Niclas Füllkrug is back in the national team after more than a year, and at Tuesday’s press conference he said his conversations with Jürgen Klopp had pleasantly surprised him. He linked those talks to Florian Wirtz’s upturn in form.
For Füllkrug, Klopp simply has “an eye for matches and other things that might not even fall within his remit right now”. Before the squad announcement last Thursday, Klopp reportedly showed detailed knowledge of Werder Bremen’s playing style and working methods in a conversation with him.
Klopp knew “a lot about the things” “we do in Bremen, which I give him a lot of credit for. As national coach, you can’t watch every match for 90 minutes, but he knew quite a bit and had picked up on things that pleasantly surprised me, because I simply don’t expect that from a national coach,” Füllkrug stressed.
Can Klopp help Wirtz find top form at Liverpool?
In Füllkrug’s view, Klopp’s approach has already helped other national-team players, including Florian Wirtz. The exceptional footballer faced repeated heavy criticism from English TV pundits, including Jamie Carragher, because he was falling well short of the goal contributions expected of him at Liverpool, even in his second season at Anfield.
Wirtz had just one assist in six competitive matches before Klopp first took him under his wing as part of the XXL squad in September. Since returning from the first Germany training camp of the Klopp era, where he produced a fantastic performance against Serbia in particular, he has recorded two goals and four assists.
“He has a particular insight into England and can assess situations there,” Füllkrug said of Klopp. He then suggested a link to Wirtz’s improving form in recent weeks: “I read a statistic about Florian Wirtz before and after his selection for the large squad, in other words before he worked with Jürgen Klopp for the first time and afterwards,” he explained.
“You get the feeling that someone gave him a helping hand and lent him an ear. It simply helps when you can talk to someone who knows the situation and the place. Someone who understands what it’s like there,” Füllkrug added, referring to Klopp’s own past at Liverpool. “It’s helpful that he has such a broad view of the whole picture.”
What role will Füllkrug play under Klopp?
In selecting Füllkrug, Klopp also kept that “view of the whole picture”. Given his age, the decision does not necessarily fit the national team’s rebuilding project for Euro 2028. However, his nine goals in nine Bundesliga matches made it unavoidable on sporting grounds.
“Sometimes,” the national coach admitted, “form outweighs everything else.” That includes the planned move towards a younger squad. Klopp stressed that Füllkrug had “made his case with all kinds of goals”: “Nearly all of them were spectacular.”
Despite that praise, the 33-year-old will have to settle for a substitute role behind Kai Havertz in the final Nations League group matches. Germany play Serbia in Serbia on Friday and the Netherlands in Berlin on Monday. “I’m completely relaxed about that,” Füllkrug insisted. “Kai is a very special footballer.” He added that it is no disadvantage to have players “who can do extraordinary things from the bench”.