After a year in Liverpool, Wirtz is completely out of character, no longer does Wirtz things, no longer has any self-confidence
After his very serious injury, one has to say: the old Musiala no longer exists. He has been back playing for 5 months now. You can no longer use the usual phrases “He has to get back into shape”, “He has to find his rhythm again”. He now has 26 after the injury! Made games, played them regularly. Something in his head or body seems to have changed. The Musiala who weaves his way through three opponents and plays knots into the defenders’ legs no longer exists. Musiala is now a 30 million grade attacking midfield player. Already very good and rightly there at the World Cup, but not with the exceptional player with a market value of 140 million.
Sane scored a goal with a lucky goal, but otherwise delivered another terrible performance. Numerous ball losses etc. If he hadn’t scored the lucky goal (he shot blindly without looking where the goal and the goalkeeper were), he would have been the worst player in the team and there would have been a new Sane discussion.
Gnabry is not fit.
And for all of these reasons, Karl was our biggest weapon on offense, our creative headquarters, and that is now broken.
Undav seems to be in form, but is the “powerful enforcer in front of goal” type of striker who depends on being fed by the creative players around him and things aren’t looking so good there (see above).
Havertz also seems to be in form, has more game intelligence than Undav, but is not the machine that delivers goals in a row.
Tah very consistent.
I think it’s justifiable that you want to take Neuer with you as number 1. Not mandatory but certainly justifiable. We all know that it wasn’t communicated optimally. But the fact that Neuer is now not fit and hasn’t played a test match with the team is slowly turning the whole thing into a farce. And we already knew that Neuer had this calf injury when he was officially named number 1 for the World Cup. Hasn’t this been investigated properly? Was something covered up? Because I don’t think Nagelsmann would have proclaimed Neuer as number 1 if he had known that Neuer would miss (at least) the entire preparation. Of course, Neuer himself is extremely experienced, but some of the players on the pitch now have not yet played with Neuer. It wouldn’t have been so bad to rehearse in preparation because Neuer plays a little differently than other goalkeepers.
Not making it through the group phase is hardly possible with the new format, where even 2/3 of the third-placed teams still advance. As the first in the group, an easy opponent (third in the group) should come in the round of 16, but in the round of 16 it should be over against France.
But surprises are possible – even positive surprises. So just wait and see. There will be enough time for final judgments; you don’t have to make them before the World Cup.