Team News Discussion Thread Vol. IX

Those Kicker rankings are horrible. They've turned it into a popularity contest and are now just ranking players based on their public perception. Do they even watch the games? Of course, when the average reader looks at the list, he will see that the Beckenbauer doppelganger Matts Hummels is obviously ranked as one of 2 international class CBs and that that the dude who allowed the Drogba goal in the CL Final last season will obviously not be ranked that highly. How Howedes and Wollscheid are ranked above Ginter and Svensson I will never know. How Howedes is ranked above his own teammate, Papadopoulos, just goes to show their bias for certain German player. I feel bad for Boateng because he is a proactive center back who will go head to head with opposition players and even then will win most of his challenges. But because he is young, his style of defending will lend to some mistakes and even though he's cut back on them the media will do him no favors and jump on his ass every time he makes them.

Wollscheid has been terrific, as has Howedes. Me thinks Low should finally think of the Howedes-Hummels partnership because for some reason, he won't use Howedes as a fullback.

And because chances are Badstuber is missing on a lot of key development.

Im not directly disagreeing with the Top-3, but what the heck is it with Boateng and the Media? The dude was a brick wall together with Dante, easily his best season so far and yet he´s ranked 10th...daFuq? Top-3 runner up for me.

One good thing I like about howedes he really likes to go forward at the right moments...

The little times loew put him out there. He would be the little sparks sometimes or the one with balls to bill charge forward...

I really like him to be starter or 3rd choice by 2014..

But Howedes rarely play as a CB for his club. So how would he play 90% of his football in a yr as a RB and switch to CB for the few NT games? Until he can displace Papadopoulous, Matip etc from the CB position he might not get a shot at the CB for NT

he doesnt play cb at schalke? i thought he did...

hmmm i did not know this.

Those look like accurate ratings.

Strikers do out soon?

you mean midfield? my german is no good but i am assuming offensiv means strikers?

Makes me wonder, though, who Kicker would qualify as a World Class outside defender and what they do differently from Lahm to earn that distinction.

Agree that there's a clear difference in quality. My question was more whether Kicker would rate *anyone* currently playing outside defender as World Class.

If there is no one, then we might consider why that is the case. If there is someone else, then where does Lahm fall short?

Hate to think he's chasing his own ghost on this.

I am sorry but Lahm is world class... Period...

Everyone has lesser seasons and greater seasons... Don't stop them from being world class status.

To say Lahm is not world class is...

Those kicker ratings are not about the question whether or not someone is in general world class, the kicker would definitely rate Lahm as world class FB overall but those rankings are just there to rate the _performances_ of each half season.

Oh please... it's always easier for offensive players to shine but while Lahm performed very well last year in the big games (vs Dortmund one of the few reliable players, vs Real, Chelsea etc.) and did his job, Ribery has the tendency to disappear in such games (again also not effective this season vs BVB...).
So Lahm has definitely played at an even higher level when you only look at the performances based on the position. There aren't even a handful of FBs with his quality while it's a totaly different story on the wings.
I think the kicker is simply too harsh to players in certain (defensive) positions and that's why more offensive players get a "world class" rating for their performances much easier, just compare the number of offensive players with such a rating vs those of defensive players.

"Im welteren Kreis" and "Blickfeld" what do those words mean? I see Alaba and Badstuber under those categories.

'ausenbahn offensive' equates to wide offensive, so primarily wingers, wide midfielders, and wide forwards.

Presumably there will be another rating for strikers.

Im weiteren Kreis = In the greater circle, basically the class players not considered world or international class.

Blickfeld = roughly "players to watch", meaning they have shown signs of class during the season but not consistently enough to garner a higher rating

Marcel schmelzer? Thats the defender they chose? Woah. Shows how much talent there is in our league when it comes to fullbacks.

I am also noticing how hummels/subotic didn't even make it? dante? something im missing here?