Flick himself had said during the top game Dortmund-Bayern that his squad for the World Cup was 80-90% fixed. Now comes from his assistant coach the statement to 2/3. I find this discrepancy a bit strange, but only marginally.
I find it positive that interpersonal aspects also count in the nomination. I always consider good team chemistry to be a basic requirement for a big title. I could even imagine a surprise in the nomination of the goalkeepers if only three and not four goalkeepers are nominated. The goalkeeper position is defined most obviously by the hierarchy: Neuer as a regular, ter Stegen the clear number 2 and then there is a third goalkeeper. In terms of performance, I would nominate Baumann or Trapp as the third goalkeeper. I can’t assess the character of either of the possible third goalkeepers. But in the case of Trapp, it is noticeable that the Eintracht officials have repeatedly stated that Trapp is currently the strongest German goalkeeper (most recently by Krösche). At this point I have no idea what these statements are really supposed to mean. In terms of performance, Neuer and Ter Stegen are indisputably the two best German goalkeepers at the moment. I don’t know how Trapp sees it himself and how he appears with the national team. But should Trapp personally rate his own role higher than that of third goalkeeper, then the team chemistry could suffer and I would rather call Oliver Baumann as third goalkeeper. Baumann would embrace his role, accepting Neuer as captain and undisputed regular and ter Stegen as Germany’s most in-form goalkeeper at the moment as number 2. It should be said again that it is difficult for me to assess the character traits of the players from afar. But in my opinion, the goalkeeper question, which is indisputably clear, illustrates a possible team conflict very well and I would appreciate it if Flick showed tact with regard to healthy squad chemistry when he was nominated.
At the moment, I think that if you see ter Stegen and Neuer like that, it’s not wrong to say that Trapp is the best, because he holds up extremely well and doesn’t make any mistakes. Ter Stegen wasn’t that good in Barca dress, Neuer wasn’t that good in Bayern dress (just the scene against Lewandowski in which he almost owed a goal comes to mind) and therefore the statement is not that wrong. Which doesn’t mean for me that Neuer is No. 1 in the N11, but for me Trapp has also held up best in the last few months and especially in the tournament mode of the Euro League, which also shows tournament qualities.
In terms of team chemistry, I don’t know which players would not be beneficial, that was a strength in 2014, if you take Hummels or Götze with you, you already know that it’s good for chemistry, because they were there themselves, as well as Müller and Neuer. Anyway, I think there will be fewer mascots apart from the goalkeepers because the performance range isn’t as high as it was in 2014, for example.
The squad has a few exceptional players who always have to play, definitely, but a lot of players who aren’t clearly the best in their position, like it used to be. For example, Hummels and Boateng were set for a long time while I currently have difficulties in saying whether Süle, Rüdiger, Hummels or Schlotterbeck should play now, even Ginter is not that far away.
Also in the ZM, only Kimmich is set for me, on the offensive really nobody, not even Musiala stands out so strongly that he absolutely has to play. So it’s clear that there will be difficult decisions because it’s not easy to have the key players who absolutely have to appear, as was the case in 2014 with Klose, Schweinsteiger and the like.