\t\t\t\t\t1<\/p>\n
There was a time not too long ago when Germany <\/a>repeatedly went into major tournaments as the bookmakers\u2019 favourites to lift the trophy.<\/p>\n However, you have to go back to 2014 to find the last time the Germans won the World Cup. They haven\u2019t won the European Championship since 1996.<\/p>\n In simple terms, their aura of invincibility has vanished. Germany are still one of the big guns in world football, but they no longer win silverware.<\/p>\n German manager thumbs his nose at the critics<\/strong><\/p>\n The 2026 World Cup offers Germany a shot at redemption. They qualified for the tournament with a dominant 6-0 win over Slovakia in Leipzig, but that did not tell the whole story.<\/p>\n A qualification group which also contained Northern Ireland and Luxembourg should have been a breeze for Germany, but they made hard work of it.<\/p>\n They were defeated by Slovakia in their opening game, before rattling off five consecutive wins. Unfortunately, most of their performances were underwhelming.<\/p>\n Germany have looked vulnerable from set-pieces and struggle to consistently create chances. They are shaky when teams hit them with pace on the counter-attack.<\/p>\n While those factors are collectively enough to raise concerns about Germany\u2019s chance of winning the World Cup, it would be foolish to think everything is doom and gloom.<\/p>\n Manager Julian Nagelsmann has been criticised for some of his team selections, particularly where Angelo Stiller and Tom Bischof are concerned.<\/p>\n He chose Leroy San\u00e9 and Leon Goretzka ahead of that pair for the Slovakia game, triggering a widespread meltdown amongst German fans.<\/p>\n However, the duo justified the decision as Germany produced their best performance in the qualifiers. The manager had plenty of other reasons to be pleased.<\/p>\n They include Newcastle United striker Nick Woltenmade, who has given Germany the cutting edge they have sorely lacked in recent years.<\/p>\n Nagelsmann still has work to do before next summer, but his team will head to North America with a genuine chance of lifting the prestigious trophy.<\/p>\n Wirtz can be the catalyst for German success<\/strong><\/p>\n Florian Wirtz has struggled to make his mark for Liverpool since completing his big-money transfer from Bayer Leverkusen last summer.<\/p>\n Pundits have been quick to get stuck into the 22-year-old, but Nagelsmann was eager to defend him ahead of the game against Slovakia.<\/p>\n \u201cLiverpool could also help him out by scoring some of the chances he creates,\u201d Nagelsmann said<\/a>. \u201cThey somehow don\u2019t like to shoot the ball in.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole club isn\u2019t as stable this year as it was last year. It\u2019s much harder to slip into the team now.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at the game against [Manchester] City, they were actually the worse team over the ninety minutes. It\u2019s difficult for Flo to make a big impact.<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, the overall situation is such that he just needs a little more time, which is normal \u2013 you see that with other players who move to the Premier League too.\u201d<\/p>\n Wirtz immediately repaid his manager\u2019s faith with a stellar performance against Slovakia<\/a>. He suddenly looked like the player Liverpool hoped they had signed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Naysayers may argue that it was \u2018only Slovakia\u2019, yet that position can easily be blown out of the water by recalling events at the 2024 European Championship.<\/p>\n England needed two stoppage time goals to see them off in the round of 16 and have never defeated them by more than a one-goal margin in a competitive fixture.<\/p>\n Wirtz\u2019s display against Slovakia highlighted why his struggles at Liverpool can primarily be attributed to the people around him.<\/p>\n They include Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, who have been a shadow of their former selves since signing contract extensions with the club.<\/p>\n Liverpool\u2019s other new signings have also failed to hit the ground running, yet none of them are scrutinised to the same level as Wirtz.<\/p>\n German media outlet Bild <\/strong>is no doubt where the blame for Wirtz\u2019s struggles at Liverpool lie, delivering a withering assessment of Salah\u2019s contribution.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s noticeable that he\u2019s overlooked Wirtz and hasn\u2019t made any of the other summer signings, who together cost around half a billion Euros, shine,\u201d they wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cSalah has provided three assists this season, all of which led to goals, all for players who have been with the club longer. Salah is increasingly becoming a major problem for Liverpool and Wirtz!\u201d<\/p>\n While that character assassination may be a little extreme, it is hard not to think there is some merit to those views given how Wirtz played against Slovakia.<\/p>\n Regardless of what happens at Liverpool for the rest of the season, Germany will be contenders to win the World Cup if Wirtz keeps shining for them.<\/p>\n GGFN<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Zach Lowy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1 There was a time not too long ago when Germany repeatedly went into major tournaments as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824],"class_list":{"0":"post-588636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-germany"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115598752692086259","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}