Steffen Freund knows a thing or two about German football.
As well as Spurs, the former defensive midfielder plied his trade at BSG Stahl Brandenburg, Schalke 04, Borussia Dortmund and FC Kaiserslautern, as well as representing his country at Under-16, Under-17, Olympic and full international level.
Currently employed at White Hart Lane as an ‘International Technical Coordinator’, the 46-year-old was a guest on BT Sport Score to cover Saturday’s Premier League action. It wasn’t long until the conversation turned to one of his compatriots.
Liverpool fans have taken Loris Karius to their hearts since he joined in the summer, and despite a few teething problems, they see him as a major upgrade on Simon Mignolet. However, David James and Freund are more doubtful.
James was the more diplomatic of the two, suggesting that the young German hadn’t particularly improved things at Anfield as of yet.
“Unfortunately, a lot of the problems he has seem to be the same problems that Simon Mignolet has. So you have to question whether it’s the goalkeepers, or the person who is trying to make these goalkeepers better.”
Freund was a little more blunt in his assessment.
“I know him really well from Mainz. He is the sixth-best goalkeeper in Germany – so we have [Bernd] Leno, Ter Stegen, [Ralf] Fährmann at Schalke…”
As the list tailed off – we assume Manuel Neuer was a given – Mark Pougatch asked him whether he’d class Karius as top quality – or just the next level down. Freund was adamant: “I would agree with David. He is not top level.”
Such are the wealth of options in the German goalkeeping department, perhaps that’s not as big an insult as it sounds.
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