Stand up Maximilian Mittelstadt, the German left-back at the 2024 European Championship.
Wearing the new pink-purple number described as “a Barbie kit” by German tabloid Bild but which perhaps looks more like a packet of grapes and strawberries from Nerds, the 27-year-old successfully completed the second part of his hearing while flying. colors in Frankfurt last night, despite some oscillations.
“A very good player; very ambitious, a lot of power, and on top of that, a top guy (whose presence) does us a lot of good,” said German coach Julian Nagelsmann, praising the Stuttgart defender after his beautifully struck equalizer and his performance decent in the 2-1 friendly victory against the Netherlands.
In his first two international matches last week, Mittelstadt did enough to tackle one of the Nationalmannschaft’s lingering problems for this summer’s competition on home soil.
Nagelsmann knew that playing the debutant in those two key friendlies, against France and then the Netherlands, could have exposed him to plenty of criticism.
“Everyone said: ‘He’s never played for Germany, maybe it’s too early,'” Nagelsmann recalled on Tuesday. To answer these doubts, the coach told journalists last week that Mittelstadt was “statistically the best left-back in the Bundesliga, by a certain margin, at the moment and one of the four best left-backs in the world.” .
His offensive and defensive performances have indeed been extremely impressive for Stuttgart under coach Sebastian Hoeness this season, but no one could have anticipated such rapid improvement 12 months ago.
After Hertha Berlin, the club he had been with since the age of 15, was relegated from the Bundesliga last season, Stuttgart triggered his modest €500,000 ($541,000; £429,000) release clause. . Mittelstadt was then considered a solid and versatile professional, but also as a player who unfortunately shared the same fate as his club: a lot of promise but who never lived up to his potential. In 2018-19, he received so many insulting messages on social media from disgruntled Hertha fans that he deactivated his accounts for an entire year.
Mittelstadt’s form improved immediately after moving south. His resolute defending and effective wing play have played a big role in Stuttgart now sitting third in the table, a year after surviving the relegation play-offs. “We didn’t expect him to play this well,” Hoeness said. Athleticism recently. “It was really crazy.”
As you can see from his smarterscout profile above, Mittelstadt’s profile shows a left back who is just as aggressive towards the front as he is when defending his own goal.
No Stuttgart player has delivered more crosses into the opposition’s penalty area than him this season, as he will frequently look to advance the ball into dangerous areas (ball progression xG, 78 out of 99). However, Mittelstadt will not just waste a long ball forward (progressive passes, seven out of 99), but will frequently look to advance the play by running in a targeted manner with the ball at his feet (volume of carry and dribbling, 77 of 99) – seemingly doing so with impressive possession protection (ball retention ability, 82 of 99).
Out of possession, Mittelstadt’s busy profile is reflected in the frequency with which he sets foot (opponent disruptions, 81 out of 99) and reads the game by blocking passes (ball recoveries and interceptions, 98 out of 99). When you have a full-back who displays such ability in both directions, you can understand why Nagelsmann was quick to praise the Stuttgart man.
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Nagelsmann’s bold decision to destroy the old order and complement the return of Toni Kroos with “dynamic” players from Stuttgart and Bayer Leverkusen allowed Mittelstadt to earn a place in the national team.
Kroos was delighted with the left-back’s “maturity” in his first-ever international match against France in Germany’s 2-0 win at Lyon on Saturday, and Nagelsmann also said he was happy with the attitude of the player last night after his lost pass – and a double error. by him and Jonathan Tah on the soapy pitch – had led to Joey Veerman’s opening volley just four minutes from time.
“He makes a mistake, scores a goal and has another great game – that’s exactly the reaction I wanted to see,” Nagelsmann said.
“An unfortunate situation,” is how Mittelstadt described the series of calamitous events that led to Veerman’s goal. “Maybe in the past things would have happened differently at this time. It could have hurt my game more. But over the past few weeks, I gained so much confidence that it was easy to shake off that bad moment.
“The boys also made it easier for me by being so welcoming. I was happy to have been able to get the team back on track (with the goal, seven minutes later).
It is precisely this resilience, not to mention Mittelstadt’s endearing humility and positivity, that has been missing from the German game for too long.
Mittelstadt’s inexperience at this level – three Europa League matches for Hertha against Ukraine’s Zorya Luhansk, Athletic Bilbao of Spain and Sweden’s Ostersunds at the end of 2017 were the extent of his football against international competition before this week – has, however, manifested itself on several occasions.
Frenchman Ousmane Dembélé caused him a lot of problems, just like Memphis Depay last night at Deutsche Bank Park. He will have to learn to deal with this level of opposition in Stuttgart’s final high-profile matches against Borussia Dortmund (April 6), champions-elect Leverkusen (April 27) and Bayern Munich (May 4) before the national team meets again. of the euro.
Mittelstadt will then have to sing a song for his initiation, because there is no time for that yet. But after his debut at the weekend, he said he gave a little impromptu speech in the locker room “thanking the boys, the staff and the coaching team for their excellent welcome. I am very proud and happy to be here.”
The feeling is clearly mutual.
(Top photo: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)