With the World Cup in Brazil now just 2 months away, you’d expect most of the manager’s preparing their squads would have a vaguely strong idea of the squad they want to take to South America. After such a horrible year of injuries in German football, Jogi Löw still has plenty of things to think about before he names his provisional squad on May 8th. 

Can I have a left-back, please?

It’s been a difficult season for German players, especially at Borussia Dortmund. The amount of injuries that have occurred would be hard for any team or national team to deal with. One of the position’s that has been hit hardest is left-back. Luckily for Löw, the team that has taken the brunt of those injuries (Borussia Dortmund) has been able to produce Germany’s answer to the left-back problem.

While the likes of Marcell Jansen and Marcel Schmelzer have been struggling with injuries in the second-half of the season, Eric Durm has stepped up to the plate in Europe and domestically for Dortmund. Now some notable people in high places are suggesting that Durm’s form has warranted him a place on the plane to Brazil. Jansen and Schmelzer are both expected to return to full fitness before the end of the season, but neither have had particularly good seasons when they’ve been on the pitch. With little other option, it would appear that Germany have had somewhat of a blessing with the form of Eric Durm. If selected, the 21-year old winger turned left-back will have a lot of pressure on his shoulders, which he has already shown he can handle this season.

No fully-fit or in-form striker

A sentence you could’ve said over the last decade is that a German strike-force is deadly, clinical and worth being nervous of. Maybe not right now, however. Germany have been blessed with the likes of Mario Gomez and Miroslav Klose in attack in the past 2/3 World Cup’s, but while this old guard is beginning to age, a new generation of German forward’s doesn’t appear to have blossomed in time for Brazil.

Löw has had an issue up-front for over a year now, with Klose and Gomez in and out of form, as well as being on and off the injury table, Löw has been in search of a new talisman. Now who has been a great goalscorer in the Bundesliga for the past 5+ years? I think a certain man from the North Rhine-Westphalia has said a few things about this. Of course, Stefan Kießling has been superb for years now, but since the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Löw has persisted to not select the forward, with Kießling suggesting he has been ‘booted out’ of the squad. The likes of Max Kruse and Pierre-Michel Lasogga have had good seasons in the Bundesliga, but have been inconsistent in terms of their goalscoring. A problem for Löw is that the only consistently high-scoring German in any European league since 2010, is Kießling.

So what are his options? Well Kruse looks almost set to get a call. I feel that one of Klose and Gomez will make the squad, but not both. With Lasogga struggling with injury towards the end of this season, it could be Hoffenheim’s talismanic winger Kevin Volland who gets a call to complete the attacking set-up. Thomas Müller and Mario Götze could also be used as centre-forwards, as they have done for Bayern Munich this season. This is certainly Löw’s biggest question ahead of naming his squad and with such little time before the deadline, Löw’s options don’t look like changing.

Mesut Özil

What to do with a talent like Özil? He’s been ridiculed and questioned in his Arsenal career so far, and now his position in the national team is being questioned. 

Football has become a lot more team orientated over the last 18 months, especially in Germany. With Jupp Heynckes being able to change big names like Franck Ribéry and Arjen Robben to contributing with bigger work-rates and bigger defensive roles, the rest of Germany has followed suit by having their team’s being much more work-orientated. While this has been happening domestically in Germany, Özil has moved from Spain to England and has had his attitude as a team-player questioned massively.

Özil now faces what could be the biggest challenge of his career so far. If he wants to be as big a part of this summer’s World Cup squad as he was in 2010, he’ll have to prove his worth as a team player for the modern German style of playing. He has plenty of competition waiting in the wings who have all been proving their attitude’s toward defensive work, throughout the Bundesliga season. The likes of Toni Kroos, Thomas Müller and Marco Reus are all being tipped as better starting options for Germany than Özil. The only person than can change the mind of the German public and ultimately Joachim Löw, is Mesut himself. 

German fans believe he’s too much of a liability. While his attacking ability is unquestionable, when defending, the team Özil is playing for might as well have 10 men. Özil is certain of a place in the squad, a talent of his would be too difficult to completely leave out, but his usual starting spot in the German attacking midfield may be handed over to someone else if Löw feels he wants 11 players who can work both ways on the pitch.

With the provisional squad set to be revealed on May 8th, these questions don’t have a lot of time to be answered. The expectations of the Germany team are as high as ever, with fans growing frustrated with no tournament win since 1996. Germany have to win either the World Cup or European Championship in 2016 unless they want their way of playing and development of young players to come under question yet again.

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