Euro 2016 Status Report: Germany

With the Euro 2016 finals now just three months away, the international break will be vital to help coaches establish which players they should be naming in their final squads.

After this week’s packed schedule, with each country playing twice, there are only two friendly slots remaining before the 23-man squads have to be announced on May 31 – so countries are running out of time to test new players.

We have drawn on our extensive European network of websites to bring you our expert insight into how the Euro 2016 contenders are shaping up. We started with England, and Tuesday is the turn of Germany.

Saturday, March 26: England (H)
Tuesday, March 29: Italy (H)

- Is Bastian Schweinsteiger still the right leader? The former Bayern player was certainly a leader in the 2014 World Cup final in Brazil. Schweinsteiger was fighting for his side and the most famous picture from the match was of his head with blood under his right eye. Sport Bild wrote he was the “Blood chief” and the “Master of suffering”. Since his transfer to Manchester United he’s often been injured and is nowhere near his best level. But Bundestrainer Joachim Low still trusted him enough to make him captain after Philipp Lahm's retirement and in his opinion Schweinsteiger is still the leader.

- Mario Gotze's lack of football at Bayern. The World Cup final hero has played only eight matches of 27 in the Bundesliga this season; only 54 minutes of a possible 720 since he recovered from a hamstring injury for Bayern. Even last weekend against Cologne, Gotze was sitting on the bench. He plays no role in Guardiola's plan, in contrast to Bundestrainer Low. We expect he will start Gotze against England and Italy.

- Mario Gomez – the return of a real striker? Gomez is scoring almost at will for Besiktas with 19 goals in 26 league games. It is a brilliant response after his difficult time with Fiorentina so the door is definitely open for Euro 2016 in France. Gomez impressed at Euro 2012 with three goals and one assist but Low didn’t pick him for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil - which was a pretty huge shock for him. Low doesn’t want to have a real striker in attack, he prefers Muller or Gotze, but now Gomez is back. The question is, can he also can score goals for Germany again?

At the moment Low knows that his team is not in the best shape. After winning the World Cup in Brazil against Argentina he said: "If we don’t improve our shape, it will be very difficult to have a good Euros in France. If you want to win the title, you have to play six, seven matches in best shape. Most important for us is to impart to our players what we expect from them for the Euros, what we want to see from them in the coming weeks – in training and matches. Because of that we’ve nominated such a big squad against England and Italy.“

Germany's first XI is 60-70% safe for the Euros. Keeper Manuel Neuer is the No. 1, followed by Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Kevin Trapp and Bernd Leno. One of the last three will miss out on a ticket to France. Perhaps Leno because his team Bayer Leverkusen are having a streaky season. All the others are playing in the Champions League quarter-finals.

The biggest problem is still the defence. Jerome Boateng is expected to return from injury around the middle of April so he can’t play against England and Italy next to Mats Hummels. But these two defenders are guaranteed to play at the Euros if they are fit. Left-back and right-back are the two most problematic positions, though. After the retirement of Lahm, Low is still looking for a solution on both flanks. Antonio Rudiger, Emre Can and Sebastian Rudy will all be looking to stake a claim this week.

The strength of the German team is in the front two thirds of the pitch. Toni Kroos and Sami Khedira are the first options against England and Italy in defensive midfield - also Schweinsteiger for the next future when he’s fit again. In front of that the World Cup winners have Mesut Ozil, Thomas Muller, Marco Reus and Mario Gotze. It’s likely that Low also will test Gomez in the two friendlies.

For the next two matches against England and Italy, Jonathan Tah from Leverkusen and Rudiger from AS Roma could play. Tah has been in excellent form in the Bundesliga as a central defender and so has Rudiger in Serie A. But in the Germany team Low could prefer Rudiger as a right-back.

Goalkeepers: 1 Manuel Neuer (Bayern München), 12 Bernd Leno (Bayer Leverkusen), 22 Marc-André ter Stegen (FC Barcelona), 26 Kevin Trapp (Paris St. Germain)

Defenders: 14 Emre Can (FC Liverpool), 15 Matthias Ginter (Borussia Dortmund), 3 Jonas Hector (1. FC Köln), 5 Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund), 2 Shkodran Mustafi (FC Valencia), 16 Antonio Rüdiger (AS Rom), 4 Sebastian Rudy (1899 Hoffenheim), 25 Jonathan Tah (Bayer Leverkusen)

Midfielders: 24 Karim Bellarabi (Bayer Leverkusen), 21 Julian Draxler (VfL Wolfsburg), 19 Mario Götze (Bayern München), 6 Sami Khedira (Juventus Turin), 20 Christoph Kramer (Bayer Leverkusen), 18 Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), 13 Thomas Müller (Bayern München), 8 Mesut Özil (FC Arsenal), 10 Lukas Podolski (Galatasaray Istanbul), 11 Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund), 9 André Schürrle (VfL Wolfsburg), 7 Bastian Schweinsteiger (Manchester United),

Forwards: 23 Mario Gomez (Besiktas Istanbul), 17 Max Kruse (VfL Wolfsburg), 27 Kevin Volland (1899 Hoffenheim).