However, when Joachim Low announced the preliminary squad, there was one major omission but one which wasn’t surprising. Mario Gotze, who scored the winning goal in the final four years ago will watch the World Cup from home.
Germany have no shortage of top goalkeepers and there are several other shot-stoppers playing at the highest level like Liverpool’s Loris Karius who are nowhere near the national team setup as things stand.
Karius has been Liverpool’s undisputed starter since the turn of the year and has played every Champions League game bar the qualifiers for this year’s finalists.
Funnily though, when Germany won the World Cup in 2014, the understudies to Manuel Neuer were Roman Weidenfeller and Ron-Robert Zieler. They too are not in contention!
Low had other options to choose from. Bayer Leverkusen’s 21-year-old full-back, Benjamin Henrichs, is considered one for the future and he was part of the German team that won the Confederations Cup last year. Henrichs is capable of playing on either flank but his lack of a regular starting role at Leverkusen may have cost him his place.
Max enjoyed one of the best seasons of his career in 2017/18. He picked up 13 assists in the league for an Augsburg side that finished 12th out of 18 teams and scored just 43 goals all season! This is even more remarkable when you realise that the only player to have more assists than him in the league was Thomas Muller!
At the moment, Max is not in contention for a World Cup place. We’ve watched him a few times. There’s no doubt he’s a good left-sided player, but as of yet he’s not part of our plans.
Central defenders: Shkodran Mustafi and Benedikt Höwedes
The two central defenders featuring in this list are both World Cup winners! This shows that Low emphasizes performance and form.
As for Howedes, the former Schalke captain finally left his boyhood club, albeit on loan, but the injury problems that plagued him for years followed him to Turin. He had five different injuries during the course of the season and featured in only three games for Juventus all season. No surprise that he was left out of the World Cup squad.
Midfielders: Julian Weigl, Emre Can, and Mario Gotze
The other central midfielders in the squad, Ilkay Gundogan, and Leon Goretzka have both earned their place in the side after a good season for their respective clubs.
Forwards: Andre Schurrle, Sandro Wagner and Serge Gnabry
Mario Gotze’s World Cup-clinching goal was assisted by his club teammate, Andre Schurrle and while both of them celebrated the World Cup triumph, Marco Reus was at home. This time, Reus has been named in the squad and Schurrle, like Gotze, has been left out.
His stint with Hoffenheim was also successful as he racked up 10 goals in 22 league games but he picked up an injury late in the season which eradicated any chance he had of going to Russia.