Pretty much. I think it could work wonderfully once the players figure it out, which would obviously take some time.
As good as Schweinsteiger was in 2010 (and he was good, just not world class), Frings of 2006 was clearly better. Frings had the ferocity and determination you want in a defensive midfielder, indefatigable, a cannon of a shot, and he could cross the ball. Xavi, Pirlo, Toure are all better than Schweini--past, present, and future. If Schweini's so good, then he'll lead Bayern to the Champions League title this season, pure and simple. He has the supporting cast to do it--the wingers, fullbacks, strikers, and keeper are world class. If not this season, with the team they have, you have to point the finger at Schweini's role as Bayern's midfield general, the one constant in the their midfield over the years.
Wrong. He was fit for the knockout rounds, before that (ie. against Portugal and the Netherlands) Loew said it was too risky to play Klose for a full 90 as he was not fully fit. Essentially, Klose made Loew's choice for him due to his lack of fitness. See above. He wouldn't be our best option in 2014 because he will be even more injury prone than he already is, and therefore less dependable as a viable option to lead our line. On top of that, he will continue the natural decline that all players experience with age. The 'strikerless' formation is certainly intriguing, I would like to see Loew attempt to implement it in earnest, just not with Goetze up top as his talent lies deeper in the midfield.
You cannot point at a single player, even on a class team like Bayern, and say "he'll lead them to the Champions League title this season" (if he's world class, etc). Football is a team sport and when the best meet the best, the margin of error is such that a single mistake by any player on the pitch can change the result. Chelsea last year are the perfect example to show that anything can happen in the knockout stages of the CL. It would be silly to blame one player on a team for failing to secure a championship in a single season.
We just wouldn't have a front man to pass from the wings to.. We would pretty much play like Barca do, all tic tac toe down the middle.. Right?
I don't think we'd be exactly like Barca or Spain as we'd be using the formation to accomodate extra wide players while those teams use it to fit all of the central players onto the pitch. We'd have a lot more width than them with Ozil drifting wide to link up with Reus-Schmelzer or Muller-Lahm, and because of that we'd launch more quick counterattacks rather than slowly building all of the time, and we still have some aerial threat with Khedira and the off winger running into the box. I actually think it's important that we interpret the formation a little different than them for those reasons. Thing is I don't completely believe Loew there. I think he was just trying to protect Gomez's confidence, if Jogi says Miro can't go the full 90 all throughout the group stage, people won't be clamoring for Gomez to be replaced like they may have otherwise. And as we all know with Gomez he needs to be confident to score goals. If Gomez went down in game one, I'm pretty sure Miro would've fit enough to start the rest of the way. As for his injury prone-ness, I'm not sure what that matters if he's there and healthy. If he's hurt he's hurt and we obviously can't use him, but if he's healthy he'll give us the best chance to win barring mastery of the strikerless formation in qualifying. Let's develop the 4-3-3-0, but keep Miro around in case it's not clicking come WM time or just to use him as a joker.
Well it's the same philosophy as Barcelona or Spain, period. But the difference is they can pull it off because they've built a youth system based on it. We do generally have more pace in Reus or Mueller but they have far better execution. They're just as threatening as we are in the air by the way. I honestly don't believe we're getting very far with Mario Gomez because he doesn't fit our system. But hey, I'd be happy to be proven wrong (again), it's just that based on what I've seen throughout the duration of an entire tournament, we're too sluggish and slow with him in the lineup.
Petersen has no chance of making it in the NT within the next 3-4 years. He's 23 years old, not 19 anymore. If he isn't delivering now, he probably isn't ever again. Kiessling is an above average striker at best, but since we have no striker yea sure we can call him up.
Where is this idea that Khedira offers an areal threat coming from? He has only scored 2 goals in his entire NT career and neither of them was with his head. If he is the guy we are relying on to score key goals, then we can kiss our dreams of winning a title goodbye.
He isn't a goal threat of any kind. He has never scored more than 8 goals in a season (including all club matches, internationals and friendlies). He averages 3-4 goals in total per season, so everyone please quit acting like Khedira is the second coming of Ballack.
I thought Nils Petersen is actually doing not bad, consider its his first ever Bundesliga season with regular practice. Fullkrug, Polter and Volland... At least they are playing regularly nowadays
Leon Goretzka is the second coming of Ballack. He is very good in the air. Real threat. He scored two goals(one in the semis and one in the final) with his head in Euro u17. I think his first Bochum goal was a header from a set piece too.
*shrug* Khedira doesn't need to score many goals. We just need to make sure that the opposition follow our players into wide areas and don't just cram the middle against us. For that we just need to knock down a header or two for our attackers to run onto.