Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann opened the door this weekend to replacing Joshua Kimmich in defense on the right-back position for the Mannschaft’s next friendly matches at the end of March, in France and against the Netherlands.
“Josh is a candidate to play at right-back. He is a player who always puts himself in the interests of the team. He can also have influence even if he does not play in N.6 (recovering midfielder, Editor’s note), but as a right back,” said Julian Nagelsmann on Saturday evening in the Sportstudio program on German public television ZDF.
A little less than six months before the opening match of “its” Euro 2024 (June 14-July 14) at home, Germany faces a very large defensive challenge, with 37 goals conceded in the 23 matches played in 2022 and 2023, an average of just over 2 goals per match.
Nagelsmann coached Joshua Kimmich when he was at Bayern Munich (July 2021-March 2023), developing the 28-year-old as a midfielder, most often alongside Leon Goretzka. Kimmich has, however, already played as a right-back, notably during the 2020 Champions League final, won by Bayern against Paris SG in Lisbon.
For the friendly matches in March in Lyon against France (on the 23rd) and against the Netherlands in Frankfurt (on the 26th), Manuel Neuer should make his return to the German goals, sixteen months after his last match with the Mannschaft, underlined Nagelsmann in Sportstudio.
Victim of a fracture to the lower part of his right leg in early December 2022, Neuer returned to Bayern’s goals at the end of October, but had given up on the international window in mid-November. During his absence, Marc-André ter Stegen took the place of goalkeeper N.1. Suffering from his back, the FC Barcelona goalkeeper was operated on at the beginning of December and should be arrested for two months according to the Spanish media.