[Snakeater]

Player selection and Team tactics

First, let me say that I’ve opened this new thread because I want to engage in an intelligent, analytical discussion on team tactics and player selection. “Huth sucks” or “Klinsmann’s an idiot” posts are simplistic and boring, and they can be stuck on the “The First Friendly of the Year” thread.

Now, now let's get serious and engage in some real discussion and analysis.

I believe that Klinsi’s offensive-minded approach is based on the fact that he prefers to play attractive football more than resort to the conservative “defensive bunker” approach. Furthermore, he long ago realized that this team’s glaring weakness is at the back. And like they always say, “the best defense is a good offence.” Hence, the attack, offensive-oriented football we see.

We’ve seen throughout the last year that there are some benefits but also flaws in Klinsi’s game plan. First, one poster points out that Klinsi likes to move the back four up and expects the two wide backs, Lahm and Friederich, to attack. This exposes the two center-backs to counter attacks and leaves a lot of open space behind them. (Now, if Klinsi had two CBs like Lucio and Nesta, it’d be a lot easier to throw caution to the wind and expect the two outside-backs to constantly attack.) Speedy, skilled strikers are going to find it easy to get around the likes of Mertesacker, Huth, and Woerns who don’t cover a lot of ground quickly.

Lahm can play Klinsi’s game but I’m not sure that Friederich can. Lahm is fast, can attack, and he’s not too shabby defensively. A lot of people on this site think that Friederich is some kind of defensive God; personally, I’ve never really been a big fan. He can’t attack for beans, and his defensive abilities can only be described as “sound”. I don’t think that Friederich should be considered an automatic starter by any means, especially if there are younger players on the squad who can attack and defend better.

One poster mentioned the Italians couldn’t get by Lahm. I think that’s because he’s so effective in attack, he puts a little fear into opposing players on his side of the pitch, possibly making them hesitant to attack down his wing for fear of a counter. That, or he’ s a lot better one-on-one than people give him credit for. On the other hand, if you’re defending against Friederich, you know there’s no way he’s getting by you. It’s just another reason for the opposition to attack down his flank because they have nothing to fear in the way of a purposeful counter attack from him.

If Klinsi really wants to throw caution to the wind, he should replace Friederich with Lahm, and Lahm with Jansen. Then he’d have two backs who can really attack. Or he could replace Friederich with Schweinsteiger; Magath has used Schweini in the back, and, apparently, he hasn’t been too bad when he’s played there.

Of course, then there’s the matter of CB. What to do here? First, we know that Klinsi likes to push the back four up, which means that, at the very least, one of his two CBs has to be real fast because there’s a hell of a lot of room behind them. Now Metz has got pace but he isn’t playing at the moment. I haven’t seen Sinkiewicz play so I’ve got no idea how quick he is or how well he can tackle. Huth, Merte, and Woerns are all too slow. Is Kehl the answer?

The obvious answer to the previous question is that there isn’t one. Essentially, Klinsi has no world class CBs he can call on to get the job done. What has to happen, as a few posters point out, is a change in formation—perhaps, moving to a solid back three.

Then the question becomes who does Klinsi put in a back three, if that becomes an option. Not Lahm, Jansen, and Schweini, two of whom would be wing-backs. Two of the three CBs need to be able to tackle and need to be freakin’ fast. Fathi—Mertesacker—Metzelder;Metzelder—Mertesacker—Friederich;Fathi—Metzelder—Friederich; Metzelder—Kehl—Friederich. The options are endless.

One thing is certain, blaming all our current defensive woes on Huth makes him a mere scapegoat and fails to address our defensive failings from a holistic point of view. As much as I think he’s a liability and shouldn’t be a starter come WC time, there are other lame ducks back there: Friederich, Mertesacker, and Woerns among them.

Let’s consider the look of a possible starting back 3. Metzelder is pretty quick but I don’t think he’s steady enough to be able to take play a sweeper position. He’d be best suited as our Left-defensive back in 3-5-2. That’s where he played against Brazil in 2002. Friederich’s only strength is his defence, he might be a suitable option at Right-defensive back in a like formation. He also defends better in a more compact defense positioned closer to the goal. The sweeper position is the toughest call to make. (If Kehl can bring to that position what Ramelow did in 2002, then I’d say go for it. Hey, If Ramelow can bring to that position what he brought in 2002, then I’d say, coax him out of retirement.) I just don’t see how any of the other defenders could really make that position work. Woern’s positioning, timing, and tackling is strong; a compact back 3 would play into his hands and mitigate his one glaring weakness—his slow speed. In other words, maybe we go into the World Cup with a back line of Metzelder-Woerns-Friederich.

…Isn’t it ironic that the position we were strongest at in 2002 is now our Achilles heal. I recently watched a tape of the Germany-Brazil final and found the performance of the back three to have been exceptional. Linke and Ramelow were awesome that day, nothing and no one got by them. Metzelder was a little shaky but his defensive failings were less obvious because he was partnered with the other two and, of course, Jeremies and Hamann played as defensive midfielders in front of the back three.

To think that Klinsmann won’t learn from this blow-out is to underestimate his intelligence. We’ll see some kind of change, and it will be for the better.

The Snake has slithered.

P.S. Excuse spelling and other mistakes, just kind of flew through this post.

[Mehr]

Great post.

I slight disagree about Friedrich..I think he is pretty decent in attack and has pace, especially for being 6'1 or so. Remember the penalty he earned against Australia, he took 2-3 guys including one through the legs. Problem is he is in poor form right now and his confidence cant be great playing for a crappy Hertha Berlin side. Personally I always thought he was better fitted to the cb role but that just never happened. Until he gets his form back, I would opt for lahm or owoymomela, frings at rb.

Anyhow, I agree that a 3-5-2 is what we need but you are forgetting one important player that Klinsmann has also overlooked. This is Fahrenhorst of Bremen. He is a starter in the Champions league and in great form. How can Klinsmann possibly ignore him for Huth who players 5-10 minutes a week? It makes no sense. Champions league starter or Bench Warmer, wow, tough decision.

My formation would be something like this....

-----------------------------Kahn
---------------Fahrenhorst---Kehl----Metzelder
---------------------Hamann--?Ernst?
--Frings------------------------------------------Lahm
---------------------Ballack
------------------Klose-------Podolski

If 4-4-2...

----------------------------Kahn
Lahm--------------Fahrenhorst---Metzelder-----Jansen
Frings--------------Ballack-------Kehl----------Schweini(or Borowski)
--------------------Klose-------Podolski

I would replace Frings with Deisler if he gets in form.

I would also call up Odonkor, Kiessling, Trochowski, possibly Manuel Friedrich.

The idea of Frings as a defensive midfielder behind an already shaky defense is just idiotic of Klinsmann. Frings is an attacker,not a destroyer. Kehl, Hamann or even Baumann are better suited for this.

[Snakeater]

Great reply. You're totally right. I completely forgot about Fahrenhorst, probably because he's been out of the National team picture for so long. I haven't been able to see much of him, so I couldn't accurately assess his abilities.

This might seem like a stupid question but I imagine that Klinsmann gets to see the Champions League games and the more important Bundesliga matches back in California via satelite TV, doesn't he? Fahrenhorst is going to play against Juventus once more and, hopefully, he'll make a real impression on Klinsmann.

How did he play last week against Juve? And what you describe as his strenghts and weaknesses?

Mehr, your lineups look good.

If I were Klinsi, here's what I might go with:

-------------------------Kahn/Lehmann
--------------Friederich-----Woerns-----Metzelder
---Schweinsteiger----------------------------------------Lahm
--------------Deisler/Frings---------Borowski/Frings---------
----------------------------Ballack--------------------------------
----------------------Klose---------Podolski


Up front, you've got Ballack, Klose and company; It's as good as you're goin' get. We're not going to lose this championship because of the goalkeepers--Kahn and Lehmann are both fine. Klinsi wants speed, we'll give him lots of speed and skill on the wings with Lahm and schweinsteiger. In the middle of the park, I'd go with two of the three who are performing best--Deisler, Borowski, and Frings. And then there's the backline, and, well, you might as well throw darts to decide who plays there and where.

Boy, do I ever miss Linke. He was so solid for us during the last World Cup. What a shame that we don't have at least one player like him.

The Snake,

P.S. Balla Basti had a great post on the Italy-Germany game, and I borrowed some of my ideas from him.

[Wotan]

I had posted on another thread. Re: The strikers---Gosh, it's sad--that the great "German striker" has disappeared. That being said---does anyone agree with me on Klinsi & his "love affair" with Asamoah. What does Klinsi see in this guy? He's done nothing in Bundeliga play & looked bad against Italy--I don't think he belongs on the team. My strikers would be--Podolski-Klose (starters)----Hanke- Neuville & Kiessling. I hope to hear some response to this. Thanks--Wotan

[Herr Wolf]

Originally Posted by Wotan

I had posted on another thread. Re: The strikers---Gosh, it's sad--that the great "German striker" has disappeared. That being said---does anyone agree with me on Klinsi & his "love affair" with Asamoah. What does Klinsi see in this guy? He's done nothing in Bundeliga play & looked bad against Italy--I don't think he belongs on the team. My strikers would be--Podolski-Klose (starters)----Hanke- Neuville & Kiessling. I hope to hear some response to this. Thanks--Wotan

It's obvious that Germany's best stikers are Poldi and Klose your right they should start. I would love to see Neuville back in the squad, he was a hero for us in 2002. Kiessling I also like a great deal I first saw him play for the Under 21's against England an thought he was exceptional. He's also moving to Bayer Leverkusen so I might be a little biased. Asamoah I do not like at all, he should have played for Ghana, he's not good enough fo the National Team

[The Old Lady Hertha]

Asamoah gives us an option that we do not use well enough...that of a truly powerful striker. Klose is fairly powerful, but Asamoah is quite a beast in there. I think if we used him correctly (i.e. let him use his pace to run down through balls or something like that), he could do somethings. However, the way we play is not condusive to this tactic and Asamoah is thus useless.

[Jaison]

Asamoah I think is a good player to have coming off the bench. He's an "energy" player and adds a physical presence, as TOLH was saying.

[JeffS]

I agree completely with the 3-5-2 formation, and I would put two defensive mids in front of them.

I would go with:

Friedrich Metzelderder Farenhorst

Frings Kehl Hamann Lahm

Ballack

Klose Poldolski

I would also consider Nowotny, who is now healty and in good form, along with Huth and Mertesacker, in the back.

Baumann is another good option for defensive mid

Borowski is great for the left wing.

Hanke has been looking good recently.

[The Old Lady Hertha]

I would actually seriously consider Nowotny too...I think that he has recovered quite nicely since his injuries and legal wranglings. If he does well for us, I don't see any reason why he can't play in die Nationalmannschaft.

[Wotan]

I like both Nowotny & Fahrenhorst. Both are in form. Hopefully, Klinsi will see this.