What roles does Thomas Müller play in the DFB team

The training camp of the German national football team before the European Championship is still young, and the focus in Weimarer Land is mainly on the older players. Manuel Neuer, the oldest, is absent due to a gastrointestinal infection and is due to travel to the camp soon. Health problems have prevented him from playing in goal in an international match for a year and a half. He is still Julian Nagelsmann’s number one, “when he is healthy”. Toni Kroos is also a topic, although he is also absent. After the Champions League final with Real Madrid, he will travel to the DFB team next Tuesday to be the central building block in Nagelsmann’s national team – and to end his career after the European Championship.

And then there is Thomas Müller, 34 years old, like Kroos. He is in Thuringia – and you can hear and see that. When fans wait for the national players at the hotel, Müller goes up to them. When food is distributed to the needy, Müller steps in for Neuer. When the German Football Association (DFB) team comes to the stadium in Jena for public training, Müller goes first. And when his name is called, the cheers are loudest. It is hardly surprising that after the president, the national coach and the sports director, the DFB sent Müller as the first player into the daily question-and-answer game with the journalists on Tuesday.

All Müller, or what? Not quite. Unlike Neuer and Kroos, Müller is not a regular in Nagelsmann’s role in the European Championship squad, but a challenger. “The role that Thomas has is clear for him,” said the national coach. “Of course he will get to play. It won’t always be from the start, he knows that.” Nagelsmann currently sees Kai Havertz, İlkay Gündoğan, Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz as regular offensive players.

Niclas Füllkrug, Leroy Sané, Deniz Undav, Maximilian Beier and Chris Führich are the challengers, as is Müller. He still likes the role play, saying it is a “good measure”, but: “You are never completely set in your role. We are in a competition.” Basically, it is important to know the coach’s first idea in order to “accept the role so that there are no moments of disappointment half an hour before the game”.

Müller about Müller

The playing time in Nagelsmann’s national team since October illustrates the role that Müller is likely to play in the tournament. Müller played almost all the time, but Müller never played 90 minutes. The national coach likes his “great activity” after substitutions: “Thomas is someone who is good off the bench.” He doesn’t need twenty minutes to get going and is always in the mood for football. The form, a criterion in Nagelsmann’s selection of personnel, is good, even if that was overlooked when FC Bayern ended the season without a title. In the Bundesliga, he has been involved in six goals in the last six games. “He can still do a bit, the old man,” said Müller about Müller – and laughed.

It was important to Nagelsmann to emphasise that no one should play a role – in a figurative sense. “Thomas is the way he is, and that’s a good thing.” Müller is a “connector”, someone who can “connect a lot of groups” in a team, but doesn’t belong to any of them himself: “He gets on well with everyone.” For Müller, this is the most normal thing in the football world: “I don’t do anything artificial.” The young Aleksandar Pavlović travelled with Müller from Munich by train, and when they arrived at the hotel he introduced the newcomer to the team behind the DFB team.

“The way he introduced Aleks is a good example of what he is like,” said Nagelsmann, calling Müller an “extended arm for the coaching team.” He sees his style as an added value. “It’s about integration. We live from the fact that everyone can make the most of their potential.” Sometimes he even helps the next generation as a German teacher: “Every now and then I remind them to put a ‘der, die, das’ back into a sentence.”

No outstanding invoice

Despite such amusing anecdotes, the national coach does not want to describe him as “just a good-humoured uncle” or “a clown during breaks”, which Müller does not want to be either: “I am not tasked with entertaining people.” Nagelsmann is concerned with something else: “He is someone who talks a lot, who has an eye for the bigger picture, who selflessly evaluates how things are going, who gives feedback.” The coach, only two years older than Müller, wants to benefit from this quality and experience – for Müller it is the eighth World Cup or European Championship – in his tournament debut.

However, there is one thing that Müller is missing besides the European Championship title – hard to believe considering he has scored 128 international matches and 45 goals, ten at a World Cup that no one in the squad can beat: he has never scored a goal at the continental tournament. That, however, is not a big deal for him. “I have no score to settle with the European Championship,” he said. “Of course I would like to score a goal at the European Championship. But those are just statistics.”