Pre-match: (EURO 2016 - Group Stage) Germany vs. Poland 06.16.2016 [R]

i dont think the coach would change his tactics this late. loew only prepared the team with 4231 and 343 which is too risky against counterattacking play.

the key change he would try now is to replace kheidira by wegl to allow kroos has more space to run forward.

 

The thing here is that Loew is trying to reprise Pepball 2015-16 with only 3/4ths the team at his disposal.

Germany is a very left aligned team with Kroos playing the Thiago/Alonso role in the left central midfield position and Ozil taking up the left half-space just ahead. So far this is good, but the trouble begins when you have Draxler filling the winger (Ribery/Costa) role and Hector filling the spare man over in attack role (Alaba/Bernat). Draxler does not have the pace or directness of Ribery/Costa so the role is pretty wrong for him and Hector has neither the pace, assurance of touch (dont get me started on this!) or mentality to play like Alaba or even the tight space control of a Bernat; he is after all a mid-table BL left-back.

On the right Muller gets a wider berth (as RW/SS) as Gotze (as false 9) often plays left-biased to overload the flank, but this often leaves him in a position he isnt that good -- not having a wall player to fend off of and having to too often beat his man 1-on-1, which really isnt a Muller strength. Let's face it, he doesnt have the skill set of Robben or Coman.

Up front, Gotze is so far a black hole, but in his defence the team really hasnt been able to get him into the game as well. The problems are seen even further down. Khedira, who has always been able to bring verticality to this team as the third man running in attacking moves, now maintains his position much more than before, as they want to be warier of counter-attacks given how high a line they are playing. This takes away a lot of his game and he is forced to then do things he is not good at i.e shoot or spray passes.

The Hummels-Boateng-Neuer core are the only other strong points of this team, whereas Howedes is again the wrong player in the wrong role offering defensive stability but absolutely lacking in offence.

Basically, the conclusion is that Loew has piloted a system which makes the best out of say 3-4 players in the squad while making all the others square pegs in round holes.

Some of the problems are painfully obvious but fairly unfixable:

1. One attacking fullback in the squad who isn't even top level BL class. We got away with this for ages when the fullback was called Phillip Lahm, but Lahm has a unique skillset and is quite possibly one of the top 3 fullbacks of all time. Asking Hector to reprise his output is frankly ridiculous. The sad thing is that there is no one to take the load off him -- not in his wing, neither on the opposite wing

2. A sore lack of a strong 1-on-1 player. This makes the exclusion of Bellarabi all the more galling. When opposition squeeze the space infront of their defence and make attacking triangles that much more difficult to execute, Germany can play down the wings. But when you have players lacking pace or directness or strong 1-on-1 dribbling abilities from a standing start you will struggle to break them down. As has been the case lately.

In conclusions, this is what really gets me about Loew -- he is a football philosophy recycler (which tbf as an NT coach is not entirely a bad thing). Given the kind of talent and players Germany have, they should be way more dominant and convincing than they have been over the last two years. My hopes for this tournament is diminished but overall its also sad to see that such a talented core group will be unable to establish the dynasty that they should really have been able to make. Loew has done a lot of good work, but too often his pig-headedness has seen the team perform sub-optimally.

 

Not every player has to be world class to create a winning team, the most important thing is that they are well drilled and all play in their best positions. This then allows the star players the freedom to perform their roles without worrying about weaknesses elsewhere. Currently that is not happening.What annoys me is that there are plenty of options around to fill some of the voids in the team, but they are for whatever reason rejected out of hand just because they are not necessarily world class or outstanding technically.

The likes of Wieser, Schmelzer, Hahn, Stindl, Bellerabi and even someone like Lasogga could all have added balance to the squad, given different options and importantly a better understanding of how to play their positions, they all perform well enough in the BL and the fact is that most international teams are not at a higher level then many of these clubs.

You could easily swap some of those for the likes of Podolski, Schürrle, Höwedes and Götze and the be certain that the only effect could be positive.

If you pick an unbalanced squad, you'll always have issues trying to cope with that.

 

http://www.dfb.de/en/news/detail/jo...r-players-have-great-leader-qualities-148412/

 

You really dont need to post the DFB links all the time.

 

If we had a NIR thread Id post the Bild link saying that likely Höwedes, Draxler and Götze are going to lose the starter spots. Replaced by Can/Kimmich, Schürrle and Gomez.

 

well it gives us something to discuss/talk about and your not forced to read or click at it you know.

 

Really guys so many of you criticise, what other post , instead of adding something of value , at least some guys share links , or post what they have read or think . That's what forums are Here for , if you don't like something , then move on .... But this constant running people down ... No wonder many people have left this forum .

 

Yeahhh also wanted to post that link ... I truly hope this would happen , and I really hope sane also gets a chance ... Seems though Loew won't change his formation only players ...
Would love to see muller being moved back in the centre

 

There is a new thread now. Though I think Sane is not ready for this level. Sane would be like Draxler: totally ineffective

 

Germany-Poland:

http://imgur.com/a/sZz9t
https://streamable.com/7b27
https://streamable.com/ln8z

 

Nice!!!

Im still waiting for the videos where youd get your beer or where youd run away from the police etc..