Lol i actually thought Uruguay were going for it and had left a player up there, but he gave away his disguise by standing miles offside
FT 2-1 Props for winning a friendly, especially against a good side like Uruguay. Despite the poor second half, some positives to take away for Löw. Namely the performances of Schürrle and Hummels who deserve to start in the qualifiers after today. The CM partnership didn't work too well but there were many injuries and Schmelzer didn't do himself any favors.
Schmelzer simply did not impress. I still he should continue to get a few more chances. His quality is there and hopefully after a few CL matches he will become a "cool" customer for Loew. He just seems overeager.
First half was good, second half not so. But considering the many substitutions it was actually still quite good. Müller wasn't really good. Good pass on Gomez when he should have made th 3:1, but also a horrible back pass, which nearly lead to the equalizer. I think the best players were Özil and Schürrle. Neuer was not as good as usually, but still had good saves. The defense overall was average, Schmelzer probably the worst. Gomez had a good match, sadly he didn't score a second goal. Klose was quite good, but overall I think we play better with one pure striker. Podolski was not visible, the rest played only a few minutes and can't be rated.
Yea of course, his performances this season are an indicator of his talent, that's for sure. But you know how hard some players have to work to win over Löw. That said, it's great to see just how many options Löw has at his disposal. Almost spoiled for choice.
That was one of the most fun friendlies I've ever seen. Played in the best of spirits between two famous footballing nations. I loved this comment from England forum: "Agreed, they'd be even better though if they werent a bit mental. But thats Uruguayans i guess. They're famous for it." "To be fair, I think that's what makes them what they are. They never give up and have a never-say die-attitude, and I think that wins them alot of games, never mind the fact that they have so many talented footballers for such a small country too." My god. 3 million. I just found out that 95% of their talent comes from Montevideo. So that's 1 million people that produce this kind of talent. Do you know what I would pay to have Scotland just MAKE IT OUT OF THE GROUP PHASE of a World cup? (We're 5 million). Uruguay have won the damn thing twice, and achieved Semi final position 5 times! What would football be without this tiny elite footballing nation? It's in their blood. I've met Brazilians who told me that "Brazil likes football. Uruguay is mental about it".
Noone will get any chances as LB in future because Lahm will most likely move back to that position so the search for a FB has to start again. Besides that I think Gomez and Schürrle proved today that our attacking game is not dependant on Klose/Podolski and this despite Müller having a bad and Özil an average game (Özil of course with a nice assist for the 2nd but he can do better overall). So if it's needed and if Löw wants to Gomez can be our striker in the NT. I also think that Kroos had a good game, the problem was that Rolfes is just the wrong kind of player to partner him. Kroos ball distribution is excellent but a player like Rolfes just can't cover for him. I'd say for the moment Kroos is a good Schweinsteiger backup and for more he will have to prove himself at Bayern. Hummels had also a good game and the chaos in the defence was obviously caused by a weak Schmelzer, Friedrich and a CM that lacked the defensive abilities. I would still like to see more of Götze in the NT but Löw seems to be kinda cautious when it comes to using Götze, again just a few minutes playing time for him while it seems that Schürrle is a new favorite of Löw and I would definitely prefer him to Podolski too.
Actually, good to remember that the Schuerrle, Gomez options don't impact the setup too drastically in the future when hopefully Klose and Podolski are no longer options. Having said that, I would really really want a different plan B, one that emphasizes interchangeability from the front four, not a striker-dependent formation.
That was hardly Lahm's fault. It was Schmelzer's fault as well and Badstuber was quite solid, but I know no one likes him here.
TBH , I wouldn't blame anyone. Goals come from unexpected scenarios all of the time. By all rights, Germany's first goal should have NEVER happened. In my mind, the game was a dead set draw, but luck went Germany's way. Still, I'm happy it was such a good game. I always enjoy seeing the big 3 in South America tackle the top European teams.
I like Schmelzer and do rate him (prefer him over Aogo) but that was just a very bad game by him. There might be reasons for it (the players he played against weren't just some scrubs) but this performances definitely didn't help. Overall it probably won't matter, Lahm will move back to the LB position and then Schmelzer is at least a decent backup while we will have to wait and see who could take the RB spot in that case. Most likely candidates are probably Boateng, Beck and maybe even Höwedes.
Depending on Boateng's role in Bayern, he is rather a candidate for the CB position. But as he's quite versatile one never knows.
That's also possible but in Löw's eyes he has already Mertesacker, Hummels, A. Friedrich, Badstuber and now even Höwedes as CB options so if noone else turns out to be a decent RB then I'm sure Löw will do it like in the past and simply play a CB there. A. Friedrich already played there in the past but I don't know if he has still the pace for that positon while Höwedes can do a decent job there but doesn't really belong on that positon so this kinda leaves just Boateng, at least for the moment. I guess we must hope that players like Beck, Riether or whoever else play a good season and become an option there or else we are back to playing CBs as RB.
Where is all this "Lahm to LB" coming from? Someone makes a comment, Bild publishes it and all of the sudden this is a sure thing?
I remember Lahm being great defensively when he was 21... How old is Schmelzer?. I'm not sure it's a good idea to neccesarily move Lahm to the left if that happens in Bayern. As far as the NT goes, it should just depend on where does the another best fullback play. Damn, I hope he's convinced by these friendlies and tries to work in another plan B.
It has to do with the Rafinha purchase, which most likely means Lahm will be switched back. And I can't see Lahm playing two different positions at the same time.