Germany head coach ‘Hansi Flick’ explains Karim Adeyemi’s inclusion in German squad for the World Cup
Earlier this week, Hansi Flick released his final Die Mannschaft squad for this winter’s World Cup in Qatar. There were some notable omissions, namely Borussia Dortmund’s Mats Hummels and the usual large contingent of Bayern Munich players made the cut — seven of them to be precise. Unfortunately, Dortmund’s Marco Reus will also be missing out on the tournament due to an ankle injury, and he and Hummels are not the only talking points coming out of Gelsenkirchen.
Flick made the decision to include Dortmund’s Karim Adeyemi, who hasn’t exactly been living up to expectations for the Schwarzgelben. He has dealt with intermittent injury problems throughout the course of the season thus far, but he’s only yielded a total of 2 goals and 0 assists from 17 appearances across all competitions. He was previously courted by Bayern before he ultimately made the decision to join Dortmund from RB Salzburg, but his performances thus far have not lived up to the hype that surrounded his transfer saga.
Still, Flick wanted to bring him to Qatar as he sees him as a viable option to use. He’s made a point of integrating more youth into the team whereas Joachim Low was often criticized for sticking with too many older, veteran players, but Flick still has an important core of experienced players in the squad, too.
After announcing the squad, he justified his decision to include Adeyemi in his selection. “He’s an option not only because of his pace and his good finishing, but also his assists, which means he can give something to the team. I’m thinking for example of Dortmund’s game against Bayern. But of course we expect more from him overall,” he explained (via @iMiaSanMia).
To Flick’s credit, Adeyemi did have one of his better performances of the season in the Der Klassiker that finished 2-2 with Anthony Modeste scoring a last-gasp, stoppage time equalize to steal a point at the death. Late in the second half, there was one instance where Adeyemi showed fantastic control on the touchline and left Josip Stanisic on skates and his final ball to Modeste was fortunately mishit from Bayern’s perspective. It’s moments like that which Flick knows Adeyemi is capable of.
