The individual strengths and weaknesses of Germany's national players?

I'm curious how you assess the various national players' (and prospective ones') skills (pace, off-the-ball, etcetc). Anyone wanna offer his insights?

Ok, I'll start;





Christian Lell.

Let me have a go

Per Mertesacker

Positives:
Clean tackler. Wins the ball in most duels and doesn't concede free kicks.
Strong aerially
Good positioning sense and intercepts passes anticipating the situation quite well
Veteran at an early age. Lots of time for improvement

Negatives:
Too slow.
As of late he's been playing half heartedly. At least he was yesterday
Shorter guys with a low centre of gravity can get the better of him very easily
Doesn't play the offside trap too well

I'll offer the negatives, others can focus on the positives. I'll focus from the biggest issues to the smaller ones by turn.

Mertesacker - I wouldn't even have him as #1 CB off the bench, my rating for him drastically lowers every single year. I'm fine with the fact that he's incredibly slow, but he has to make up for it with positioning. The truth is he doesn't and it's a total myth that he's great "positionally", I think he's awful there as well as he gets caught out of position many times & has random brain farts throughout games. Bremen are seeing this season that their best defender by far is Naldo, he went missing for most of the season and their crap defense completely self-destructed. For someone who has pace to have problems and not notice runs unlike others, he can't make up for it with speed. He's a clean tackler and a great ariel defensve option, however he is just blatantly bad for years now. Even in the World Cup, he was awful in the group stages.. had 2 very good games in 2 matches we completely dominated vs England & Argentina and average vs Spain. I say average because while he did his defensive duties, his along with Freidrich's passing was awful and one of the reasons the team couldn't build up too many attacks.

Aogo - This player shouldn't be in the team whatsoever. I have not an ounce of focking clue what Loew sees in him. Just blatantly awful positioning and unlike Merte he hasn't been in the team for years.. he should just be kicked out asap.

Khedira - Good player.. that is the problem. There is nothing great about him bar his pace. He is a great example of someone who has benefitted from the new youth system in Germany, he fits the one touch system and knows it by heart since he was raised by it, he just doesn't have the talent to utilize it best. In games we struggle, I never think of Khedira to be the one to help Germany.. actually that's where he plays the great Houdini act and dissapears. Great squad player, not good enough to start.

Potentially Klose - He's great and does everything however he looked last match out of gas, which is frankly embarrassing considering he hasn't even played for 3 months. We already have Podolski who doesn't run and pressure teams as much as he should, the striker needs to do this. Anyways I say potential because he might still be option #1 in 2012, though it's a bit debatable now definitely.

Too much experimenting - Loew I think needs to get a basic XI now and bar few examples, needs to focus on that team. Too much shuffling around, players need more chemistry together. I can imagine in 12 if the team doesn't win, the excuse of they're still growing etc etc.. That's a bunch of crap, the team is ready now and needs to get refined. Bar Hummels and anyone but Aogo right now in the starting XI, I don't see a change. If others are so good, let them prove it in the little minutes they have or show up in the Bundesliga for more than half a season/ full year. Even though we all know that as soon as someone has a great few weeks/months, the Kirsten disease spreads in here like wildfire and they are the next legends.

Too much experimenting? It is obvious Loew has his starting 11 bar the LB position. It is also obvious that he has mixed feelings on who the two CB should be. That is totally normal. I do not mind having Loew explore all the best options to make sure we have great depth on the bench.

There are many players that deserves the call up to Germany to see how they may perform, and if it gives Germany a better Plan B when we need to keep a lead or are behind, I'm all for finding additional firepower.

We are a year and a half from the Euro's. If Loew wants to experiment, now is the time.

Merte too slow? Pssh... You guys have no idea what you're talking about

Proof Herehttp://www.fifa.com/worldcup/archive/southafrica2010/statistics/players/distanceandspeed.html

He's as fast as Wayne Rooney and faster than Cristiano Ronaldo!

I might have misread but that says, "Distance Covered" not "Speed".

sort by the TS (Top Speed) column, and youll see Merte alongside Wayne Rooney at 28.35 km/h and above Ronaldo at 28.31 km/h...

Flashsacker

Wow...Go Merte!!!!

Also known as...







or...

Flashsacker

Interesting find. Lays to rest the theory that Merte can't move fast.

Among CBs, Merte was the second 'fastest' during the last WC. Only Mensah was better. But hey, this is top speed. Merte can have a top speed while having a very low/medium average speed. Zambrotta, whom I thought was the sluggishness personified (in WC 2010) has a better 'top speed' than Merte.

Lets just say that logically speaking, if Merte had to reach his top speed, it would be easier to do that without the ball at his feet than with the ball at his feet. High chances are that he was chasing/ back tracking to tackle/mark an opposing forward. Of all of Germany's opponents only Bret Holman, Wayne Rooney, Kevin Prince, Asamoah Gyan and Messi have higher top speeds. Something doesn't seem right.

Edit: ^^^^ Nevermind the last para.

I agree with the first paragraph. Loew is still sorting that back end, but Eq touched on this as well. As for the rest, I am on the conservative side. We need players who are at their best right now, and we need them to get to know each other. Just look at the chemistry the Spanish have built up, it really is quite incredible.

Out of curiosity, who would you have start over Khedira?

Spain is also introducing younger talent as well.

At the world cup Merte was exceptionally sound, he made mistakes - but so does any defender. He is exceptional in the air and very powerful. Not to mention, he was a brick whenever argentina sought to go on the attack. His passing is not exceptional, but then again even Ferdinand or Terry makes mistakes (and much harsher ones at that).

I am not sure if kicked out is the right word here, Germany have yet to find a reliable fullback like Lahm. Aogo is not the best option, and the fact that he does play left back is worrying to say the least, he is not a good offensive option and his position on the left is quite worrying sometimes.

Actually, defensively he is terrific which is why Madrid spent all that money on him.

Ok, let's do this for our potential CB options.

Badstuber
Hummels
Boateng
Höwedes
Friedrich
Mertesacker
Toprak (just because )

How would you rate each of them in these categories with the kicker rating system:

* build-up play
* postitioning
* headers
* one-on-one duels
* quickness
* ability to read the game
* mobility

After the comments about how Hummels need to keep the ball low and not play high balls to the front all the time I think we might need Özil-like videos that show every single touch he has in a game as well.

We often only see what we want to see. We make players we don't like worse than they are and vice-versa.

Damn, girl...I was so going to suggest that!!!

I think Hummels took one look around him and thought "Damn, who is this guy playing next to Sven today, I better hit it long for our towering targetmen like Mario to control, because, after all that must be the reason Herr Loew played them, right? Anyway, there's a first time for everything I suppose, I hope I just get this shot over the halfway line..."

and so is Brett Holman and Frank Lampard...yeah I'm not buying this FIFA load of crazy.

Friedrich was by far the best defender at the WC.

I liked the Laudrup move he did during the England (or argentina?) game bringing the ball up from the penalty box...