Audience in Stuttgart was chanting Undavs name throughout the first half so Nagelsmann was more or less ‘forced’ to bring him on after HT.
After the match Nagelsmann also said that Undav was not involved in the match until his goal and that Undav would have not be able to finish like he did for the winner with 70 minutes in his legs.
Just another unlikeable twat zero man management skills.
It needs to be said that Undav has more goals than the whole CF competition (Havertz, Woltemade, Beier, Füllkrug, Kleindienst) combined.
I guess it’s ok that Undav does not fit the football Nagelsmann wants to see but that’s not how to treat your players.
You can like it or not, but we’re now having a huge discussion in Germany about whether it’s right to put Undav on the bench, behind Havertz and Woltemade, by the way. But that’s what Nagelsmann wants, and he’s already explained his reasoning. This distribution of roles has apparently already been communicated to all the players. So that everyone knows where they stand and there’s no unrest, etc. Players who can’t accept it will probably simply not be included in the squad. He sees Undav as a joker and as reinforcement from the bench. He seems determined to go with Havertz. Sigh.
Edit
The fact that the fans in Stuttgart loudly chanted Undav’s name was to be expected, by the way. And if questions arise afterwards, Nagelsmann will have to live with them. He will be judged after the World Cup.
The media will now cover this topic extensively; I’m a bit curious, but not surprised. There’s always discussion here, and at every championship, before and during every tournament we have 80 million national coaches who don’t like this or that.
I don’t really think so. It’s more of a Bundesliga versus Premier League thing, if anything. Deniz is the Bundesliga’s “most inform striker,” so he should play, that seems to be the most common opinion. Nagelsmann apparently sees things differently; he’s more concerned with his system, or which opponents they’re playing against, etc.
Even though Woltemade isn’t scoring in the Premier League right now, without his crucial goals in important situations, they wouldn’t have qualified at all. I think Nagelsmann recognized that and wanted to give Nick a few minutes, as he is currently hardly getting any playing time at Newcastle.
With Havertz, it’s a different story; it’s probably purely about his playing style and the fact that Nagelsmann seems to prefer Havertz as a player. Regardless of any numbers or statistics.
Edit
Understandably, the Stuttgart fans are going crazy right now, accusing Nagelsmann of hating Undav or whatever. I’m taking a bit more neutral view of it, but TBF, I prefer Deniz as a person, purely on a human level and because of his easygoing nature; I consider him very important for the team.
So I hope they can sort this out and Deniz doesn’t have to stay home because he doesn’t accept his role as a “joker from the bench” etc.
Woltemade gets less minutes than at the start of the season, but it’s not like he’s not playing. The thing is, recently he’s doing it in a different position, playing more as a second striker, attacking midfielder and sometimes even in Joelinton’s zone.
I don’t know much about this whole fuss with Undav. I remember him mostly from his time at Brighton, when he struggled to make much of an impact like he is now in Germany. Some interesting words said, but the situation is really nothing especially new at international level. Not the first and not the last time.
It’s just another little example in the sea of those eternal debates, club form vs international form or the need to build something level where you simply cannot do everything related to the former (because you’d find yourself changing so many things every time…) and you have much less time to work on things. Club form does matter for sure, but it’s not the only aspect taken into consideration when you build a national team XI.
Different context, qualities, style of play, level of competition, experience, understanding with other players, cohesion, etc. Leads to some players playing better or being a better fit for their clubs, sometimes even the opposite, where some players can be more useful for their national sides.
To me it’s less about Undav or not, but how Nagelsmann is handling this (and other players choices) publicly. I think he’s fairly objectively been doing a terrible job on that front lately.
With DeepL: I hadn’t realised that the friendly against Ghana was on Monday. I didn’t switch on until half an hour in.
Germany beat Ghana 2–1. It was a deserved win. But I’m worried about the defence. We’ll concede goals against Curaçao as well if we carry on like this.
If Nagelsman does not like Undav, if him would not invite Leroy Sane (father Souleymane Sane from Senegal), Malick Thiaw (father from Senegal, mother from Finland), Josha Vagnoman, Jonathan Tah, Serge Gnabry (any three with a Ivorian father) etc. to the German squad.
Fair play Bayern. Fair play to them for taking on a young manager who almost no other big club in Europe would’ve looked at and who almost every fan in England would’ve turned their nose up at.
If Andy Murray won, he was Britians greatest sports star. If he lost, he was just that Scottish bastard.
If the English cricket team win, they a champions and given knighthoods. If they lose, they are a bunch of foreign bastards that don’t undertand what it means to represent England.
