IMAGO / STEINSIEK.CH Jonas Rütten | Mar 28, 2026 05:20 +06:00 | Translated by GOAL.com "The hobby of psychologists who aren't in office!" Julian Nagelsmann defends surprising transfer decision Friendlies: Switzerland vs Germany Switzerland | Germany | J. Nagelsmann | N. Woltemade | D. Undav In place of the in-form Deniz Undav, Nick Woltemade was given another chance to prove himself against Switzerland. For the national coach, it was a decision based on intuition and psychology. Julian Nagelsmann has vehemently defended his somewhat surprising decision to bring on Nick Woltemade, who has been out of form, in place of Deniz Undav during the German national team’s thrilling 4-3 victory, speaking to RTL. DFB ratings: Wirtz in a league of his own – Rüdiger is already rubbing his hands with glee Why did he bring on Woltemade in the 63rd minute to replace Kai Havertz, rather than Undav, who is currently in top form? Well: firstly, it had been “a really intense match” in which Undav hadn’t necessarily been able to showcase his “many qualities, especially when he has the ball himself”. Secondly, however – and this was clearly the more decisive factor – Nagelsmann quite obviously wanted to boost the England-based player’s dented confidence with a bit of playing time in the DFB team. Woltemade is going through a difficult spell at Newcastle United following a dream start with four goals from his first five league games; he often has to play much deeper and cannot fulfil his preferred role as a central striker. Nagelsmann had already criticised this at a press conference and could not resist a dig at fellow manager Eddie Howe in this regard. “I can promise that he won’t be 80 metres away from goal with us,” Nagelsmann had said, and on Friday evening he also highlighted Woltemade’s impressive goalscoring record for the national team (4 goals in 9 games). Getty Images Sport Undav or Woltemade? Nagelsmann’s attack on the psychologists who will say “the opposite” "Nick has a great record with us and isn’t having an easy time of it at Newcastle right now. Now I’ve got a choice: do I continue to boost the confidence of a top striker who’s in really good form, or drop another top striker who isn’t quite in such good form at the moment? We could always ask a few psychologists what they think about that," said Nagelsmann, defending his decision before taking a dig at those very psychologists. They would "probably say the opposite of what I do": "It’s the hobby of psychologists who aren’t in the job to always claim the opposite of what all managers say." With an eye on the World Cup this summer, Nagelsmann also made clear the significance the 1.98-metre-tall, technically gifted lanky player could still hold. “I’d say it’s advisable for Nick Woltemade to get back on track with us. Things aren’t going well at Newcastle and Deniz is on a run anyway. Whether he would have played today or not, it won’t change his confidence for this week.” Getty Images Sport Is Undav in top form at VfB Stuttgart – but has no chance of making the Germany squad? Unlike in the case of Woltemade and Newcastle, at VfB Stuttgart everything Undav touches is currently turning to gold, almost automatically. The 29-year-old is already enjoying the best season of his career and has currently scored 23 goals and provided 13 assists in 38 competitive matches. Nevertheless, following Nagelsmann’s much-discussed kicker interview in early March, there had been speculation that Undav might, despite everything, not feature in the national team manager’s World Cup plans. These speculations were further fuelled by an interview with Undav shortly afterwards, in which he said that Nagelsmann did not need to call him at the moment. The national team manager immediately dismissed any rumours of a potentially strained relationship with Undav in the context of the squad selection. He said “everything is in perfect order”. The relationship would probably only be in even better order if Nagelsmann were to give Undav the well-deserved chance to prove himself further in the national team’s match against Ghana next Tuesday. However, Nagelsmann was unwilling to promise whether the VfB star might even feature in the starting line-up. “We haven’t decided that yet. We need to see how everyone comes out of the game, whether everyone is fit,” said Nagelsmann evasively. ENJOYED THIS STORY? Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting Deniz Undav and Nick Woltemade: Performance data and statistics Players | Matches | Goals | Assists Nick Woltemade | 48 | 11 | 5 Deniz Undav | 38 | 23 | 13
"The Hobby of Psychologists Outside the Office!" Julian Nagelsmann Defends Surprising Transfer Decision
