Lahm 'excited' to learn Germany squad amid big shake-up speculation

Euro 2024 tournament director Philipp Lahm has named the situation around the German national team "as extreme as never before" and is like many others highly curious who coach Julian Nagelsmannn will nominate on Thursday for upcoming friendlies.

Germany hosts the Euros from June 14 and the home team needs a turnaround in the matches in France on March 23 and against the Netherlands on March 26 in the wake of poor results.

It appears that Nagelsmann is set to make major changes in his squad after saying last month that a different mentality is needed.

Reports said that there will be no place for established players including Leon Goretzka and Mats Hummels, and that Nagelsmann will instead call up Bayern Munich's Aleksandar Pavlovic and the VfB Stuttgart trio of Waldemar Anton, Maximilian Mittelstädt and Deniz Undav for the first time.

"Julian Nagelsmann has to find a structure for the squad. It's also exciting for me to see how he nominates," the 2014 World Cup winning captain Lahm said at a Euro 2024 promotion event in Stuttgart on Wednesday.

"I don't know whether he's experimenting or whether there's perhaps already a change from these international matches to the tournament. But that's the exciting thing, I'll be surprised and then we can all judge it."

Lahm said the situation around the team was "as extreme as never before" in the wake of early exits at the last two World Cups and the Euros in 2021, followed by just three victories from 11 games last year which ended with back-to-back defeats against Turkey and Austria.

Lahm said it was only natural that everything is questioned but said that Nagelsmann, who took over in autumn from Hansi Flick, dererved backing.

"First and foremost, we should trust the national coach, who is of course still young but already has a certain amount of experience, and we can then judge him on that," Lahm said.

Former captain Manuel Neuer is set to return into the squad for the first time since the 2022 World Cup, and Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos is coming out of three years of international retirement to help the team.

But despite their presence Ilkay Gündogan expects to remain team captain, after being appointed by Flick when Neuer was sidelined with a leg fracture, and Nagelsmann confirming the 33-year-old in this role.

"At the moment, I assume that I am still the captain," Gündogan told Prime Video after his team Barcelona's beat Napoli 3-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday night.

But he added that many other players must also shoulder responsibilities to make the team successful again, and that "in the end, it doesn't really matter who wears the armband."

Gündogan said he spoke with Nagelsmann on the phone recently, saying: "It was a brief chat but you can expect that I will be at the Euros, that were his words."

The 2023 treble winner with Manchester City urged a collective effort to return to success.

"In the end, it's important that we're a team, that we show unity, that everyone is aware of their role. And if we can do that well, then I'm convinced that we'll play a very, very good European Championship," Gündogan said.