Agreed. Also one of the things that really changed between Germany of 2012 and Germany of 2014 was the team was much more powerful in midfield The concern this time around has to be the defence which has been bad Really gutted for Gundo - I think he would have been exactly the right guy to play CM
Hoewedes' defence at LB is thoroughly overrated after the fact IMO. He didn't do anything that Schmelzer or Hector couldn't do. Boateng's defence at RB was cancelled out by Loew having to play a limited defender in Mertesacker. I remember the hand-wringing at defence in qualifying and friendlies pre-WC. I led the charge on the idea that Germany's defence was awful and we were going to get knocked out because of that. And then the defence tightened dramatically during the actual tournament. I felt similarly about our friendlies pre-EURO-2012; the defence also tightened during the actual tournament then as well, despite our getting knocked out. Honestly, I doubt Loew actually gives a crap about defence in friendlies and qualifiers; he seems to focused on offence and possession/ball-retention much more there. Defence is for the pre-tournament training drills, it'd seem. I'm done trying to glean insight about our defence through qualifiers and friendlies. It seems a hopeless endeavor.
I would say a back 4 of Hector, Hummels, Boateng, Weiser is actually pretty decent, no weaker then most other major contenders. Yes the fb's aren't world class, but they're solid enough and there are actually very few world class fb's around anywhere atm. The key for me would be playing 2 proper fb's, who are used to playing there every week for their club.
Seems like we get to play Italy again this November. http://www.dfb.de/en/news/detail/germany-to-play-on-15th-november-in-italy-145940/
To the average eye..Hahn might not seem much of an upgrade to the players we currently have in our squad on that drawing board.But ill go out on a limb here and say he has something extremely valuable that none of the players on the NE posses currently ( except kroos) ...well on a good day a healthy Bastian may still have it to.He has those old school qualities that can change games in an instant.He absolutely deserves to at least get battle tested during friendlies....too bad Jogi has no sense of smell for those qualities.Its painful
Itl be suicidal if loew pairs both kroos and khedira as the holding midfielders as neither are mobile at all