{"id":369003,"date":"2026-04-01T07:57:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T07:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/369003\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T07:57:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T07:57:11","slug":"angelo-stiller-is-no-match-for-leon-goretzka-and-his-special-status-the-winners-and-losers-in-the-german-national-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/369003\/","title":{"rendered":"Angelo Stiller is no match for Leon Goretzka and his special status: the winners and losers in the German national team"},"content":{"rendered":"

The centre-back pairing is also a done deal. Come what may, Nico Schlotterbeck and Jonathan Tah will go into the World Cup as the first-choice duo. Even Schlotterbeck\u2019s two mistakes against Switzerland won\u2019t change that. After all, he is expected to play balls that open up space when building from the back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, the situation looks different for Nagelsmann, who had already promised Schlotterbeck a starting place in *kicker* and gave the BVB defensive leader his full backing even after the Switzerland match. One reason for the national coach\u2019s conviction is obvious: Schlotterbeck is the only centre-back in the current squad with a strong left foot, which is simply essential in such a ball-oriented system with Nagelsmann\u2019s demands. One can only hope that this was a one-off slip-up.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there is no question of the individual quality Schlotterbeck possesses in defending in space and in one-on-one situations. Tah also benefits from this, as he occasionally struggles to react in time, particularly during quick transitions. Against Switzerland, he was also too passive on two of the goals conceded.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Tah currently still has a comfortable lead over his rival Antonio R\u00fcdiger. Even though the Bayern defender did not cut the finest figure in one incident against Ghana and had Schlotterbeck to thank for the score not being 1-1 sooner. R\u00fcdiger is likely to be the first replacement should he not shoot himself in the foot with further controversies at Real Madrid<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Waldemar Anton can also count on a World Cup place, even though he didn\u2019t play a single minute. Much like Gro\u00df, the Dortmund player is a respected member of the DFB squad who is entirely content with his role as the man who sees narrow leads through to the final whistle. A call-up is also the deserved reward for a strong season at BVB. \u00a0Nagelsmann even hinted at this for him after the final whistle: \u201cWe have a few who haven\u2019t played at all, so we\u2019ll have to see how the next few weeks go. But we also have Waldi, who is very likely to be in the squad, even though he didn\u2019t play. With him, we know exactly what we\u2019re getting. He always gives it his all in training, goes full throttle. He\u2019s often deserved to play, but you wouldn\u2019t know it from watching him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malick Thiaw was the fourth player in the squad, alongside Anton, Schade and substitute goalkeeper Finn Dahmen, who didn\u2019t feature. He therefore remains a doubtful candidate.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The centre-back pairing is also a done deal. Come what may, Nico Schlotterbeck and Jonathan Tah will go…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[177672,177669,170,17098,85,46,83923,177670,175124,40396,172421,105,177671],"class_list":{"0":"post-369003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-a-ruediger","9":"tag-d-undav","10":"tag-germany","11":"tag-ghana","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-j-nagelsmann","15":"tag-k-havertz","16":"tag-l-karl","17":"tag-l-sane","18":"tag-n-schlotterbeck","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-w-anton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}