Euro 2024 hosts Germany named a largely expected preliminary squad on Thursday, with Mats Hummels and Leon Goretzka the only notable absentees.
Manager Julian Nagelsmann four goalkeepers in his squad, with VfB Stuttgart‘s Alexander Nübel joining Manuel Neuer, Oliver Baumann and Marc-André ter Stegen as Nagelsmann otherwise largely showed faith in the players he has used over the past seven months.
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“When you have this structure, which is still growing but fragile after our performances in March, bringing in new elements could trigger an implosion of that structure and you would have to start from scratch,” Nagelsmann said ahead of his first international tournament.
Three-time European champions Germany, who have not won a major trophy since the 2014 World Cup, beat France and Netherlands in back-to-back friendlies in March, their best results for some time.
Nagelsmann said having four goalkeepers was crucial for spreading the workload during the tournament.
“We have nominated four goalkeepers and we will go with four to the tournament. Nübel has deserved the nomination,” Nagelsmann said.
“Why four keepers? You can have goalkeepers in training as well and Manuel [Neuer] does not always have to do it. We can control training and spread the load.
“That means 22 infield players. I can live with that very well. We can still do proper training with at least 20 infield players if some are missing.”
In veterans Thomas Müller, Toni Kroos and Neuer, there are three 2014 world champions in the 27-man squad which must be cut to 26 before the tournament.
Aleksandar Pavlovic, 20, who missed the March friendlies through injury and is still waiting for his first cap, earned a place following his superb form for Bayern.
Robert Andrich, Florian Wirtz and Jonathan Tah are the Bayer Leverkusen players in the squad having helped the Bundesliga champions remain unbeaten across all competitions so far this season.
Germany kick off their Group A campaign in the tournament opener against Scotland on June 14. They also play Hungary and Switzerland in the first stage.
