Euro 2020 Profile Germany

The last few years have been anything but smooth for Germany, who travelled to Russia three years ago as the defending World Cup champions and tournament favourites. Instead, they bowed out in the first round. Have they put that embarrassing exit behind them? There are question marks over whether the squad is still responding to Löw’s methods and the 6-0 defeat to Spain and 2-1 reverse against North Macedonia have not helped. Low will look to end his tenure on a high. 

Kevin Trapp
Kevin Trapp

Germany UEFA Euro 2020 Squad

Goalkeepers: Bernd Leno (Arsenal), Manuel Neuer (Bayern), Kevin Trapp (Eintracht Frankfurt)

Defenders: Mattias Ginter (Gladbach), Robin Gosens (Atalanta), Christian Gunter (Freiburg), Marcel Hastenburg (RB Leipzig), Mats Hummels (Dortmund), Lukas Klostermann (RB Leipzig), Robin Koch (Leeds United), Antonio Rudiger (Chelsea), Niklas Sule (Bayern)

Thomas Muller
Thomas Muller

Midfielders: Emre Can (Dortmund), Leon Goretzka (Bayern), Ikay Gundogan (Manchester City), Jonas Hoffman (Gladbach), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Jamal Musiala (Bayern), Florian Neuhaus (Gladbach)

Forwards: Serge Gnabry (Bayern), Kai Havertz (Chelsea), Thomas Muller (Bayern), Leroy Sane (Bayern), Kevin Volland (Monaco), Timo Werner (Chelsea)

Strength

Quality across positions: Germany are blessed with

Leon Goretzka
Leon Goretzka

remarkable quality and depth in each position except for the Centre Forward position. The fact that the likes of Julian Draxler, Marco Reus and Jerome Boateng have been left at home along with several other promising players like Mahmoud Dahoud, Julian Brandt and Nadiem Amiri which could easily make majority of team’s final squads highlights the strength in depth of Die Mannschaft.

Midfield: Germany can count upon the likes of Joshua Kimmich, Toni Kroos and Ilkay Gundogan in a midfield 3 which can rival any centre midfield in the world currently. They also have the likes of Leon Goretzka in reserve. Thomas Müller and Leroy Sane can wreak havoc from the wings. If they have an off day, then the likes of Serge Gnabry and Kai Havertz are not bad options to call upon.

Weakness

Jamal Musialla
Jamal Musialla

Lack of a recognized goal scorer: Since Miroslav Klose’s retirement Germany have struggled to find a reliable goal scorer. The lack of a goal scoring forward was one of the major reasons for Germany’s struggles in World Cup 2018.Timo Werner has struggled to justify his hype; hence Loew has utilized Gnabry a winger upfront for majority of Euro qualifying and recently in World Cup qualifying highlighting Germany’s lack of options upfront.

Joachim Low: Germany’s success initially under Loew from Euro 2008 till Euro 2016 was based upon a deadly counter attacking approach in which they memorably destroyed England and Brazil in World Cups. However, after Euro 2016 Low adopted a possession-based approach to get the best out of their plethora of creative midfielders, however with no forward to finish the chances the approach failed miserably at the 2018 World Cup. Additionally, Germany’s defence struggled with the high line. It will be interesting to see whether Loew persists with the possession-based approach or returns to the counter attacking approach.

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