There's truth in this but Spain and Barcelona (of course) have shown recently that it's possible if you have the right personnel. Excellent ball playing defenders are a must however and at the heart of that three someone who is equally adept at playing in the back and willing to come a lot more forward like Busquets who played almost like a sweeper this season for Barca in several matches and by Del Bosque in the World Cup during matches. Hummels has that in him actually but I think the notion in Germany is far off as Loew strikes me as a traditional tactician, not a forward-thinking and adventurous one. I mean his second plan seems to be a 4-4-2 which I've still failed to wrap my mind around as we don't really have the personnel for it in many ways.
Players like Schürrle, the Benders, Reus, Götze, aren't going to fade away. They have the talent, and most importantly, the mentality, to develop properly. I don't doubt them for a second. This team has to grow together, we don't have the solution even as we speak in the first team if we're measuring against Spain. It's a process.
I'm not sure what is that (has been asked of him)...? You know I'm a huge fan of his, but if Germany has a better player (other than him) in LB than in RB, then he should play RB, independetly of what he prefers. After all, people are talking about eventually Höwedes playing CD for club and RB for country. More a change of personnel than of plan, but I like it. Might well be a better option.
Also, prodigies are always ready to step into first teams and don't need the blooding that other talents need. I feel most of the current crop are of that breed. They've all impressed instantly on the domestic stage without much prepping and it's always worth taking risks on these types on the international stage as well.
What do you make of the goal music at national team games? Aren't they drowning out a bit of the natural fan reaction? I wonder.
There is hardly any "natural fan reaction" at German NT games. Well natural these days seems to be the booing of Gomez as soon as he wastes a chance or booing of the whole team when they're not up by 3 goals at the 60 minute mark. Seriously, the kind of people that go to NT games are fundamentally different to the kind of people that go to club games. There is a much bigger sense of entitlement. They pay a lot money, they brought their Germany flags and they want their show, dammit!!!
We need more players to fill in that position, what exactly happens should gomez get injured? Our midfield looks promising with several competitors for a few positions. Strange, we don't have any other likely candidates for the CF position.
I'm not speaking about fading anyway, but that although they look promising now, their current forms (with the exception of Gotze and perhaps Bender) are not enough to warrant a spot on the team. Of course, Schuerrle did himself a huge favor this weekend by scoring and would most likely feature again - but is he at the level needed for the WC? Your point is right, and is contingent with my own. We aren't spoiled with choices the way Bosque is, we don't have another Fabregas, Pedro, Torres, Llorente, or Silva on the bench. We have prospects, players who look promising (some more than others), and I believe can be summarized into the following: 1. Benders 2. Reus 3. Kroos 4. Schuerrle 5. Howedes My hope is that by 2014, or 2012 (if we're lucky) they would have developed at the level needed to actually win a trophy. WC 2010 set the stage for where we want to be at, now is the time for serious improvement, especially in terms of a plan B.
It's the same setup just with a few players changed as you said. We don't have the quality up front for a 4-4-2 and against teams like Spain, Brazil and Netherlands would risk drowning our own midfield and have them pass the ball around us. It isn't a flexible system, what we have - since some players act as immediate substitutes for others (Schuerrle for Podolski, Reus for Muller, Gotze for Oezil (mainly)). Adding Gotze/Kroos/Reus into the lineup will give our midfield a much needed offensive spark and perhaps tap into any defensive frailties as well.
You can play Schürrle there or without any targetman but with four offensive midfielders ghost running into penalty area.
I think Schurrle can play some CF if needed. Barcelona with Messi, Pedro and Villa up top showed that u dont really need a towering targetman at CF. At CF, i doubt our tactics still require a typical #9/towering targetman anyway. We need a good finisher with decent pace, agility and ball control. Schurrle can be our Pedro. If Loew doesnt want to play him there, he should consider Thomas Muller or even call up one of Kiessling/Helmes/Kuranyi/Cacau/Schieber/Nils Petersen/Mlapa............but none of them is good enough to be honest. But these are already some of the better options if u consider Asamoah, Hanke, Schlaudraff(who's actually not bad but not a CF) n Sandro Wagner are some of the starting CFs in the BL
It looked like a light knock, not something so serious. You guys expect Klose to overtake Gerd Mueller's goal tally for Germany by the end of this calendar year?
He laid of the floor (?) for quite a while, so it did look kinda serious. How many NT games are until the end of the year?.
5 qualification matches + 3 friendlies or 5 qualification matches + 2 play-off matches + 2 friendlies in the worst case http://www.dfb.de/index.php?id=11368
Hehe. Yeah... Really a shame the national team doesn't have the same vocal support as club sides. In a way it's odd, for we love our national side. I guess it's also a matter of there not being the weekly routine of games, so it's more difficult for a vocal fan culture to establish itself. So in a way, you can't blame the DFB for blasting out "Schwarz und Weiß" at every opportunity. Anyway, the Sinsheim crowd wasn't as disgraceful as the Lautern folks. So perhaps I should not complain and be thankful for at least that.
Well - Barcelona have a 3 man midfield, and a very able 3 man midfield. Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets have more talent in them than the entire NT together. They don't play defensively because their entire time is an offensive setup and maintains possession. Who will we play? It'll be something like -------------------Schweini------------ ----------Oezil------------Gotze-------- Muller-------------Gomez------Schuerrle This won't get us anywhere, besides Schweini and Muller none of these guys can break up play. We'll be smashed.
-------------------Khedira------------ ----Schweinsteiger----------Kroos-------- Müller-------------Schürrle-----------Özil -------------------Khedira------------ ----Schweinsteiger----------Özil-------- Götze --------------Müller---------Schürrle