Nathaniel Brown has been a regular in the Germany squad of late. But television pundit Dietmar Hamann has questioned the left-back's latest call-up by Germany coach Jürgen Klopp.
"What surprised me a little was Brown's selection," Hamann said on Sky. The versatile 23-year-old is "currently third-choice left-back" at Bayern Munich. Hamann added: "They don't seem to trust him at the back."
Others have taken the left-back spot in Bayern Munich's last two matches. The resurgent Alphonso Davies started in the 2-2 draw against Borussia Dortmund, while Josip Stanisic started in the 2-0 win away at Atletico Madrid. But the injury crisis also led interim head coach Aaron Danks to keep the versatile Brown in reserve as an attacking option off the bench. He brought Brown on as a number 10 on both occasions, a position the left-back had already filled in at the start of the season.
At the time, Klopp made a joking dig at Bayern Munich coach Vincent Kompany over Brown's positioning. "Now we finally have a left-back, and then he plays as a number 10," Klopp joked in a television interview with Sat1. Hamann said: "If you're a good footballer, anyone can play as a number 10 in Munich because you have 80 per cent possession."
IMAGO
How has Nathaniel Brown fared under Jürgen Klopp so far?
In the weeks that followed, Brown mainly alternated with Davies at left-back for Bayern Munich. He has started there in six of the club's 15 competitive matches so far this season, including three times in the past three weeks against RB Leipzig, SC Freiburg and 1. FC Magdeburg.
Brown had established himself as Germany's first-choice left-back before the World Cup and emerged as one of the few German bright spots in an otherwise deeply disappointing tournament. He then moved from Eintracht Frankfurt to Bayern Munich for 50 million euros.
In the first international window under Klopp, Brown produced two rather disappointing performances before leaving the squad as part of the planned reshuffle. The established Maximilian Mittelstädt and David Raum then got their chances but made no convincing case for selection. Mittelstädt is in the squad again, but Raum is absent for the upcoming Nations League matches against Serbia (13 November) and Holland (16 November).