Roster battles: Should Germany play Timo Werner over Serge Gnabry against France?

In a column for kicker magazine, Bayern Munich legend Lothar Matthäus recently revealed his Germany ‘dream team’ that should lineup for Euro 2020 clash against competition-favorite France.

Matthäus states that Bundestrainer Joachim Löw should decide his system on a game-by-game basis, rather than playing a fixed starting-XI throughout the tournament. The three-man backline of Matthias Ginter, ‘defensive organizer’ Mats Hummels and Antoine Rüdiger, flanked by full-backs Joshua Kimmich and Robin Gosens remains the ideal solution for nullifying the French attack consisting of Kylian Mbappé and co.

With Leon Goretzka reportedly out of the game, the double pivot of İlkay Gündoğan and Real Madrid’s Toni Kroos is the obvious choice in midfield.

Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images

In attack, Matthäus’ ‘talent-of-the-century’ Kai Havertz is the preferred candidate for the position of left attacking-midfield, since the 22-year-old is full of confidence after winning the UEFA Champions League with Chelsea. On the right side, the 60-year-old has declared that it’s “Müller or no one.” #MullerMafia

Matthäus, however, believes that it should be Timo Werner leading the line for Die Mannschaft, in place of Serge Gnabry. According to Der Panzer:

With higher tempo, he (Werner) more often moves out to the wings and creates gaps. The offensively oriented French will allow spaces for Werner’s advances.

While both forwards don’t operate as ‘target men’, Werner can certainly succeed in creating space for his teammates by stretching the opponent’s defense with his diagonal runs towards wider areas. In this case, the supporting attackers Thomas Müller and Havertz could flourish in exploiting those gaps and subsequently, get into dangerous goal scoring positions in the box.

Who do you think should start against France?