If you're feeling panic take a look at this list and calm the ******** down lol. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_FIFA_World_Cup_records#Consecutive
Have you guys finally decided who Germany's 6 should be? Germany's holding midfielders (number one will surprise you). (Move your mouse to reveal the content) Germany's holding midfielders (number one will surprise you). (open) Germany's holding midfielders (number one will surprise you). (close) It's L.Bender, the highest rated player in the Bundesliga according to Kicker. I mean, the bar is set very low when even Rudy received a call-up. ATM Germany donot have a serviceable 6.
Lars Bender being so highly rated says more about Kicker ratings than it does anything that’s relevant to the NT
None of Germany's promising talents are ready. So why not put a stop-gap solution in place for Russia 2018? A sizeable chunk of Löw's call-ups have less caps than Bender, who seems to have been marooned for a while now. Bender is a serviceable 6 and seeing card suspension is a more likely prospect for players in his position it wouldn't have been the worst idea to have him in the squad.
He even chased a guy down and stole possession with a slide tackle. Kroos's defensive work is underrated.
Says you. I say Geiger was ready to style on the BuLi's best, so he's ready to style on NTs that aren't as cohesively structured as club sides. And I also say that a pair of terrible coaches bombing his season doesn't erase the past two years where Weigl has been exceptional. I see no evidence that their inexperience is somehow unique from the inexperience of countless other inexperienced players that have made names for themselves at the World Cup. Or that Bender's added experience would in any way negate what a liability he would be for the NT. As Bender most certainly isn't a serviceable 6 for the NT...hell I'm pretty sure that even for Leverkusen he played more games in defense than the midfield this season. So he's a bad idea even if we ignore how long he takes on the ball, how easy it is to press it off of him, and how crippling that is for a team that sees as much of the ball as ours does. Which would be silly when Emre Can being such a liability in possession directly lead to most of France's counters that cost us the Euros two summers ago...and Can is significantly more skilled, & a quicker thinker with the ball than Lars! So if you wanted a veteran 6 option, then Kramer & Rudy are our only other choices. Though Rudy saw only sparse PT this season, despite his fantastic season the year before. And Kramer...who's really an 8, but can deputize at the 6 if you insist with antiquated definitions of positions and refuse to accept that a deep-lying playmaker is a 6...suffered from a poor coach who would pull Gladbach back to defend deeply whenever their good play resulted in a lead. Which would invariably put them on the back foot until the opposition equalized. At which point they would scramble to rescue the result...if the cowardly Hecking wasn't content with a draw. ...I mean Kramer's season was artificially inflated by a coach who has been able to recognize that possession football is dead and that using the word balance to describe parking the bus makes it less off-putting when you try to convince people that it's a good way to do anything more than let your opponent back into a match & expose yourself to unnecessary danger...right KHR? ;-)
That's really unfortunate. Mbappe is an excellent player. The World Cup is worse off if he doesn't play in it.
Yeah, his, Dembele & Fekir(or Lemar)’s genius, was France’s best hope for overcoming their coaching to pose a major challenge to Brazil in their Bracket. Without Mbappe, Uruguay is basically the only team who should end up on that side of the bracket that I can see beating Brazil...although obviously Brazil could ******** it up against somebody else if they have a bad game at the wrong moment, as we have proven at the last two Euros. Maybe Croatia to...if they got hot & didn’t fall to in-fighting...cause their midfield depth, Kramaric, & Perisic, is a group that could really play with Brazil. Provided they trusted their kids enough to play Jedvaj - Lovren - Caleta Car - Vrsaljko...since I don’t think Corluka or Vida have it in them to contain Neymar & co without Croatia bunkering, whereas the kids might be up to it if they gelled well & had big games at the right time.
I know a friendly is hardly indicative of tournament performances, but I prefer the Berti Vogts approach in this regard. He always played the Liechtensteins and Luxembourgs of the world as the last pre tournament friendly. If nothing else, that helped the fans/press relax.
I hate to write something negative right before WC but this German team somehow reminds me of Germany in 1978 and 1994. In both cases Germany had won the previous WC, missed EC by unforced errors (against Czechoslovakia and Denmark) and finally choked in World Cup despite having a pool of talent. In both cases Germany was one of the main favorites. Does anybody sees similarities between this Germany and Germany in 1978 and 1994? Well we won the last WC but lost against France in 2016 because of two unforced mistakes. The team is full of talents but lacks collective harmony, very similar to 1978 and 1994.
What we have to keep in mind is that it is highly unlikely that Germany will win the worldcup in the first place as there are multiple top sides, so the small details really matter. of course as in 2016, when the team doesn't win, lots of scoreboard reasoning comes into play when actually the roll of the dice is huge. In 2016 for example, Reus & Dawg missed the tourney yet again. In the engine room, Schwieni's performance level went off the cliff in 2015/16, Hummels got suspended, Boatank got injured, Can is not good enough and suddenly its not an elite defensive side anymore. Meanwhile Mueller had a tourney to forget. - yet a 50/50 penalty and some very bad luck on finishing essentially decided the game. Most of this stuff Loew cannot control. On the plus side Kimmich became an epic right back which was a problem position, Kroos keeps getting better, Mueller recovered from his Carlo blues, Dawg had a decent half season. Werner provides at long last a more than serviceable 9 On the downside Neuer got crocked, Boateng seems fragile, Can got injured after a promising season, Reus doesn't seem his old self. No decent 6 emerged. The team had a scandal. Look at Spain - so much is going to depend on who got injured and who is in form. I think germany has as much chance as anyone, IF the defence & midfield can stay fit.
"DFB should have kicked Özil and Gündogan out." Stefan Effenberg https://www.welt.de/sport/fussball/...e-Oezil-und-Guendogan-rauswerfen-muessen.html
Nope, you have a six-shaped hole in the team. Only bringing Rudy is a gamble and it also shows how low the bar was set (yet Bender stll got completely blanked).
Geiger is injured and there's so much more wrong in your post. To begin with... Aw shucks, Billy, what am I doing. Of course you can say what you want.
Bender fans are welcome to start a thread about him Meantime the squad is in Russia preparing for game one without him, which is what I suspect the rest of us what to focus on.