
