Jürgen Klopp and Xavi Hernández will take their first steps in international management against one another on Thursday night, when Germany visit the Netherlands in the Nations League. The match is the latest instalment of a time-honoured rivalry, but it also marks two distinct new beginnings: both nations are rebuilding after disappointing World Cup campaigns.
Klopp, the Germany head coach, could not resist a little of the old mischief when he discussed his opposite number. “The good thing is that we both have the exact same situation,” he said of Xavi. “We met on Monday and play on Thursday. And the coach knows the players from television. I actually know more of the Dutch players personally than Xavi does. Whether that’s an advantage, I don’t know, but it’s still a fact.”
In his public appearances since taking the role in July, Klopp has been on irrepressible form. The task of whipping Germany back into shape has visibly and audibly topped up the energy levels that had drained by the time he left Liverpool, and the sharp wit and piqued appetite mark a clear contrast with the figure who, to most trained eyes, was going through the motions when he was unveiled as Red Bull’s head of global soccer early last year.
Securing Klopp was a coup for the German football federation, even if it came with caveats issued within seconds of his introduction to the media: he will not be seen for dust if his family are hounded by the media.
Xavi’s arrival in Amsterdam is no less fascinating. In the Dutch way, his employers made no bones about the fact that Pep Guardiola and Arne Slot had been higher in their sights after Ronald Koeman’s departure. He becomes the Netherlands’ first foreign manager since Ernst Happel’s 10-month stint ended in 1978, but the fit is instinctively pleasing: even if Guardiola was out of reach, the Dutch landed on another product of the Johan Cruyff school that created modern-day Barcelona.
If Xavi is to take the Netherlands back to their roots, it will require patience. The pool of players does not allow much else. The recall of Borussia Dortmund’s Joey Veerman, who has not played international football for more than two years, speaks of the need for a technically adept midfield fulcrum, but otherwise Xavi has scant scope for surprises. Virgil van Dijk will continue as captain despite considering international retirement during the summer, and the head coach’s options may feel more complete once Frenkie de Jong and Donyell Malen have returned from injury. The team’s most recent World Cup run, occasionally exciting but frequently unstable, shuddered to a halt in the last 32.
Xavi has resisted any temptation to analyse that tournament. “I don’t talk about the past,” is his standard line — an easier one to roll out if the Nations League opener in Amsterdam brings a performance redolent of headier times. The revolution may have to be conducted with minimal effusive pronouncements from the coach.
For Klopp, the shake-up is a good deal more dramatic. He named a squad of 44 players for the coming matches against the Netherlands, Serbia and, home and away, Greece. The expanded unit will be split into two: half will play on Thursday and in Germany’s next game, at home against the Greeks, while the remainder will be involved in the second two matches. Only Finn Dahmen, the Augsburg goalkeeper, will be required across the whole set.
“I want to get to know as many players as possible,” Klopp said. “There is no A or B team. The squads are put together in a way that makes sense on the pitch and in terms of character and experience.”
Club managers anxious about their players’ workloads during this expanded break will have warmed to the split selection, but the priority is to discover who best fits Klopp’s vision for an intensely committed, front-footed, enthusiastic Nationalmannschaft that places round pegs, even unexpected ones, in round holes. Four players from Freiburg have made the sprawling selection, as has Felix Keidel of promoted Elversberg. Mika Baur of Celtic and the Hoffenheim winger Bambasé Conté were both stunned to receive first call-ups, while the Brentford midfielder Vitaly Janelt joins his teammate Kevin Schade in the fray. Sixteen of those named are uncapped.
Last weekend Klopp and his coaching staff convened at their headquarters in Herzogenaurach to watch as many of their charges’ domestic games as possible in one go. Freiburg’s Max Rosenfelder, one of the new brood, acknowledged the aura surrounding Klopp and described him as “a very, very special person”. Even if the mixed lineups prove to lack experience and cohesion, Klopp hopes his players’ sheer thirst for the task will lift Germany from the doldrums of their most recent World Cup flop.
If he can unite 44 players, the question follows whether he can unite a whole country. Among Klopp’s recent pronouncements was a timely intervention in favour of “positive patriotism” that followed an election victory by the anti-immigration Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party in Saxony-Anhalt. If it is some time since Germany’s football team have been at their best, perhaps the same may be said for the nation too.
In the Dutch capital, two big-name managers will begin the work of bringing the good times back. “It could be a bit wild, but I accept that, it just has to be lively,” Klopp said — a prediction that comes with something approaching a cast-iron guarantee.