Germany Should Test Full-Strength Lineup in Friendly vs. Hungary

Germany will play their second and final warm-up match before Euro 2016 on Saturday against Hungary in Schalke's Veltins Arena. Time will tell if choosing another relatively weak opponent before the tournament was the right choice, after the World Cup holders lost 3-1 to Slovakia on Sunday.

Without a true test before the first kick-off in France, a bit of uncertainty will remain regardless of the result against the Hungarians.

The preparations for the Euros have been a bumpy ride so far for Joachim Low and his team. Key players such as Mats Hummels haven't been able to train, while Lukas Podolski and Toni Kroos only joined the team this week after winning silverware with Galatasaray and Real Madrid, respectively.

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The team lost Marco Reus in shocking news, a groin injury robbing the 27-year-old of another tournament after he already missed the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil with a torn ligament in his ankle. "The medical staff could not give a clear prognosis for Marco," Low said, per Sam Morshead of MailOnline. "He has massive injury problems and the medical staff was very sceptical about his ability to last through the coming weeks and such a gruelling tournament. It is a bitter decision and bitter for Marco."

Reus was largely considered a lock to start on the left wing for Germany, and his loss is notable, but Low has enough options to cover for it.

Alongside the Borussia Dortmund man, Hoffenheim's Sebastian Rudy and Bayer Leverkusen duo Julian Brandt and Karim Bellarabi got the axe on Tuesday. Of those three, Rudy was arguably the biggest surprise, seeing as he had done better at right-back or right-wing-back than Liverpool's Emre Can for the national team after the World Cup.

Their loss was the gain of three young players who few would have predicted would all make it into the final 23-man squad for the Euros: Joshua Kimmich and Julian Weigl only debuted against Slovakia but must have impressed on the training ground, while Leroy Sane also made the cut.

Low could be inclined to give the young guns another run against Hungary, but he'd do well to use the game as a dress rehearsal for the Euros: Germany should play with a full-strength lineup.

It'd be a risk to travel to France and assume that one final week of training will be enough to get the team to play at a high level. Having lost four of their last six matches, Germany aren't exactly in sync at the moment. 

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With the start of the tournament a mere 10 days away for the team at the time of writing, only Manuel Neuer, Jerome Boateng, Jonas Hector, Toni Kroos, Mesut Ozil and Thomas Muller can really be certain of their spots in the starting XI.

In defence, two positions are seemingly up for grabs. There are rumblings that Hummels could miss the first two group matches in France, per Marcus Bark of Sportschau.de (link in German). The alternatives, namely Shkodran Mustafi, Benedikt Howedes and Antonio Rudiger, have yet to prove they can play well for the national team in the heart of defence.

Schalke's Howedes would seem like the best bet due to his experience, but the 28-year-old only returned from a lengthy absence with a muscle injury late in April and played in just 19 matches this season. Even if he's fully fit, he could well be needed on the outside.

With no natural right-back in the squad, Howedes, who played at left-back in Brazil, could be Low's preferred option. He won't wow anyone with athletic displays and charging runs, but he won't make costly mistakes, either. Kimmich can play at right-back but is unproven, while Can has disappointed at that spot for Germany.

Considering the team's defensive frailties in recent matches, settling on a back line is paramount:

In midfield, Kroos would seem unlikely to play much after featuring in the UEFA Champions League final on Saturday, while team captain Bastian Schweinsteiger, out of action since March, only returned to team training on Monday.

With the Manchester United midfielder probably not much of an option for the group stage in France, Sami Khedira and Kroos are set to be Germany's two central midfielders at the start of the Euros. Against Hungary, Weigl could replace Kroos, seeing as his passing qualities come closest to those of the Madrid man.

The loss of Reus, meanwhile, opens a door in attack for Julian Draxler, Andre Schurrle or Sane.

Both Draxler and Schurrle had difficult seasons with Wolfsburg, but the former at least impressed in the Champions League and is, on paper, a good fit for Low's preferred playing style. Unlike Schurrle, the 22-year-old has formidable technique and could thus be of use against the defensive opponents Germany are going to face in the group stage.

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Twenty-five-year-old Schurrle, meanwhile, was Germany's super-sub in 2014 and has a directness to his game that should again work best against tired opponents when he comes off the bench.

Low hasn't been coy about his affection for Sane, lauding his technique, quickness and feel for space when he first called him up to the national team in November 2015, per sport magazine Kicker (link in German). However, it'd be a major surprise to see him actually start in France.

Up front, it's a two-man race for the starting spot against Ukraine, with both Mario Gomez and Mario Gotze showing good form in the loss against Slovakia. Germany are likely to start both players at some point during the Euros, with Gotze presumably a better fit for ultra-defensive opponents and Gomez, a classic No. 9, being preferred in games where Germany aren't going to have to break down an opponent as much.

With all these moving parts Low has to make decisions on in the last few days before the first kick-off in France, the friendly against Hungary has to serve as the start of the final phase of preparations: As Bark pointed out for Sportschau (link in German), Germany couldn't do any fine-tuning during the training camp in Ascona, Switzerland, and the team will have less than a full week to do that in Evian, where they'll make camp during the Euros.

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There's still cause for optimism, of course.

Germany have won all final friendlies before the first match at a tournament under Low, per this list from newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine (link in German), and then won all four opening matches of those tournaments by a combined scoreline of 11-0. The 56-year-old is one of the most experienced head coaches at the Euros and knows his team very well.

His team will be among the favourites to win in France no matter how the match against Hungary will go, but it's not a stretch to say that, as far as pre-tournament friendlies go, this one is among the most important.

Lars Pollmann is a Featured Columnist who also writes for YellowWallPod.com. You can follow him on Twitter.