There won’t be any competitive matches for the German national team until UEFA Nations League play next month, but there’s still been a dawning of a new, exciting era at Die Mannschaft with Jürgen Klopp taking over as manager for Julian Nagelsmann.
A Round of 32 exit at the World Cup in the United States at the hands of Paraguay was the final nail in the coffin for the former Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig and Hoffenheim manager, and it is now Klopp’s turn to try to steer the ship back in the right direction — something that was perceivably going to happen under Nagelsmann after a spirited run in EURO 2024 on home soil.
Bayer Leverkusen midfielder and auxiliary defender Robert Andrich was one of several key pieces in the Germany setup at EURO 2024, but he was not in the squad for this summer’s World Cup. Bayern’s Aleksandar Pavlović and Borussia Dortmund’s Felix Nmecha was Nagelsmann’s preferred midfield pivot at the World Cup as Joshua Kimmich was playing right back, but Andrich wants to get his spot in the national team setup back.
“Basically, my aim is to be involved again. I want to work my way back into the national team’s focus. I have the ambition to become part of the team again and I still want to experience something with the national team,” Andrich recently stressed in an interview with Kicker (via Goal).
After being a midfield anchor for the Germans at the last EUROs, Nagelsmann phoned Andrich in the middle of May to let the Leverkusen captain know he was not going to be in the German World Cup squad. Nagelsmann went for a faster, more technical approach in his midfield and squad selection overall, which is part of the reason he went with Nmecha and Pavlović and left Andrich behind.
Much like Klopp, Andrich also did punditry work at this summer’s World Cup and he described the encounter he had with Germany’s new manager when they ran into each other while performing their media duties. “When we saw each other, it was really enjoyable. We talked a lot about football,” he described. By no means does that translate to Klopp guaranteeing him a spot in his first Germany roster for the Nations League matches, as that’s up to Andrich to perform at Leverkusen and earn his first callup since last October. At Die Werkself, he’ll be competing for minutes this season with Aleix Garcia, Exequiel Palacios, Ezequiel Fernandez and Kennet Eichhorn — no easy task even for a player of Andrich’s experience level.
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