“It hurts” – Nagelsmann on tough call to leave Stuttgart duo out of World Cup squad
| Photo by Christian Kaspar-Bartke/Getty Images |
Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann faced several difficult decisions when selecting his World Cup squad.
In the end, he was unable to find room for everyone and was forced to trim his selection to 26 players, with VfB Stuttgart duo Maximilian Mittelstädt and Chris Führich among those who narrowly missed out.
“They are both in strong form and have taken good steps forward. They were among the difficult decisions,” Nagelsmann said.
“With ‘Maxi’ (Mittelstädt), it honestly hurts a lot, and I feel very sorry for him. He has developed really well. He was at the Euros and then not involved for a while. Nevertheless, he always spoke very positively about the situation. From a sporting point of view, he has little to reproach himself for.
“But David (Raum) and ‘Nene’ (Brown) also have nothing to reproach themselves for. He (Mittelstädt) struggled a bit before the World Cup qualifiers, then both of them performed very well. We debated whether we could adjust our system differently. In the end, you unfortunately have to make a decision. But it’s not like he doesn’t deserve to be there,” added the Germany coach.
On Führich, who is set to face FC Bayern Munich with VfB Stuttgart in the DFB-Pokal on Saturday, Nagelsmann said:
“Chris will have a great game on Saturday. Unfortunately, with us he never showed his Stuttgart form. We therefore had to make a difficult decision.”
