Jurgen Klopp moved quickly to defuse a row he helped spark, saying his on-air suggestion that Deniz Undav might start ahead of Jamal Musiala was misread and "zero point zero meant as criticism."
Speaking on Magenta TV as a 2026 World Cup pundit, Klopp said the lineup segment with Thomas Muller was an exercise, not a verdict: "And obviously there were a few misunderstandings - we just have to clear that up. We were asked to make a line-up. We just wanted to show that there are other possibilities, which there must be," he said.
The exchange matters because Musiala is not an ordinary choice. The 24-year-old has 42 international caps and nine goals, but he arrived at the tournament off the back of a serious injury suffered during the Club World Cup in the summer of 2025. He was sidelined for a lengthy period and was limited to 24 appearances and five goals across all competitions last season — a record Klopp cited when outlining why other options exist.
Klopp tried to thread that needle live. "It has been brought to our attention that it was discussed a bit. I have been dealing with people in a leadership position for 25 years in my life. And it is important what you say, but much more important is what the person you are saying it to understands," he said, and later added: "We want the boy to get the feeling for himself again very quickly, that he trusts himself. And of course, that is not the case at the moment. He has had too few games for that."
On the same segment, Klopp suggested Stuttgart's Deniz Undav could feature in the number 10 role for Germany's opening clash against Curacao — a concrete tactical alternative that immediately sharpened the debate about who should start. Thomas Muller took part in the experimental lineup exercise, and the sight of two senior figures favouring Undav as an option prompted a swift reaction from one of German football's most outspoken former players.
Lothar Matthaus fired back publicly. "[Klopp] should know better. To play a successful World Cup, Germany needs the quality of a Musiala," he said, and added, "His comments don't exactly make Nagelsmann's job any easier." Matthaus framed the suggestion as needlessly destabilising for a squad managing a returning star.
The friction is obvious: Klopp insists he was exploring possibilities, while Matthaus read the television moment as improper and damaging. Klopp pushed back with two linked points — first that the segment was hypothetical, and second that his words were meant to protect, not punish, Musiala. "That was zero point zero meant as criticism. Who should we criticise? They haven't played yet. Neither the coach nor the team. And certainly not Musiala, whom everyone loves, ourselves included," he said.
The debate lands on two short deadlines. Germany's opener against Curacao is days away, and Julian Nagelsmann is the manager who will choose the XI. Klopp and Muller's lineup exercise has forced the question into public view: was Undav being promoted as a legitimate tactical alternative, or simply sketched as one of many possibilities during punditry? FilmoGaz's earlier coverage noted that while Klopp and Muller backed Undav in that exercise, Nagelsmann may still opt to stick with Musiala.
The selectors have the last word. Klopp’s clarification lowers the temperature but does not resolve the central issue — will Nagelsmann actually start Undav over Musiala? That choice, not the pundits’ hypothetical, will determine whether the television debate matters on the pitch.
