Klopp Leaves Out Undav: A Future Focus

Deniz Undav is out of Jürgen Klopp’s first Germany squad, but not out of his thoughts.

According to Bild, Klopp still firmly counts on the 30-year-old VfB Stuttgart striker and has already sat down with him in Stuttgart to talk through the future of the national team. The message from that meeting: this is not a sporting demotion. His absence is being put down purely to his current fitness.

Undav has been battling persistent Achilles tendon problems for weeks. He was forced off early in each of Stuttgart’s first two Bundesliga fixtures, and in the 2-1 defeat at TSG Hoffenheim at the weekend he only came on as a substitute. The international break is now meant to serve as a reset, a chance for him to get his body right again.

The numbers show the disruption. In the Bundesliga, Undav is still waiting for his first goal involvement of the new season. His creative touch has appeared elsewhere: he delivered two assists in the DFB Cup win over Hansa Rostock and repeated that two-assist haul in the Champions League victory against Viking Stavanger. The quality is there; the rhythm is not.

From record scorer to enforced pause

That contrast is stark when set against last season. Undav finished as the highest-scoring German striker across all competitions, hitting 25 goals and adding 14 assists for Stuttgart. He carried that form into the World Cup in North America, where, amid Germany’s overall collapse, he stood out as one of the few positive stories, making his mark as an impact substitute.

In the round-of-32 defeat to Paraguay, he finally earned a start but could not influence the game. Even so, his international record remains strong: nine goals in 13 appearances underline why Klopp is reluctant to draw any long-term conclusions from a few injury-hit weeks.

Klopp’s first squad still has a Stuttgart flavour, just a different one than many expected. Alongside Undav, World Cup teammates Angelo Stiller (25) and Jamie Leweling (25) are also absent from the list. In their place, other VfB names get their chance: Finn Jeltsch (20), Maximilian Mittelstädt (29), Josha Vagnoman (25) and Chris Führich (28) all make the cut.

Undav, then, watches this first chapter of the new era from the outside. The question is simple: once his Achilles settles and the goals return, how long can Klopp really leave Germany’s most prolific recent striker out?