Germany’s future is now: Young guns Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz can end Euro 2024 hosts’ rotten tournament run

Flick did get something right, though. In Qatar, the manager had the foresight to bring a 19-year-old Musiala into the team, deploying the Bayern attacking midfielder on the left side of a 4-2-3-1 formation. And although Germany were miserable for most of the tournament, Musiala served as a rare bright spark. It was, in fact, the one positive that the German press found in their scathing assessment of the side, as former boss Jurgen Klinsmann noted that: “We have one wonder-child, there’s no doubt about it, in terms of performances in Musiala – he is an exceptional, exceptional player.”

Naglesmann has continued to lean on the youngster. The ex-Bayern boss has eased out an older generation, and made Musiala the focal point of his team. These days, Bayern’s creative maestro comes off the right, with Ilkay Gundogan playing a more restricted role centrally.

For Germany, Musiala’s duty is to pace things. Sometimes he dribbles, other times he circulates. When the 21-year-old has the ball, everything sort of slows down as he weaves through bodies and squeezes through gaps that don’t really exist.

His showing against a full-strength France in March best encapsulated his abilities. Musiala completed the most passes out of any of Germany’s attacking quartet, successfully dribbled past three opponents, touched the ball 81 times, and assisted his side’s second goal in a 2-0 win over the Euro 2024 favourites.

Wirtz would have perhaps been in the same team as Musiala in Qatar had his rise to superstardom not been delayed by injury. He was Bayer Leverkusen’s youngest-ever debutant when he took the field aged just 17 years and 16 days in early 2020, and just over two weeks later, he became the Bundesliga’s youngest goal-scorer. He made his Germany debut at 18, and by 2021 was assumed to be on the rest-of-the-league to Bayern pipeline.

But things changed when Wirtz tore his ACL in the spring of 2022. His progress was stalled, and while he missed the chance to go to his first World Cup, it may have turned out to be something of a blessing in disguise. By the time Wirtz returned to action, Xabi Alonso was Leverkusen’s coach, and the Spaniard has taken the attacking midfielder’s game to another level.

Wirtz has become a more direct presence under Alonso, operating on the inside left of a 3-4-2-1 formation. He is an expert at turning his man and running at defences, and has the dribbling nous to find gaps. His season tally of 18 goals and 20 assists in all competitions rightly have him in the Ballon d’Or conversation.

So while Musiala slows the game down for Germany, Wirtz can speed it up. Put the two together – with Gundogan providing support between them – and the combination is a potentially deadly one.

Nagelsmann’s influence here is undeniable. The German has shown he has what it takes to be spoken about among the top tier of coaches, and he was perhaps unfortunate to be sacked by Bayern in March 2023. Now, he seems to have found the perfect team with whom he can rebuild his reputation.

Nagelsmann has set Germany up much like a club side, asking them to play his distinct quick, gegen-pressing style, relying on three attacking midfielders and one unorthodox false nine to grab the goals.

That man through the middle, Kai Havertz, certainly has his detractors, as the Arsenal striker has become infamous for his ability to miss big chances. But towards the end of the 2023-24 season, he started to find the net – and there were glimpses as to how he could function as an ideal attacking focal point. It might just translate to Germany, too.

When Havertz roams, spaces open up – and Musiala and Wirtz have opportunities to work their magic. Those clever off-ball elements to his game won’t detract from his questionable goal-scoring record, and nor will it remove fears that Germany probably need a more incisive presence elsewhere on the pitch to put the ball in the net. But Havertz does allow Germany’s best two attacking talents to do what they do best.

Perhaps the biggest change Nagelsmann has made came down to his powers of persuasion, as he was able to tempt Toni Kroos out of international retirement during the winter months. The midfielder left the national team three years ago after taking a hefty share of the blame for his side’s disappointing Euro 2020 campaign. At the time the criticism was perhaps slightly unfair, but it was certainly true that the Germany midfield needed an injection of youth, regardless of Kroos’ contributions over the years.

Nagelsmann convinced the veteran to return to the international fold, though, as he sold the Real Madrid star on a system that would place runners around him and allow Kroos to showcase his superb passing ability from deep

The early signs have been promising, as Kroos has impressed in each of his three games since returning, each of which ended with Germany on the winning side. His controlling presence was also the catalyst for Nagelsmann to trust both Musiala and Wirtz to play in the same team, and may yet be looked back on as the decision which changed Germany’s Euro destiny come mid-July.

“He’s a genius,” Musiala told The Athletic of the 34-year-old who will retire from the game entirely after the Euros. “Just from a couple of training sessions and the games we’ve played (for Germany), and the games we played (for Bayern) against Madrid, you see the quality he has. The passes he plays… It’s just so much fun to be on the pitch with him because he can give me the ball exactly where I want it – where I can turn, to make runs in behind – so I’m always going to be an option for him.”

Of course, many teams have headed into international tournaments with grand visions and watertight plans, only for them to be turned on their head once the games begin. That said, there are very few potential outcomes for Germany where both Musiala and Wirtz fail to fire, such is their quality.

Nagelsmann has built a team that can service its two most creative talents in the right areas of the pitch, and with both players the subject of transfer rumours heading into the summer window, there will be plenty of sporting directors around Europe who will be thinking they could do the same in the near future.

“We joked that we think it would be cool to play together at a club at some point,” Wirtz said when the pair took to the press conference podium on Wednesday. “Now we’re both happy at our clubs.”

He added: “We both want to win the title and we know we need each other for that. We have a lot of ideas in our game play and are always looking for solutions… It would not be healthy if we were trying to outdo each other. Personally, it doesn’t matter to me who scores more goals.”

If Germany go on to taste Euros glory in Berlin in a months’ time, neither Nagelsmann or the country’s supporter will care who scores the goals, either. It would take someone brave to predict neither Musiala or Wirtz being involved, though.