Overview
- Klopp has openly suggested Joshua Kimmich may no longer be an untouchable starter after using a split 44-player squad to test options and saying he wanted to “see the team without the alpha male.”
- Kimmich was selected only for the first half of the expanded squad and left camp before the second set of matches, watching later games from home.
- Tom Bischof, Aleksandar Pavlović and Florian Wirtz produced notably strong midfield displays in Germany’s win over Serbia and the draw in Greece, strengthening their claims for regular roles.
- Former captains Oliver Kahn and Michael Ballack criticized Klopp’s public wording while commending the need to re-earn status, and DFB sporting director Rudi Völler defended Kimmich as a valuable captain.
- Klopp’s approach is explicitly long term and experimental, so the coming November away to Serbia and home to the Netherlands will be framed as key tests that could decide regular starters and affect Kimmich’s role.