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Central defenders: Shkodran Mustafi and Benedikt Höwedes
The two central defenders featuring in this list are both World Cup winners! This shows that Low emphasizes performance and form.
Mustafi was also part of the Confederations Cup winning squad in 2017 but the Arsenal man had a torrid season. In fact, he was one of the worst defenders in the league this season. The 26-year-old was on his way to Inter Milan at the start of the season with Arsenal happy to let him go initially before making a U-turn and keeping him. Fair to say that both parties didn’t benefit from that.
As for Howedes, the former Schalke captain finally left his boyhood club, albeit on loan, but the injury problems that plagued him for years followed him to Turin. He had five different injuries during the course of the season and featured in only three games for Juventus all season. No surprise that he was left out of the World Cup squad.
