PBP: (EURO 08 Group B) Croatia v. Germany [R]

Discussion in 'Germany: National Teams' started by Dead Fingers, Jun 8, 2008.

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  1. The Jitty Slitter

    The Jitty Slitter Moderator
    Staff Member

    Bayern München
    Germany
    Jul 23, 2004
    Fascist Hellscape
    Club:
    FC Sankt Pauli
    Nat'l Team:
    Belgium
    it's not so much about manning the bunker as optimising key players like ballack and Lahm for offense.
     
  2. MicFW

    MicFW Member

    Jun 25, 2005
    Club:
    FC Köln
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    Maybe we shouldn't field any strikers at all in the upcoming matches... :rolleyes:
     
  3. Wappy

    Wappy Member

    Jun 18, 2007
    HK
    Club:
    SV Werder Bremen
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    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.
     
  4. Borussia

    Borussia Member+

    Jun 5, 2006
    Fürth near Nuremberg
    Club:
    Borussia Mönchengladbach
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    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!
     
  5. Borussia

    Borussia Member+

    Jun 5, 2006
    Fürth near Nuremberg
    Club:
    Borussia Mönchengladbach
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    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! :eek:

    Nearby, our set pieces are awful ... regarding the number of players with header qualities.


    Well, then you were simply too naive (like many others)...
     
  6. Projekt4

    Projekt4 Member

    Oct 5, 2007
    Lübeck
    Club:
    Hamburger SV
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    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.)
     
  7. Borussia

    Borussia Member+

    Jun 5, 2006
    Fürth near Nuremberg
    Club:
    Borussia Mönchengladbach
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    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?
     
  8. Projekt4

    Projekt4 Member

    Oct 5, 2007
    Lübeck
    Club:
    Hamburger SV
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    No 2 pure defensive midfielders, we don't have a single one, but two central midfielders.
     
  9. The Jitty Slitter

    The Jitty Slitter Moderator
    Staff Member

    Bayern München
    Germany
    Jul 23, 2004
    Fascist Hellscape
    Club:
    FC Sankt Pauli
    Nat'l Team:
    Belgium
    not necessary - the problem is with podoloski at LM and the croatians coming narrow you basically have 3 against two all the time
     
  10. Borussia

    Borussia Member+

    Jun 5, 2006
    Fürth near Nuremberg
    Club:
    Borussia Mönchengladbach
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    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...
     
  11. deleted

    deleted Member

    Aug 18, 2006
    Club:
    Borussia Dortmund
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    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.
     
  12. deleted

    deleted Member

    Aug 18, 2006
    Club:
    Borussia Dortmund
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    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.
     
  13. deleted

    deleted Member

    Aug 18, 2006
    Club:
    Borussia Dortmund
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    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.
     
  14. Borussia

    Borussia Member+

    Jun 5, 2006
    Fürth near Nuremberg
    Club:
    Borussia Mönchengladbach
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    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.
     
  15. +Gooner+

    +Gooner+ Member

    Dec 20, 2006
    In the Pampas
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    Don't get me started on Wenger. He has not known his stuff for the past years. :rolleyes: 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.
     
  16. +Gooner+

    +Gooner+ Member

    Dec 20, 2006
    In the Pampas
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    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.
     
  17. Kirsten19

    Kirsten19 Member

    Apr 1, 2008
    Newport Beach, CA
    Club:
    Borussia Dortmund

    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............
     
  18. Borussia

    Borussia Member+

    Jun 5, 2006
    Fürth near Nuremberg
    Club:
    Borussia Mönchengladbach
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    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?)!
     
  19. deleted

    deleted Member

    Aug 18, 2006
    Club:
    Borussia Dortmund
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    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".
     
  20. matrix666777

    matrix666777 Member

    May 31, 2008
    Tirana
    Club:
    FC Bayern München
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    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.
     
  21. deleted

    deleted Member

    Aug 18, 2006
    Club:
    Borussia Dortmund
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    The only thing worse you can say to gooner is that lehmann is ugly :p


    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
     
  22. Projekt4

    Projekt4 Member

    Oct 5, 2007
    Lübeck
    Club:
    Hamburger SV
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    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...
     
  23. Kirsten19

    Kirsten19 Member

    Apr 1, 2008
    Newport Beach, CA
    Club:
    Borussia Dortmund
    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
     
  24. MicFW

    MicFW Member

    Jun 25, 2005
    Club:
    FC Köln
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    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.
     
  25. deleted

    deleted Member

    Aug 18, 2006
    Club:
    Borussia Dortmund
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    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.
     

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