Now the Swedes know how you feel when you almost finished building a wardrobe and you realize there is a screw missing
Marco Reus: "I told Toni: look at them (the height of Swedish players), It's not the time to cross it. Just shoot it directly" #GERSWE pic.twitter.com/zCAPVsU3bB— Bayern & Germany (@iMiaSanMia) June 23, 2018
4-2-3-1 is fine in qualifiers when you have a bunch of minnows or friendlies. But for tournaments, we do better the more bodies we have in the middle. Even the last WC, our trio of Khedira, Kroos, and Basti made a difference. controlling the midfield is more important, also would make it harder for teams to slice through our defense. Rudy wasn't Khedira he actually stayed behind to help the defense. Swedish goal also happened around the time Rudy was subbed out. Rudy subbed out 31st minute Swedish goal 32nd minute coincidence?
That was one of the most satisfying wins, not because of an amazing performance but because of the spirit and determination. This is the Germany I want to see, fighting hard to the end in adversity and not giving up. i will watch that goal from Kroos many times, one of those spectacular moments that make football great. Sweden were timewasting cheats, they deserve to go home.
Our defence was relatively shaky even when Rudy was on the field, but yeah when he went off we lost control and then the Swedes took advantage of the extra momentum while Ilklay was still trying to get a handle on being in the game.
it was shaky because Low was still playing with 4-2-3-1. But in Gundo or Goretzka with Rudy/Kroos and it would be different story. Draxler was the waste of space who's spot could have been used instead.
It's only a matter of time before we're eliminated if we continue to use the 4-2-3-1. Schweinsteiger was the piece that made that formation work, and as good as Kroos is, he's a different animal from Bastian.
lol, if Low is done max by 2022 WC. I think it won't ever happen. Some of the older players could still be present by then who could overtake him in the pecking order. he's got no business in the NT to begin with. Would be the most useless captain we've ever had.
If we replace Jogi, these could be our 2020 EM winners Werner Brandt - Dahoud* - Havertz* - Sane Geiger/Weigl Itter - Tah/Kehrer - Süle - Kimmich ter Stegen *Goretzka / Amiri / Demirbay / Meyer
The worst of the bunch IMO are Latin American sports media. Ever since I've been following WCs and ECs they've been rooting against the German NT and are always writing them off in the weeks prior to such tournaments, despite being the most consistent NT in international football history and usually making deep runs. Same story at club level, case in point being the 1997 UEFA Champions League Final, which is perhaps the least discussed of all the UCL Finals, and on the very few occasions they talk about it, it's all about how could Juventus have lost that final, as if BVB was some kind amateur league club that lucked its way into the final, ignoring the fact that many of its players were World Champions and more recently had won the Euro the previous year, and were being captained by reigning Ballon d'Or Matthias Sammer.
BTW is this the first time Germany win a tournament match after conceding first under Löw? One of my biggest criticisms of Löw's tenure at the German NT is that every time the opposing team scored first Germany would usually lose the match or in the best of cases salvage a draw. This was made evident last World Cup where Germany was fortunate enough to score first. Today I finally saw that win-at-all-costs mentality under Löw.
also had Ottmar Hitzelfd, one of the best German club coaches at the helm of Dortmund. Latin American seem to favor Spain and Italy, mostly out of descent and because a lot of their players play in those leagues. While are likely not to give a crap about 1BL, none of the best South American players ever play in Germany. We tend to overall have the lesser ones. doesn't helped we recently trashed Brazil 7-1 at home and we knocked out Argentina in 3 consecutive WCs. yeah this is the 1st competitive comeback win by Low. Always been an issue under him. If we concede 1st we are likely out, as he has no plan B. his plan B is actually put in as many attacking players as possible and hope someone will score.
Attitude reflect leadership I saw that today. We all wonder what Loew is thinking sometimes, but today he walked the walk Down a player 8 plus minutes from a draw. What does he chose -play for 3rd round and hope- nope - pull a defender and play with only 2. I don’t care how good or bad people think Sweden is at this cup. It’s still the World Cup. Excuse the crudeness, but Loew has a big brass set of balls. His faith carried over into the team. He isn’t perfect but damn Don’t flinch. He didn’t and neither did we.
Loew has taken his tactical incompetence to levels Pep Guardiola can only dream of. I submit to you Exhibit A: I rest my case your Honor.
I don’t like him in a double 6 midfield. I want to see rudy as a 6 and kroos and gundog playing a double 8.
I know people are criticizing boa, but I think he was a beast today. When we were out of ideas he was the one taking the initiative. His tactical foul for the first yellow probably saved a goal. The red was a bad decision, but you can forgive that with how hard he was pushing for that win.
Germany has to drop Ozil and Khedira and play 433 if they want to progress further in this competition. Khedira has declined so much physically in the last few years that he is now a defense liability to our team. Whereas Ozil never defends, he hardly covers any ground in the midfield and the linkage between him and Kroos is too weak. Ozil just watches players run past him every time like a passenger, It may seem fine and acceptable in the era of Bergkamp, Roberto Baggio or Totti, but in today’s football, ever midfielder has to defend, has to track back and has to work hard to cover enough ground to minimize the danger for defense. Just look at James Rodriguez since he arrived in Bayern, Modric or De Bryune, they have all transitioned from traditional attacking midfielders to all rounded central midfielders who participate in their team’s defense and track back. I was so terrified by the defense and lack of physical prescence in the Germany midfield in the game vs Mexico. Also, this Germany team is far too dependent on Kroos, if he is marked tightly like in the game vs Mexico or first half against Sweden, then we are pretty much done. Given that we no longer have a player with leadership and physical prescence in the midfield, let say prime Ballack or Schweinteiger, we need to put more bodies in the midfield, Low needs to consider shifting from 4231 to 433 to create more balance between attack and defense and currently this is the lineup I have on my mind: Reus-Gomez-Müller/Brandt Kroos-Goretzka-Gundogan Hector-Hummers-Boateng-Kimmich Neuer Under this formation, Gundogan’s presence in the midfield can help Kroos dictate the possession in the midfield and release him from the pressure in build up when Kroos is being pressed by the opponent. Also, Gundogan defends better and covers more ground than Ozil. Goretzka plays behind Gundogan and Kroos and serves as a balance between attack and defense. Because we don’t have a midfielder that can match Ballack and schweinsteiger’s physical prescence in the midfield, we need to choose midfielders that maxmimize our possession advantage, cover the most ground and has a high work rate.
Boateng has felt clunky and rash throughout this WC. I presume it's because he recognizes there isn't a lot of help defence for him to rely on in this setup, but he's been ultra-aggressive and fouling a lot. That one shove in the back on the break was a stone-cold penalty that he got away with. Having said that, his aggression on the ball has been appreciated.