Germany have named their 27 man provisional squad in defence of the World Cup trophy that they won four years ago in Argentina. Mario Gotze was the man who scored the winning goal in extra-time but there is heartbreak for him as he is one of the names that have been left behind, the Borussia Dortmund midfielder who already has 63 caps to his name will not be adding to these any time soon after manager Joachim Low decided to leave him behind.

The same fate has been put open both Emre Can and Andre Schurrle, truth be told there are a whole host of players that you could be writing a paragraph or two on in regard to this subject such is the depth of talent at Germany’s disposal. A point that was made clearly evident by the fact that they won the FIFA Confederations Cup last Summer with a near reserve squad

But what of the 27 players that have made into Germany’s provisional pool, ultimately there will be heartbreak for a further four men but that is something that they will have to worry about further down the line, for now it is all about impressing the man in charge enough to be named in Joachim Low’s final 23.

The breakdown is as follows:

4 Goalkeepers
9 Defenders
9 Midfielders
5 Attackers

You would imagine that one from each position will be left behind, will it be Manual Neuer from the goalkeepers as he looks to prove his fitness after being out injured since last September with a double foot fracture, even at 80 or 90% fit it would be a very brave man not to pick arguably the World’s number 1 man between the sticks.

Lets now take a look at the 27 names that have been picked at this stage:

Goalkeepers: Bernd Leno (Bayer Leverkusen), Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona), Kevin Trapp (Paris St-Germain)

Defenders: Jerome Boateng (Bayern Munich), Matthias Ginter (Borussia Monchengladbach), Jonas Hector (Cologne), Mats Hummels (Bayern Munich), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich), Marvin Plattenhardt (Hertha Berlin), Antonio Rudiger (Chelsea), Niklas Sule (Bayern Munich), Jonathan Tah (Bayer Leverkusen)

Midfielders: Julian Brandt (Bayer Leverkusen), Julian Draxler (Paris St-Germain), Leon Goretska (Schalke), Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City), Sami Khedira (Juventus), Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Mesut Ozil (Arsenal), Sebastian Rudy (Bayern Munich), Leroy Sane (Manchester City)

Strikers: Mario Gomez (Stuttgart), Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich), Nils Petersen (SC Freiburg), Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund), Timo Werner (RB Leipzig)

An eye-watering amount of talent at Germany’s disposal but just how many caps have this troop of players earned prior to today’s selection – this table will now tell you (data correct as of May 15th 2018)

A total of 985 international caps have been handed out by the German F.A. to these 27 players although one of them is yet to make his debut at full international level, that being Nils Petersen. He’ll be the rank outsider of the five forwards to go to Russia but in every squad there is always a wildcard, it could well be that Petersen is the one,

In terms of average caps, it works out at 36 per player while if we look at per position it as follows:

So it is midfielder where the most experience is on average but with their being three defenders who have won less than 10 caps, if we were to pick a team based solely on experience it would look as follows (4-4-2 because I’m old school)

Now this is a bit of a generalisation as some of the players are slightly out of position but it looks like there’s no need for youth when there is much experience on offer – whichever eleven are picked though it is a very ominous sight for the other 31 nations that are taking part in the World Cup this Summer.

So that is my brief international caps analysis of the Germany provisional World Cup squad, tomorrow I will take a look at the England squad as Gareth Southgate names his set of players that are one step closer to Russia, although that will be a list that does not include either Joe Hart or Jack Wilshere as we look to banish the ghost of Euro 2016 and the shock defeat to Iceland. Until tomorrow

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