After the confirmation of Germany's squad for the friendlies against Switzerland and Ghana this month , head coach Julian Nagelsmann faced questions from journalists at a press conference, where he explained the thinking behind his selections.
With Angelo Stiller, Maximilian Beier, Karim Adeyemi and Yann Aurel Bisseck among the notable absentees, Nagelsmann stressed that none of them are ruled out of World Cup contention despite missing out this time.
"I spoke with all the players and told them the door is not closed. We're also not going to judge everything based on small fluctuations in form," Nagelsmann underlined.
"But the tricky part of a tournament is always that 14 or 15 players get 95% of the minutes, and then there are many players left who won't play much. That type of role still has to be properly filled, and that is also a question of character. In general, some people are made for certain roles and others are not. And we have to decide, based on conversations, whether a player fits the role we have in mind for them.
"I don't see Angelo Stiller in the starting eleven. So we decided to fill the position differently."
He added that "only one or two" of Karim Adeyemi, Maximilian Beier and Kevin Schade will make the World Cup squad, with Schade preferred on this occasion.
"They're very similar types of players. Beier and Adeyemi have a very good scoring record, while Schade doesn't quite have the same record at Brentford. We want to give him the chance in this third camp to reach the same level in the 'soft factors' as the other two. You could already see in the second camp that he felt much more comfortable."
