Pre-match: (EURO 2012 - Semi Final) Germany vs. Italy 06.28.2012 [R]

The Bayern loss surely hurt much more than this

I would rather lose to Italy than to Spain or England.

Hope Italy can win everything and save us all from the Spanish fanboys

 

Dhajj is always super depressed after every big loss, says he will never watch football again, then shows up a week after to post more.

 

Yea there's no question about it. I think Löw overtought some things and made some poor personal selections it and that just disrupted the team's usual rhythm. You put an intelligent team like Italy out there and its ripe for disaster.

 

He just said that he could have changed a thing or two in hindsight but theres nothing to worry about, young team, bright future, good tournament, just one loss, etc. The usual.

Said he wanted Kroos in there to keep an eye on Pirlo and De Rossi and started Gomez because he was motivated after the Greece game.

 

The problem with having a team with so many great players is you change things up to often because of all the talent.
Would be better to pick the best 11 and let them play throughout the tournament so they can get comfortable with each other. When I saw the starting 11 posted I was worried. I liked Podolski in 2006 but now he slows things down and against this Italian team we needed pace and wide play.
I hope Low has learned something from this, we will see if he has when we have our next game.

 

Theres nothign wrong with tweaking your tactics when appropriate but Löw just got it wrong at the end.

What we should worry about is his stubborn insistence on sticking with players that have been poor for a while now, thats what hurts the team more than anything.

 

To be clear here, I agree that Italy played well and closed a lot down and I think that the team stayed focused. That has nothing to do, however, with either pace or urgency. I'm not saying that the team could have broken down the well organized Italy side, I'm saying that I didn't notice the team really pushing hard in the middle or up top with sustained pressure.

I get patience and buildup, but our patience wasn't breaking down Italy and their counter was a constant threat. The pace suited Italy. We had our best chances when we came at them hard and fast on the flanks. We didn't do that enough or sustain it.

Part of that is tactics and part of that is attitude. I think we have a ways to go in both, but I think the attitude part is the hardest nut to crack.

 

I don't think its for a lack of trying, simply more a matter of being disorganized. You could see how panicky and desperate they were. They were doing all the chasing and constantly had to make up for misplaced paces or Italian players switching around. They weren't allowed to settle at all so it appeared as though they didn't "pressure". It was just a very immature performance.

 

Tribute to Manuel Neuer

 

I think a big reason why we are overly patient and lack the urgency up front is because we don't have players on Oezil's level up there who think sharply and always have an eye for goal.

A player like Reus is necessary to integrate into the starting eleven. Moreover Mueller has to regain his form and show he can be a goal threat again. Everything else is ideal about him already.

The question will continue to be asked about our strikers and what will we do.

Will Schuerrle mature enough to take Podolski's place and if so, then is it possible to play Reus instead of Gomez and Klose and finally give the attack the dynamism it's been hinting at?

All these are decisions Loew will have to take a look at and part of me is apprehensive about it looking back at his post-match comments.

 

Hard to believe isn't it.

 

It didn't help at all that Schweinsteiger was injured and scattering soft passes all over the field. I think that also contributed to the disorganization and the lack of pressure. Bastian usually anchors that side of the midfield and is solid on transition. He was a weak link for most of this game and a chunk of the previous one.

 

We don´t need no Xavi or Iniesta for the link up play with Khedira. Schweinsteiger is just as good but he simply is far from beeing match-fit. If he is, the work with Khedira happens to be brilliant.

 

[quote="Fussballer, post: 25955347,

.. Germany will show the world yet again how Fussball should be played.

.. Spain will be no match for us on Sunday.[/quote]

The pre-game arrogance and over confidence in this thread was truly mind boggling.

 

How do you think that looks in topics of italy, spain or portugal? Not very much better I guess. Especially Spain.

 

The arrogance here was different because there was no evidence to suggest we would actually go all the way, not with the many flaws still evident in this side. What side managed to win a major tournament with a poor defense and an imbalanced core? None. And we weren't about to change that.

I'm slightly concerned about Schweinsteiger's future. He only had one really good club season and suffered from injury and poor form since. Mentally he must be devastated after this season and the Euros so I hope he gets back to form soon and remains that way.

 

I think if you go to any other team's thread, you would have read similar posts during the entire course of tournament. You completely fail in adding anything of substance. Any fan, whose team has been sitting on a 15 win streak would quite feel the same. Now that we lost, you show your face here because you can sit and talk whatever crap you want to. I am sure before the match, you hadn't quite foreseen the result you saw yesterday.

Regardless, if you are here to talk ethos to football fans, something is fundamentally wrong with your head.

 

So after the heartbreak yesterday, I've spent the last 24 hours thinking about what went wrong. Without a doubt Low's tactics backfired, especially playing Kroos in an entirely new role.

• Low is a great tactician, but he tends to out-think himself. Rather than playing to his strengths, he alters his tactics and rosters to try and negate the oppositions strengths. Let's be honest.... Our attacking A line-up is simply better than Italy's starting 11 (Our A side beats their A side). Jogi simply tried to overcomplicate things..... and it cost us.

Player of the tournament for me: Sami Khedira. He was composed on both ends of the field, and had incredible industry!

Changes required going forward:

1. Replace some of the old guard. Let's not entirely over-react and simply ditch the likes of Poldi entirely (if he remains in decent form with Arsenal) - however he should no longer be a starter. He would be a decent weapon off the bench, but Gotze and Reus (Schurle, etc), need to find their way into the starting 11.
2. Replace Lahm as captain with Neuer. Let's be honest, being a captain is not about tactics but is simply about fortitude and heart. Lahm seems to be to timid, and I believe has lost some respect with his comments over the past 12 months. Neuer on the other hand has proven he is a beast, and plays with heart. We need a type A personality (ala Kahn).
3. Build this team around a strong diamond attacking midfield. This isn't really a change.... it's simply re-enforcing what's already there, and sticking to it.
4. I'm beating a dead horse here as everyone has mentioned this, but we need to find a solid striker..... Gomez just doesn't fit the German system very well. With that said.... if you surround him with 3 of Gotze/Reus/Ozil/Mueller, he plays much better. He's not a strong solitary player and cannot create on his own.

 

Well, I guess winning the "Group of Death" and playing pretty much good overall was enough. It was enough for me personally to believe that we are able to beat Italy, but It wasn´t. Well, that´s just how life goes sometimes.

Im with you in terms of Schweinsteiger. It´s time for him to show the world what he is about and show, that he can recover from this season. Both physically and mentally. If he can´t - then he simply doesn´t belong to those Elite Players.

 

I think this loss to Italy is on the Bayern Players(And Loew Ofcourse)!!!...Like Eiss said,We havent won ANYTHING for the last 2 years and the 'Oh so Near' Misses have crippled us when Under Pressure...Schweini and Lahm need to Boss Games against the Biggies in World Football on a consistent basis rather than the odd showing....Wilting when the going gets Tough and not having the Stomach for the Fight is a focking criminal sin when your a Professional Footballer.

Muller's Reaction at the Final Whistle said it All...He looked like he lost his Family in a Car accident..He was Gutted and not starting him was a Colossal error by Loew.

Gimme the Neuer's and Muller's ANYDAY over the Schweini's and the Lahm's!!!!

 

Wrong. I bet money on Italy to win in 90 minutes....at 4/1 A competent team in a "two horse" race at 4/1 against a team that had failed to beat them in 7 previous tournament attempts ? seemed like a total no-brainer to me, and so it proved.

 

Well, Im no THE biggest fan of Lahm as Captain, but how to blame this on him? I don´t think it´s his fault at all. Besides: Im not sure how much fuzz inside the team it´ll blow up if Jogi calls up another Captain just like this. Personally, I would´ve called up Schweini as new Captain two Years ago and I think this would´ve boosted him as I feel Schweini has already a much bigger standing inside the Team then Lahm does.

 

Yea he was dreadful. The worst I've seen from him in years. They can say he was fit all they want but it was obvious that that wasn't the case. Schweinsteiger either convinced them that he was because he wanted to play or they allowed him to play and it blew up in their faces. I'd rather not have him out there if he isn't 100%. He was the biggest liability simply because he is such an important player to the team.

 

You all can make all the conclusions you want, but winning is much more complicated than just replacing the captain and all that. What you see on the screen is always 25-30% of the real picture. You just can't evaluate everything by yourself and definitely say that this has to be done and that has to be done.

Using Kroos as a starter was a gamble which could have gone either way. People in the start were speculating that as using Kroos against Real Madrid was effective in overpowering the midfield, and this could go our way too in this game. I admit playing Podolski was stupid but as a coach if a player has shown scored so many goals at a very good rate, regardless of what opposition it was against, you have to show some trust in that player. And no other player comes even close to his record. And the fact that he just scored against Denmark made it even horrible for him to bench Podolski. As a coach you have to think of a lot of things, and there are a lot of situations involved and have to think what would be best for the team overall.

Now in the end, using Kroos backfired because we simply abandoned our strength, it came as a late painful lesson but I wonder how many would have predicted it?
You can't have the best of both worlds so easily (attacking flair and results), and to be able to close to the level Spain is on now, it takes time for setting up. We certainly don't have that much experience with the same core of players but we do have a established core now which we can rely on Jogi has to understand to develop this team around a central philosophy and principles more than going the Bayern way and letting the talents of players mix in a blender on the field and orgasming out about a "Surprise Me" recipe and result.