At the risk of being old fashioned - Germany struggled against Ghana, USA and Algeria in 2014 with the same weakness vs the counter, weak flanks and dysfunctional midfield. Amazed how quickly some fans are turning on the team now. Loew got tactically owned by a well drilled team that countered through the centre and played in behind Kimmich As Kroos pointed out in post match - Mexico left players forward specifically for this reason and Germany feed that with so many easy losses of possession by the likes of Khedira and Mueller Obviously it would have made sense to guard against this but Loew didn't adjust Once Reus came on - things looked better with Kroos sitting and germany controlling the space in front of him with a 4 man midfield But as @poorvi points out - the damage was already done.
One thing that was really annoying is when you have Kroos and Ozil in midfield, why is the ball ending up with Boateng to lump it into the box? So much bad decision making.
German announcer during the game: "You would like to yell down at some of those players: This here is a world cup. So you might have to win some challenges."
Well ****, that didn't go as planned. Granted the moment I saw the lineup I said that 'at least Draxler & Khedira would get to prove why they can't be relied upon against better opponents'...and that did happen... Such a bummer that Werner couldn't finish either of those nice chances he burst through for in the first 7 minutes...but if he had taken those chances then maybe we'd have poured it on before Julian & Sami got to prove without a shadow of a doubt that they weren't up to snuff. [he says, trying to convince himself that he believes it] *sigh* This was a kick in the balls though, Mats had a weak game even with how poorly set up we were, and Kimmich can't bomb forward that recklessly with how poorly the structure was. And the boys need to just accept that sometimes the ref is just going to let **** go, they can't keep *****ing about it when the ref clearly doesn't not give a ****. On the plus side: Brandt showed why he & Sane should have both made the team. Penetrating balls into Werner, produced a handful of nice chances that we just weren't clinical enough with. Reus looked lively & didn't get hurt. They started to flow in the second half, at least until running out of ideas in the final third because Mesut was too deep to come up with that moment of genius since we didn't have Ilkay or Leon out there to help Toni in the deeper areas. Thankfully Jogi has a history of making big changes during tourneys & adapting...so hopefully, he doesn't give me more ammunition to gripe about him & does that again. Cause I do still think this team can win the cup if the changes that we need happen...aka Sami & Julian take on the Podolski role of a human victory cigar that never sees the field except late in blowouts; and we use a 4-3-1-2 or 3-4-1-2 to give Boa, Mats & Toni more support in that part of the pitch that the mexicans tore through time & again...and the team starts to play with more urgency. Was nice to see Manu get tested & continue to look like himself. He can still get better...as he didn't seem to have his intimidation set to 11 yet...but hopefully any concerns about him are now put to rest.
The coach is the issue. When we have the ball draxler passes back to Hummels and then all players push forward. You are left with Hummels and Boateng playing like a double 6 with 4 midfielders all lined up on the edge of the 18. Its madness.
At the end of the day lessons should be learned. If we start the next match with the same lineup or löw drops werner as the only change, the we are ********ed.
Loooooool, Loew not changing the style of play for next game he says, Sweden would have watched this with intrest
a stubborn goat is a stubborn goat, this coach doesn't like change at all. If we end up 3 and out and follow France, Italy, and Spain as WC winners that get eliminated in the GS, he should be fired post WC asap.
I simply think Low got outcoached here. He should have put together a formation that recognized the threat on our right and adapted tactics appropriately. I believe he underestimated Mexico and what the threat that Luzano(sp) was. I was also disappointed the way that Germany played - no one touch football, no running through gaps in the defence, no moving into open spaces to accept a pass. Very static, hardly providing a real threat.
He's got no choice now really he has to change, I think he will, his post match statement that he wont is mind games I think
*shrug* Kroos is old & was always slow, why should I single him out for that? It's on Khedira & Jogi for not giving Toni the necessary support to keep us from needing to drag Mesut all of the way back into his own half to gather the ball. Or did you mean Müller & Draxler? I thought I mentioned how hard they sucked today?
Regardless of formation - so called "leader of the team", Kroos has to commit to defensive work in midfield the way he didn't bother to track back in the first half was crazy
I'm hoping that this was just a "I have to start WM-winner Khedira in the first game" situation, where now that he's proved he isn't up to it Jogi can make some of those changes that he's toyed with and plays a 4-3-1-2 or a 3-4-1-2: Werner - Müller* Özil Gundogan - Goretzka Kroos Hector - Hummels - Boateng - Kimmich Neuer --------------------------- Werner - Müller* Özil Hector - Gundogan - Kroos - Kimmich Süle - Hummels - Boateng Neuer *Brandt or Reus if his magic doesn't come back in the first half of the Sweden match.
maybe it's because he lost 2 times vs Italy (if you include 2006) that he wanted to beat them. Goretzka was a major player in the CC win vs Mexico not sure why he was excluded.
I think Kroos lost his rag with the ref and then played much too arrogantly Maybe he needs to get his head out of the clouds The 2nd half was much better