Das Martina-Upgrade: Sickle Cut Into Your Defense - Road to WWC 2019 [R]

I think she's probably missing club matches because of responsibilities with school work..? But it's definitely odd seeing Oberdorf and Bühl come back into the squad, while equally young Lattwein and Lohmann are left out...

Not seeing Maier, Demann, Laudehr, is also 3 more perplexing omissions too. As I've not seen anything this season to suggest Dallmann (questions concerning fitness), Hegering, or Rauch, truly deserving of potential WC national team recognition.

 

Lattwein replaces a sick Däbritz. Leading me to believe MVT considers Däbritz a CM now, with this squad only having Schweer's and Dallmann as the only credible wide AM's I could see being remotely effective on the left.

 

Dabritz got stuck playing DM vs France. it's not her best position, compared to playing a bit upfront. I don't prefer the two DM's style/or at least vs stronger opposition, where your team is going to be pushed back a bit & the DM's wouldn't have the striking power. WOB/Lyon, was a perfect example, as in the first game, WOB seemed to be missing an extra attacker because of their 2 DM's defensive stance.
so despite an overall wealth of talent in the attacking mid area. Germany's stuck with just 4 players up there

Huth..................Maro...............Popp

.......................Schuller

while you still got the likes of Dabritz, Magull, Dallmann, Lattwein stuck playing out of position, if there going to start. That's why Neid stop using the 2 DM's, especially after Kessler got injured(about the most notable attacking DM she ever had(though I only go back to 2013)

 

She doesn't play as a DM (defensive Mid-fielder) when she starts for wnt in a CM role (Central Mid-field/box to box role). Her positional issue versus France was thank's to CAM playing Marozsan's inability to involve herself (again) in the national teams attacking build up play.

Forcing a more natural wide AM player like Däbritz to drop increasingly deeper to involve herself in the match, and help maintain the balance of a team that would have otherwise been overwhelmed in central areas; just like they were when Hrubesch started his ridiculously naive wide open 4-4-2 vs Spain.

 

... I thought Wolfsburg were missing an extra attacker because Lyon's superior use of a DM (Kumagai), completely nullifying the spaces in front of her CB's, therefore shutting down the spaces Harder likes to pick up the ball and drive at defenses.

It didn't help that Wolfsburg also used Neto in this match too, a player who's offensive or defensive game doesn't yet appear to be at a standard required for the top matches.

But overall, Wolfsburg's biggest issue in both these matches, came down to poor team selection and inferior use of tactics, in contests that were actually a lot closer than the final aggregate score would suggest.

 

LOL, Popp isn't going to playing out wide for the national team. Plus this argument the wnt has issues with it's double 6, is only factual when it see's the coaches select the incorrect combinations of say... two players primarily know for their attacking talents.

Which is why I'm adamant that Magull start in the wnt's CM next to DM's like Goeßling or Leupolz, as Magull's quick and accurate short/long passing into forwards, combined with intelligent movement, make her the best option to retain team balance in mid-field, and still combine with forwards to create goals.

As it should be obvious to anybody watching the league, and seeing the wnt, that all it's best offensive talent is in the AM positions, meaning regaining cohesion and balance is key to Germany finding success at future tournaments.

 

But she only used Keßler - Goeßling because of pre tournament injuries to her preferred CM choices.... And then Neid simply stopped using a mid-field game plan after the loss of Keßler, because the clear blue print for success provided to her from Tina Theune finally ran it's course.

Resulting in the mess on route to Neid wining her Olympic Gold medal. Where it featured a team that didn't even have an attack lol, and instead completely relied on the form of then rookie Däbritz, and a new DM playing Behringer being able to decide the fate of matches.

Non of this ever showing positive tactical decisions for obtaining success, but rather a series of random events that culminated with a novice Jones needing to completely rebuild the team, and the subsequent years of diminishing support from an educated footballing audience, no longer interested in watching a substandard performances of the once entertaining wnt.

Meaning once the Prinz generation left, Neid didn't know how to rebuild the national team around the next generation of potential WC winners. Creating the current scenario where we've seen 4 senior coaches for an entire generation of successful junior internationals now in their mid 20's, and nobody knows if their even capable of becoming a tournament competitive team..

 

The starting eleven looks ridiculous

 

pretty bad, no Huth, Dabritz, Schuller, or Hendrich. Knaak, Heggertng, Rauch start instead. A lot of NT coaches don't want to show/play with a full deck right before the WC. Guess MVT is one of them

PS I wouldn't be able to watch till later, but good luck Frauen!

 

First half was actually somehow good
Defensively it looks unbelievable solid

 

Turid Knaak making my words to shame... she's having a great game so far and this whole team looks good

 

I'm really impressed by how this team is working as a team. It's really great to see

 

Oberdorf gets a chance

 

And Dallmann makes it 2-0
Stunner!

 

Sweden getting a penalty ruins the almost flawless game
And Seger converts it

 

Last ten minutes was chaotic but a great game regardless from the team

 

My post match reaction....

 

I need to give Doorsoun credit once again though - marvelous today

This is giving me hope that Germany will be competitive once we reach the World Cup

 

OK... so I'm going to be a little bit more negative here, and ask what did anybody learn from this...?

A match that saw a new formation, a set of new players introduced, and very little end product genuinely to justify why any of this took place a few months prior to the WC starting.

In an otherwise very comfortable victory, did this match create more uncertainty, or provide important answers...?

 

I'll highlight the few positives I witnessed, which was Hegering's performance as a libero, Magull's POTM performance as a controlled CM presence, and Dallman's short but strong cameo after long term injury.

But if it was always MVT's idea to use a 3-4-3, where was the balance in her squad selection to take full advantage of the players available to her...?

Gwinn and Rauch as wing back's really standing out the most for me as the biggest issue with this, seeing MVT waste more time with Knaak, when we all know Popp, Marozsan, Magull, Dallmann, Huth, Schüller, Däbritz, will always be infinitely better attacking players too.

I mean, what was the thinking Maier, Gasper as FB's, or Pawollek as a CB, not good enough to contribute within this system; when Pawollek could have easily played in Schweers defensive role today, allowing a more comfortable attacking Schweers to move into Rauch's role...

 

Oh... and seeing the forwards waste so many good opportunities, it felt like Popp's confidence also decreased significantly over time too. To the eventual negative effect of everything around her during a second half that saw Germany turn into a real mess with all the coaches unnecessary substitutions.

So it will be interesting to see who starts versus Japan, as I'm honestly tired of seeing an still raw Gwinn starting ahead of a much more primed Huth, and have no idea how this 3-4-3 will function with a stronger compliment of players such as Simon, Hendrich, Huth/Schüller all within it.

 

just saw it; pretty solid victory despite missing so many starters. MVT is doing a solid job with new defensive formations while still countering very swiftly. I was surprised by the high lining in the first half. A times there's was as many 6 players keeping the straight line in tact. Would of liked to see how they would of performed under pressure, but Sweden was reluctant to high ball it over the top/ Then a bit of a change as the FB's came up more(obviously like the more offensive minded Dallmann coming in for Rauch) I think it's been pretty positive for MTV, the players seem to adhere to her tactics quite nicely. Just wonder if she's picking the right players(as when your reduce to just 3 subs in the competitive format.)
While Magull looked she was auditioning for the Globetrotters(with all those tricky moves of hers), Maro seemed a bit slow, especially playing high, her best move was the one long ball to Knaak. Then Popp, would be more of a baseball player the way she likes to hit so hard those balls out-of-the-ballpark, then aiming it more accurately like Schuller does, lol

not sure if Japan will be that strong of a competition, they supposedly didn't bring with a lot of their best players & looked terrible vs France.
But I do fancy the new style of MVT over the Jill Ellis over-the-hill gang if she can keep the defense grounded like she has(instead of the undefended flanks of the bygone Neid/Jones era). and of course a bit disappointed she started Hegering over Elsig

 

Yes, in the first half Germany saw too many moments where Rauch. and Gwinn, were sitting far too deep at times, reversing the 3-4-3 team structure towards being a 6 or even 7 player defense whenever Leupolz replaced defenders moving out of their positions.

But after a decent period of time passed, it saw Gwinn and Rauch adjust to their roles better, resulting in Germany's mid-field taking over control of the match. Before the second half introduction of Dallmann, and Hendrich, would then see further attacking improvements eventually see them both scoring goals.

This mid-field adjustment also playing a major role in preventing Sweden from utilizing accurate long passing too, with Popp, Marozsan, Knaak, all applying a lot of pressure to Sweden's 3 CB's, as Gwinn, Leupolz, Magull, Rauch, became compact enough to suffocate Seger, even creating scenarios for Swedish turnovers of the ball on numerous occasions.

 

I still see enough positives from both to fully believe they'll eventually start scoring goals regularly for the national team. But right now a lot of their decision making and end product continues to be disappointing, within team selections missing players with equally strong or stronger capabilities to create or take chances.

So I hope MVT finally moves past the experiments with Rauch, Knaak, and Gwinn, and starts using Huth, Däbritz, Dallmann, Simon, Schüller, more often now. As the idea of the strongest team structure still seems highly indecisive for a wnt so close to a WC finals.