Julian Nagelsmann picked up the phone: there is reportedly an agreement between the national team manager and VfB striker Deniz Undav

According to the report, Nagelsmann rang Undav the day after the 2-1 friendly win against Ghana the previous week. It was described as a “conciliatory conversation”, during which they agreed not to fuel the media debate surrounding Undav’s role with further comments.

They agreed not to “open a new can of worms” and likewise not to “provide scope for speculation”.

This decision had clearly become necessary because Undav’s standing under Nagelsmann had become a hot topic of debate among fans and experts. The two-footed centre-forward is the most dangerous German striker this season, having scored 36 points in 39 games (23 goals, 13 assists). However, Nagelsmann does not currently see Undav as a candidate for his World Cup starting line-up, but has hinted on several occasions that Undav will have to settle for the role of a super-sub.

Undav, who scored the winning goal as a substitute against Ghana in Stuttgart, subsequently expressed the hope that he could change his role with further goals in the final stretch of the season. Nagelsmann replied that this was rather unlikely and that Undav was only putting himself under pressure with such statements.

Former international Stefan Effenberg subsequently criticised this on Sport1’s ‘Doppelpass’: “You must never speak about a player from your team in that way. You don’t do that. You do that behind closed doors, but not in public.”

However, it is said that the relationship between the two has not suffered; it is described as “intact and characterised by great openness”.

This is in line with Undav’s comments to Sky following his Stuttgart side’s 0-2 defeat to BVB at the weekend. When asked about Nagelsmann, he said: “I don’t want to go into that at all. It’s over and done with; everything is fine between us.”