Spain was interesting because we didn’t play a high line and used 3 in midfield, two things Flick hardly ever did at Bayern and the team also seemed fully focused throughout, in virtually every other game this year we’ve had far too many lapses where we’ve lost our shape and conceded soft goals. If Flick can use the Spain match as a template for how we need to play in every game, then we might get somewhere. I just worry from reading reports of the internal review that he feels that our only issue was poor conversion rate rather then his preferred tactics or selection of his favourites.
Flick has to fix the core of the side to enable a potential successful side. But with Neuer been given the thumbs up for his position, I'm not sure Flick is in for the long haul. After the Euros he will go.
and then he blundered again vs Costa Rica. The mindset going into that game has to be score as many as possible to at least keep Spain on their toes vs Japan. To have any chance of that Fuellkrug had to start that game from the beginning. until the Fuellkrug and Havertz substitutions the game was almost an exact carbon copy of the Japan debacle.
ohhhhhhhhhhhhh man and 2023 we only have friendlies.. what a limbo year for us coming up. Wonder how flick will build the team now.... Hope he gets some high quality Friendlies at least ... As most of Europe will be busy with qualifications he can try out Japan, Brazil and Marokko at least we can look forward to Wirtz and Musiala..... next year
I don't understand the "Not having competitive matches" thing. Every team that hosts a tournament don't have to qualify and until recently winners didn't have to qualify either. The DFB will organise matches against top teams and mid tier teams like they always do, yes they will be friendlies but no top team want to get humiliated so they will show up with intent. The Neuer point, I think we can all agree that Neuer isn't the same keeper he was 2010-2018 but it's not like Ter Stegen is setting the world on fire either. I don't think it's set in stone that Neuer will be the starter in 2024. He shouldnt be the captain either. Müller shouldn't have started in the final game, however his pressing was great against Spain. I think that's the only game he should have started. However, whether he retires himself or not this should be his last tournament I agree we can't blame everything on our poor conversion but we did creat plenty of chances, so our forward game isn't entirely broken, we should have scored 3 against Japan before the 70th minute, we could have won the Spain game, and we could have scored 7 against Costa Rica but we didn't. So part of the problem is conversion but that's not all of, we need a proper striker and if Flick thinks Havertz is the answer then spend the next year and half developing into that role and build our play around him. Havertz needs to pull his finger out also and maybe consider leaving Chelsea if he wants to reach his potential. For me we need to be better defensively, but we need to realise that Flick isn't going to get away from his high line pressing game. It brought him so much success so he will live and die by it, however I really hope he tinkers with it to give us some stability at the back. I just want Flick to find his starting 11 and his first 3-5 subs and start with them every single them from now till the Euros...Set the game plan, find the players suitable for it and let's drill it into them from our first friendly in March till the EM.
True for all, but It was related to not qualifying for Nations League exit. Still good to have a competitive match or two then none at all. Germany still had that friendly and nations league attitude against Japan.... not giving it 100% in that game, Mentality needs to be first game of the euros to give 100% from the start..... and only having friendlies now for 18 months is obviously not the best for our current German team
ALso hoping to see younger players like Moukoko, Wirtz Adeyemi, NETZ , BELLA and other to be integrated into the team now, and a new DM as well please.
I think the biggest mistake Flick did was wasting the game against Oman. He should have started that game with his best 11 and went all our to try and win. Your one and only warm up game before the tournament, why not use it. Not an excuse because all teams went through the same thing but not having the 4-6 weeks camp we normally have before every tournament really didnt help especially with a coach that only oversaw limited amount of games with this team. I feel like this didnt hurt teams like France Spain England Brazil Argentina ....etc as much because they had stable teams and coaches that have been there for a while. Flick will be better for the experience..
Hard disagree - that is the kind of arrogance that saw Germany lose to Japan Costa Rica had beaten Japan remember. The job was to win, and ideally win 2-0. The team executed on that in the first half near perfectly apart from the brain fart from Sule. I agree that starting Mueller was strange but nevertheless the team did exactly what was needed in the first half. Everyone ignores that Germany conceded 3 mins after Gundo went off and Fullkrug went on! That was the similarity to the Japan game! Gundo needs to play. But in reality the game only got wild once Japan equalised and quickly went ahead because then Flick had to go crazy. But that was due to the game state in the other game.
I disagree Gundo needs to play, our midfield would be better balanced without him unless you pair him with a proper 6 (not Kimmich). He’ll likely retire from the NT anyway according to reports which would at least solve that problem.
It did, but for me we would still look a far better team with a proper 6 alongside Kimmich and/or Goretzka. In AM moving forward we have Musiala, Wirtz and potentially Samardzic to play who can and should take over that area of the team from now on. I don’t see a need for Gundogan or Muller in the squad tbh, it’s time to look to the future.
It's true that Gundo is likely to retire from Germany, but this tournament shows that Germany don't have another player of his quality who can structure midfield play - certainly not Kimmich So the choices are bringing JM into the AM position as a 3 in a double pivot, but presumably wirtz also needs to play? Not sure how Flick creates a workable midfield out of this that actually defends properly, and can structure play
The question is, how many attack minded players do we wanna use? If we were to go for a midfield 3 of Kimmich, Goretzka and Weigl for example with Wirtz and Musiala supporting a CF would that work? Or do we also need someone like Sane (who links up well Musiala at Bayern) to add enough attacking options? A 4-2-3-1 works a lot better with a genuine 6 imo.
Agreed - because Germany don't have anyone who can really play single pivot But this would still raise the issue of where Wirtz would play? And you'd have to drop one of Goretzka or Kimmich to fit in a 6 if JM plays at AM Probably Flick should try and establish Kimmich+:LG+JM as a settled 3
Most xG created at the World Cup so far:🇩🇪 Germany - 11.12🇧🇷 Brazil - 8.53🇫🇷 France - 8.50— The xG Philosophy (@xGPhilosophy) December 8, 2022
I think this is a great point. Our midfield is not very well balanced. We have all these good attacking midfielders and wingers but we lack players who are unwilling or lack the ability to run both ways. This is on the academies and their focus and creating dribblers and passers but they neglected defending. I get it defending is not as "sexy" as attacking dribbling and scoring goals so maybe not easy to get kids excited about it but they have to find a way. As for the "now" I think Flick has to work with what he has and possibly try converting one of Kimmich or Goretzka or even both into a more defensive minded midfielders. Not easy considering they don't play like that for Bayern.
it has nothing to do with arrogance. in terms of quality Germany is man for man levels above costa rica. put them in a system that functions and is actually geared towards delivering an end product. Germany shoudnt have to be relying on favours from others to advance, the mentality should be lets get the 6,7,8 goals thats required and even if we come up a goal or two short spain will have to remain 100% focused on getting a result.
This reminds me of something I read a few years ago where Michael Jordan lamented the fact that younger generations of basketball players have imitated his flashy moves but none of them ever bothered studying his defensive duties, which he considered to be far more important. Different sport I know, but the same principle applies.
But as we've seen in the last 2 world cups weaker sides are now able to be fully drilled and defensively well organised, and super fit, so by playing very defensively, they always have a good shot at upsetting the 'bigger' side I think being too attacking can play into that. Indeed as soon as Flick brought on Fullkrug, germany conceded!
https://www.kicker.de/prominente-besetzung-dfb-stellt-heute-neue-task-force-vor-929284/artikel This is the best thing the DFB have done in years. Something that should have been done after 2018, but for some reason the DFB took Russia as a one off and didn't do anything after that debacle. It's a shame it took 3 poor tournaments for them to do something that could turn things around....Better late than never I guess