it's not so much about manning the bunker as optimising key players like ballack and Lahm for offense.
didn't see this coming... thought Croatia would disappoint after game against Austria instead, but oh well, as I've thought before, what happens to the the weakest group on paper might turn out to be the most exciting group as well... I did speculate that Germany might get k.o. in the first round. was really surprised why Jansen was able to play and surprised that Borowski is not used for the 2nd game in a roll. Lineup I hope to see next time: Lehmann, Friedrich, Mertesacker, Metzelder, Lahm, Frings, Borowski(Schweinsteiger = sub), Ballack, Hitzlsperger, Klose, Podolski(Gomez = sub) pity about Group B though, in a perfect scenario I would like to see all four teams to advance.
About the game: Well, I didn't warn of these Croats without reason... Awful first half from our team (bad defending, bad passing, bad moving, bad finishing - simply everything was shit!) ... ironically, we had 4 decent scoring opportunities. The 2nd half was a lot better, but we couldn't create any chances against their strong defence. Overall a disappointing performance (especially from the midfield), what confirms my initial opinion that we aren't the top favourite of the tournament! At least there's 1 positive aspect of this game, namely to come down to earth and learn from the mistakes made during yesterday's 90 minutes!
The workrate against Poland was ok. But let's be honest, our midfield didn't play well in that match either! Ballack is too defensive and his technical mistakes & bad passing from yesterday simply shocked me! Nearby, our set pieces are awful ... regarding the number of players with header qualities. Well, then you were simply too naive (like many others)...
Ballack has to come deep to defend because Frings isn't reliable as a sole defensive midfielder guarding the middle, that's been the case before and during the World Cup and it hasn't changed. (Doesn't take away from the fact that Frings is a great player to have.)
So if Löw thinks he needs 2 pure defensive midfielders, he should have changed his tactics before the tournament to a 4:2:3:1/4:2:1:3 like Holland! Unfortunately it's too late for practising it now... If you have such good strikers like Germany, you need to give them more support from the midfield! Did you see how often Klose & Gomez had to move back to the midfield in order to get the ball?
not necessary - the problem is with podoloski at LM and the croatians coming narrow you basically have 3 against two all the time
C'mon, Frings & Ballack played like 2 pure defensive midfielders ("Abräumer") in the first half against Croatia! Didn't you see the large gap between the central midfield and attack? Nevertheless, our defending was absolutely shit...
Just watch the game again and get back to me if you want to talk about this game. Until then were are not speaking on even terms. I only came up with it after watching it twice. Amsteldam, AFCA and a few italians did agree with me on it by the way.
exactly... I really want to see borowski because he is the type of player we need. I think podolski can stay at LM if lahm is moved to LB.
yeah...cos it's the same players pretty much! just schneider missing because we did well at a world cup and for the whole of qualification and then several friendlies with the players we already have.
The Croatians were playing a 4:5:1 (Rakitic played as a winger and not as a striker), so they had numerical superiority in the midfield. I agree that Podolski isn't the right choice in this case ... but after his good performance from the Poland match, it seems that Löw didn't want to "sacrifice" him for tactical reasons at the beginning. Due to Schweinsteiger's stupidity we have only Hitzlsperger who might replace him against Austria. I'd bring Poldi upfront with Klose again, since Klose & Gomez obviously don't work very well together.
Don't get me started on Wenger. He has not known his stuff for the past years. Lehmann was not shaky or insecure or whatever when he played for us and there was a clear, very positive difference whenever he came in for Almunia. People were cheering when Almunia got one of his convenient little "injuries" again. Wenger messed that one up and now Lehmann has the luck to play behind a defense that has let him down big time more times in four games than they did in the last two years. Wait, that's not true. It's just that defensive work like that gets punished by a team like Croatia.
Would you mind giving a proper reason instead of behaving like a total *beep* and jumping on the bandweagon of blaming the goalkeeper who was easily the best man in the pitch along with Lahm? Stupid comments like that make me sick because they just show that most people have no ********ing clue about goalkeeping. And yes, I noticed the people bashing Lehmann are exately those who made it clear they don't like him anyway and never had any propler rational reasons to offer in discussions. Oddly enough most of them are Bayern-fans. And oddly enough at least two of them only ever come out of their hole when Lehmann concedes a goal, only to blame it on him. Which must have been pretty hard for them for the past 10 months or so because Lehmann simply didn't concede a single one for that period of time.
But in other threads u said we dont need wingers in our system in the games we played in the last 2 years or so..........well, now we are now basically doing what u've said. With Fritz/Odonkor on the RM and Poldi playing out post............
Gooner, I'm totally with you in this matter! It's absolutely unfair to blame Jens for this defeat (didn't you see that Rakitic's cross was deflected by Podolski?)!
i just said we don't need anything different to what we used at the wc and 2 years of qualifications and friendlies, because it was succesful. So putting bororwski or an in-form pig or hitzlsperger should be ok. Podolski is ok as well with Lahm behind him. I don't know what you define as a "winger".
Lahm, Metz, Merte, Fritz--Frings--Hitz, Ballack, Boro, Podolski (attacking mid)--Gomez I would change Gomez with Klose, because he has more experience. This will allow Ballack & Poldi to move forward...with Hitz, Boro & Frings taking care of defence.
The only thing worse you can say to gooner is that lehmann is ugly Seriously though, lehmann was our best player along with...*cricket noise*.....ok..Lahm I guess. the second goal was a huge deflection off podolski and even more luck followed when it went straight onto the post and straight to olic instead of anywhere else
No it's not like that. I for one don't think I mix my impression of a player's personality with my confidence in his contribution on the pitch. Given that you obviously are a personal fan (which is fair enough), I think you should tone down accusations...
Lehmann's response and reaction is damn slow. He should've responsed slightly faster, even thoug the ball was deflected, it was slow. But seemed like Jens isn't quite focus. The second goal was a fluke goal but Jens' slow reflex was responsible partly. Wenger is the cleverest manager in the world n he knows his stuff. He doesn't drop Lehmann for no reason. Too bad Loew didnt realize that
Lahm should replace Jansen at LB, that's more or less the only change I would make to the team. If Borowski is fit, he could play RM, Fritz RB. It's not all about tactics and formations though. Everybody has to run and work a lot more, and they have to harry the Austrian players as soon as they come close to the centre line. If our team does this, we don't have to worry too much.
You're right, but the team as a whole were very creative and passed the ball accurately and quickly. That's all that mattered... I didn't think we were missing anything. We also had some headed goals too. Remember the kuranyi 2 goals v/s czech republic? I don't think schneider played like a "dribbler&deep crosser"...he can dribble but he didn't try much.