On Thursday, Hansi Flick announced his squad for the World Cup and in the squad was Lukas Klostermann. The centre-back is versatile and can play right-back as well but has only played one game this season for RB Leipzig which was against Stuttgart on the opening weekend. He was on the bench for Leipzig’s win against Freiburg in midweek.
The selection of Klostermann leaves a lot of question marks as there are other players in the squad who also offer versatility whether that be Thilo Kehrer who can also play at right-back, as well as Jonas Hofmann who has played there recently and at a push, Niklas Süle who has played at right-back for Borussia Dortmund this season.
Germany clearly has an issue in that position as they have lacked a good right-sided defender since Philipp Lahm retired. The selection of Klostermann takes up a position in the squad, a position that could have been taken by the likes of Benjamin Henrichs or Ridle Baku. Another option is that the position taken up takes away a backup midfielder for the likes of Joshua Kimmich or Leon Goretzka.
The only way to justify this selection will be if Klostermann plays and with his significant lack of game time this season it seems the likelihood of him starting or even playing in Qatar minimal, which some players will feel like they have been hard done by.
GGFN | Jack Meenan
