Attacker Serge Gnabry, who recently triumphed again at FC Bayern Munich, is considered a hot starting eleven candidate for the World Cup opener against Japan.
However, he has lost the status of a constant player that the 27-year-old once enjoyed under Joachim Löw in the national soccer team. “This sentence no longer applies,” said Gnabry himself before the DFB team’s first group game at the World Cup in Qatar on Wednesday (2 p.m. / ARD and MagentaTV).
He felt “a lot of trust” in national coach Hansi Flick, who had already been his coach at Bayern, as Gnabry said in Al-Shamal. But he has now “also come off the bench” in international matches. That was already the case with Löw in the final phase.
Gnabry has played under Flick in ten international matches so far. Only once did he play the full 90 minutes. The 26-time national player was in the starting XI six times and was substituted on by Flick four times. He scored four goals, totaling 20. His quota is declining.
In recent weeks, however, his form at the club has gone up steeply. After an interim low, Gnabry was again an asset and top performer for the German record champions. “At some point it blew the switch again,” he said in Qatar on Sunday.
On the offensive, Gnabry is a World Cup option for practically all positions. But he prefers to play behind the top or on the flanks. He has also acted as a central striker in the national team. That’s also an option for him – “before I sit on the bench,” as he joked. At the World Cup, the old Löw sentence should come true again for him: “Gnabry always plays.”