World Cup holders Germany seek motivation to win second biggest prize

It is perhaps indicative of where Germany are at the moment that Joachim Löw has spent most of this week talking about players who are unlikely to start their first game of Euro 2016 against Ukraine on 12 June.

First, there was the issue of Wolfsburg’s Max Kruse, thrown out of the squad on Monday for his recent, rather erratic, off-pitch behaviour and then the Bundestrainer was asked about Mario Götze, the player who won Germany the World Cup two years ago but who cannot get a game at Bayern Munich at the moment.

Part of the reason those two players have dominated the headlines in the buildup to the friendly against England in Berlin on Saturday is that the team in themselves are less interesting at the moment. That is not to say Germany are dull, or even uninspiring, but rather that they are a team who won the biggest trophy in international football two years ago and are now trying to motivate themselves to win the second biggest – or third biggest, depending on where you rank the Copa América.

The coach is still the same – Löw has signed an extension to his contract to keep him at the DFB until 2018 – and most of the players who beat Argentina in the World Cup final in Rio de Janeiro are still there, too. There are notable absentees in Philipp Lahm, who retired from international football after the World Cup, Bastian Schweinsteiger, who has struggled at Manchester United and suffered a partial tear to a medial knee ligament this week, an injury that could rule him out of the European Championship, as well as Miroslav Klose and Per Mertesacker.

Apart from that, Germany can call on the same key group of players who triumphed in Brazil, such as Manuel Neuer, Jérôme Boateng (who is just returning from injury and will miss the game against England), Mats Hummels, Toni Kroos, Mesut Özil and Thomas Müller. In addition, Löw can look to Borussia Dortmund’s wonderful attacking midfielder Marco Reus after he missed the World Cup through injury.

They are clearly among the favourites to win the tournament in France but it is difficult to say whether they are a better team now than they were two years ago. Most people would argue they are not.

For one, they did not have it all their way in qualifying for the European Championship, losing twice, against Poland and the Republic of Ireland. They finished top, as they normally do, but this time only a point ahead of Adam Nawalka’s Poland team.

There have even been signs that Löw is becoming slightly restless, having started to criticise players in public, something that would have been unthinkable a few years back. The best example of that was in January when he hit out at Kevin Grosskreutz for the player’s inability to settle in at Galatasaray: “I only have a limited amount of understanding of how he has gone about his career. He will not play for us in the Euros, in fact he has been out of the picture for six months already.”

The reason for Löw’s anger was that Grosskreutz had not done everything possible to integrate in Istanbul. “I spoke to the manager at Galatasaray and he told me that Grosskreutz goes home to Germany almost every weekend,” Löw revealed. “You just don’t do that when you are part of a team.”

Löw apologised three days later, saying he regretted the way he had spoken about Grosskreutz in public, and added: “That was certainly not the right way to go about it.” This week it has been Kruse’s turn to receive a public admonishment after the Wolfsburg forward’s “unprofessional behaviour” in recent weeks. Kruse, who earlier this season lost €75,000 in cash in a taxi in Berlin after a night out, again hit the headlines for allegedly grabbing a mobile phone from a woman who was taking pictures of him in a nightclub, where he was celebrating his 28th birthday on Saturday.

“I made it clear to Max Kruse last week what I expect from him, both on and off the field,” Löw said. “I want players who focus on football and the European Championship, even between matches. Last weekend’s incident goes against my expectations. Max has once again behaved unprofessionally and I don’t accept that.”

Kruse is one of few new players to have emerged in the past two years, although there is hope that players such as Matthias Ginter, Jonathan Tah, Jonas Hector, Antonio Rüdiger (all defenders), Emre Can and Karim Bellarabi can step up and perform in France, given the chance.

Löw has an enviable squad to choose players from, although he does not have a natural striker to call upon. He has called up Lukas Podolski and Mario Gómez, both over 30, for the two friendlies against England and Italy. However, he has a wealth of options if he picks a deep-lying forward up front – a false nine – as Müller, Reus or, indeed, Götze can operate in that role to devastating effect.

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Götze’s fall from grace is troubling for Löw, who believes the forward can be one of the best players in Europe and told him “to show the world that he is better than Lionel Messi” before sending him on in the World Cup final, with the player going on to score the winning goal. This week, however, Löw said he was concerned over Götze’s position at Bayern and that he could understand why Pep Guardiola was not playing the 23-year-old. “He was injured for a long time and I have seen in training this week that Mario is not, when it comes to fitness and sharpness, where he once was,” Löw said, before adding: “Technically he is so good, he has unbelievable possibilities and can work in very little space and decide games. I am still counting on him for the Euros.”

As for the game against England, Löw is convinced Roy Hodgson’s team are on the right track. He even compared them to where Germany were in 2010, ie four years away from winning the World Cup.

“They have a young and exciting generation coming through and I see similarities between where they are now and where we were in 2010,” Löw said. “A game against England is not an ordinary friendly, a game against England is always a big thing.”