When Giroud plays, Arsenal's system is more rigid and the wingers hug the touchlines more, throwing in crosses. Olivier seems to limit that team in similar fashion to what Gomez does for our NT. When they played with Gervinho as CF, the front three interchanged far more fluidly, and Podolski played like a striker/winger hybrid. Thing is, I don't see Wenger dropping the Frenchmen too often (unless his listless form continues for another 4 or 5 games), and so Podolski will be resigned to playing more like a traditional winger (which will lower his numbers).
I disagree, theres a small chance he'll score 20 because he's never scored that many in a single season - but we'll see.
He's still expected to perform or the fans will dump his ass. This is not cologne he's playing for. Besides, Gervinho and the Ox are both considerable.
That too. And he's playing in a better league. But his position and the team dynamic will factor in as well.
There is no striker in that system, meaning the pressure is on Podolski to score. If Giroud can pull of a season like RVP then maybe, but I am fairly certain we'll see Poldi involved in a lot of goals.
Our two best games at the EC were with Gomez and yet he "limits" the team? Look at the recent two NT games with Klose as starter... the problems of the NT are others and besides is Giroud not on Gomez's level. He was benched after all because he missed his easy chances and thus Arsenal lacked goals.
We play differently with Gomez. Our offence was more fluid with a fit Klose (though after these last two qualifiers, I believe he's too damn old now), as we saw vs the Greeks. I agree with you, Giroud is not on Gomez's level. But they are both towering targetmen who are suited to being the primary focus of the offence, forcing their wingers to play more rigid roles.
The Greece game was almost an embarrassment for us. Conceding 2 goals to Greece Our solid games were against Holland and Portugal 2 very top teams. Greece, faroe island and Austria are teams way below the two and not close to Germanys level
Yea but it was still Germany's best performance offensively. The problem is that there is not a proper balance yet between defense and attack. Germany get exposed defensively regardless of their opponents, haven't you noticed?
Well of course, because Löw consciously made the team play more defensive and thats why our offensive game struggled.
It's going to be hard to find that balance between tight defense and relentless offense.. I know we have critized both games over the years here... So hopefully we can build and fix that by wc14.
The best way to do it is to find a transitional style of play that allows us to control the tempo of the game.. or as it's called in other circles...retention.
With our attacking formation, We can also say we were lucky vs Austria where we sucked both offensively and defensively. And Austria are not anywhere close to Portugal in quality
Average teams can have HUGE games sometimes too you know.. Austria where going to give their left nut for that game and it showed.. They could've been playing Spain and they still would've died on the pitch, to try to win.