Bayern forward Thomas Mueller believes Germany are better equipped now than they were four years ago when they won the 2014 world cup.
Captain Phillip Lahm record goalscorer Miroslav Klose and defender Per Mertesacker retired from international football after the 2014 finals, with Bastian Schwensteiger and Podolski following suit in 2016 and 2017 respectively, but nine members of the triumphant ensemble will travel to Russia – Müller included.
Low’s squad also boasts 13 members of the team that won the Confederations Cup in 2017.
“If you look at the squad, the way we’re training and consider the fact that we have two first-team players for almost every position, then things are looking very positive indeed,” Müller said at Germany’s media day on Wednesday. “We also have several Confederations Cup winners in the squad. Individually, we’re certainly better than we were. We’ll see what happens, but we all want to leave as winners.”