The quiet month is over. After an opening window in which Jürgen Klopp handed debuts to 16 uncapped players and finished with five points from four games, Germany sit third in Group A2 behind the Netherlands and Greece, both on eight. Serbia are bottom and winless. Two fixtures now decide who finishes top of the pool.
Klopp will announce the squad on 5 November, and it will look nothing like the 44-player experiment he split across September and October. The target is around 23 or 24 players.
Klopp framed the cut as practical rather than punitive.
“The door is open to everyone. If someone is not called up, they know it’s not because they’re not good enough,” he told reporters after the 0-0 draw with Greece.
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What the first four games revealed
The opening window brought one win, two draws and one defeat. The only victory was a 2-0 result over Serbia on 1 October, with Florian Wirtz and Tom Bischof scoring in a 4-3-3. Bayern Munich’s Jonas Urbig started in goal and Nick Woltemade led the line, with uncapped names dotted across the back four and midfield.
A shock home defeat by Greece in Augsburg forced that reset. Klopp emerged from the follow-up goalless draw calling the performance “top-notch in every respect, except for the fact that we didn’t convert our chances into goals.”
The project has otherwise looked recognisable in the way the Anfield years did: intense pressing, quick transitions, and a stated emphasis on the emotional bond between squad and supporters.
Füllkrug the pre-announcement question
With caps now at a premium, selection becomes the story. Joshua Kimmich kept the captaincy across the opening squads, with Jamal Musiala, Kai Havertz and Marc-André ter Stegen among the established names Klopp has already called up. Leroy Sané and Deniz Undav were left out of the first window.
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The pre-announcement talking point is Niclas Füllkrug. The Werder Bremen striker last played for Germany in June 2025, has 11 goals in nine matches for his club this season, and is a candidate for a recall.
Three points off the leaders
Germany are three points off the leaders. A Dutch win in Berlin on 16 November would almost certainly settle the top spot in the Netherlands’ favour. That is why Belgrade comes first.
A result on 13 November keeps the Berlin match live. The squad lands on Thursday.
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