World Cup 2018: 3 players who should not be in Germany's 23-man squad
Yesterday, Joachim Löw became one of the last managers to announce his final 23-man squad that he would be taking to Russia. Just 13 days before their opening match against Mexico, the German made some surprising decisions prior to Die Mannschaft's quest to defend their title.
Löw already made some interesting decisions regarding his provisional 27-man squad, opting to leave established players like Mario Götze, Andre Schürrle at home. However, surprise selections like Leverkusen centre-back Jonathan Tah and SC Freiburg hitman Nils Petersen made the initial cut.
Most notably, Manchester City youngster and PFA Young Player of the Year, Leroy Sane, will also be watching the World Cup from home. While the competition for places in Löw's squad has always been tough, nobody really expected the former Schalke 04 winger to be left out.
With many strong players being forced to watch the tournament on TV, the question automatically arises, which players shouldn't have made it into Germany's final 23-man squad. Therefore, we take a look at three players who should not have been given the plane ticket to Russia.
#3 Julian Brandt
Many people had Brandt on their list of players that would be cut from the 27-man squad. Then Löw caught everyone off guard by selecting the Leverkusen winger overshooting star Leroy Sane.
While Brandt has played a strong season for the Werkself, he still lacks experience at the top of the game. The 22-year-old's talent is undeniable, but like two years ago - where he just missed out on the Euro 2016 squad - he's still missing the lethality in front of goal, especially for the national team.
Löw justified his decision to leave Sane at home, by saying that the Citizen 'never really arrived with the national team', a somewhat poor explanation considering Brandt having similar difficulties, while having far less impact on games in the weaker Bundesliga.
The German only has one goal for the national team to his name, scoring the 6-0 in Germany's 7-0 win over football minnows San Marino. While both, Sane and Brandt, are outstanding talents, Sane has shown more potential at club level than his counterpart.
It's hard to see Brandt getting any significant playing time at the World Cup. Löw is known to take young fringe players to tournaments for them to gather experience as a part of the team and it's highly unlikely that the summer will have more than that in store for the pacy winger.