Re: Ze German Thread

[magpie]

Well, at least they played in black today. Albeit with white shorts.

BTW, Azerbaijan 1:3 Germany, Germany 7 consecutive wins in the EC qualification. Nice job!

I was keeping track on my phone. Let us see if we can extend that streak! Wins all the way to the championship!

[VivaStPauli]

Well, at least they played in black today. Albeit with white shorts.

BTW, Azerbaijan 1:3 Germany, Germany 7 consecutive wins in the EC qualification. Nice job!

I was keeping track on my phone. Let us see if we can extend that streak! Wins all the way to the championship!

I'd rather win all the way through the championship...

[Raffy]

Well, at least they played in black today. Albeit with white shorts.

BTW, Azerbaijan 1:3 Germany, Germany 7 consecutive wins in the EC qualification. Nice job!

I was keeping track on my phone. Let us see if we can extend that streak! Wins all the way to the championship!

I'd rather win all the way through the championship...

i m fine with drawing the last group game of the euros with our b-team and then win the whole damn thing, beating italy, holland and spain in the knockout stages comfortably :joker:

[rwo power]

i m fine with drawing the last group game of the euros with our b-team and then win the whole damn thing, beating italy, holland and spain in the knockout stages comfortably :joker:

Indeed. Especially beating Italy!!

[Raffy]

Indeed. Especially beating Italy!!

hehe, we are allowed to dream
but honestly i still think we just got this bad statistic against them because we allways go far and when we meet italy they are just top notch, in the years where we could beat them easily they choke allrdy in the groupstages hence the bad win/loss ratio!

[rwo power]

Hm. That is indeed a good point. BTW, IMO we really should have won the last Friendly against them. The draw was mehh!

[Dr. Percival Faust]

Last night, I dreamt that Germany beat Spain in either EC 2012 or WC 2014 by 2:0 (first goal by Schweinsteiger right after the kickoff, second goal at some point late in the game, when Spain was entering panic mode). Germany played in a very mature fashion and dominated throughout the entire match.

Strangely, it was the round of 16, which indicates that it must have been 2014. But then again, it seemed more like the Euro, not the World Cup. Either way, the central defence was Hummels and J. Boateng. I remember that much. I don't know the rest of the line up, aside from Schweinsteiger.

Towards the end of the dream, it turned into a bit of a nightmare though. Despite the win, the mood was bleak. Because, for some reason, the match wasn't even fully shown on TV. There was no coverage after the game. I went to the internet and there was a thread about the game which was only 2 pages long. There were no news, no opinions, no reports on the game. It was as if nobody cared at all. Finally, after years, a big victory over Spain had come and it didn't matter at all. It was as if Germany had won some random friendly versus San Marino or even like a 7th league match between Reinickendorfer Füchse and Wattenscheid II.

______
On that sad and sore note, I will now post my current line up for 2012, which is always subject to change. I assume that Lahm switches over to the left.


Starting formation

-------------------------------- Neuer
----- Beck ------------- Hummels --- Mertesacker ---------- Lahm
-------------------- Schweinsteiger --- Khedira
------ Müller -------------------- Özil -------------------- Schürrle
--------------------------------- Klose


Bench

------------------------------- Adler, Wiese
--- Boateng -------------- Höwedes ---- Friedrich -------- Schmelzer
--------------------------- Kroos ------ S. Bender
------ Reus ---------------------- Götze ----------------- Podolski
---------------------------------- Gomez


Notes & Comments:

· Goal

Neuer is a 'shoe-in' for the starting line up. Hope he plays a strong season at Bayern and will come to the Euro as the top goalkeeper in the world. Adler has to overcome his bad form from the current season and earn some experience in the CL. Wiese should be experienced enough to keep up his good form despite the lack of international football with Bremen next season.

If Adler or Wiese lose form or get injured, some talented keeper out of Baumann, Trapp or even ter Stegen can replace them in the line up.

· Central defence

There's lots of opinions on this one and many of them are valid. I think Hummels has the best shot at establishing himself as a fixed starter. Ideally, he'll continue his form in the Bundesliga and plays a strong CL season, gaining experience at the highest level. At the same time, he needs to play a majority of the international games and solidify his position. The 2nd CD spot is up for grabs. Mertesacker needs to regain his form from a few years ago. The Hummels/Mertesacker mixture would be a great one, if they were both in top form. Talent and experience combined (similar to the likes of Pique/Puyol or Vidic/Ferdinand). Likewise, Hummels/Friedrich would be a good pair, though it remains to be seen if Friedrich can find his WC 2010 form again. Hummels/Höwedes is probably the pairing of the more distant future, but maybe it could work in 2012 already. They complement each other very well, are good friends in real life, played together at U21 level. Despite being young, both have their great talent going for them and also the mix of an intelligent defender (Hummels) and a workhorse (Höwedes) should work well (similar to Carvalho/Pepe or, again, Ferdinand/Vidic).

Badstuber is another candidate, but he has to find his form at club level. He has played in decent fashion for the NT so far (when he was playing in the center), but I'm not convinced yet he's better than the 4 I've mentioned before. Boateng will have to show his central def. qualities at Munich, in case he joins them (which I hope). He has the talent to become a serious contender for the starting position along with Hummels, but he has to prove his worth in that position first. He's also a good allrounder, so his place in the squad should be pretty much assured if he's not injured. However, having plenty of central defenders, while lacking full backs, he'll likely be used as an RB.

Wollscheid looks like a decent prospect and might have a chance to join the squad if he keeps up his great form at Nürnberg.

· Full backs

I'm assuming Lahm switches to the left at Bayern and will then do the same in the NT. Schmelzer and Aogo will therefore fight for a place in the squad, not for the starting role. The winner earns a seat on the bench. RB remains to be seen. Candidates are Beck, Boateng, Castro, Diekmeier, possibly even Höwedes. Höwedes is a centre-back though and would mostly be a last resort if no real RB steps up. Diekmeier has the talent, but needs to prove himself over a full season. This leaves Beck and Castro as the prime choices. Löw hates Castro though. Beck has decent potential and it remains to be seen how he does next season. And where he plays - I heard Juventus is interested in him among others. Then again, Juventus is interested in almost anyone it seems. Still, I would hope for Beck to make his final breakthrough next season and gain some CL or at least Euro League experience at last. Boateng is, as described before, a very versatile player who should normally be in the squad anyhow; might as well act as the major substitute for the RB position.

· CM/DM

Schweinsteiger will be 27 and slowly hit his prime next year. On form, he'll be one of the best midfielders in the world and is therefore a fixture in the team. His most likely partner is Khedira, who I think will keep developing at Madrid (well, hopefully) and refine his game. Both have formed a formidable partnership at the 2010 WC and it would be nice to keep that up and improve on it. Schweinsteiger's replacement would be Kroos, who hopefully will play a much better next season with Bayern to keep developing his talent. Khedira's replacement is S. Bender, who needs to keep up his form at Dortmund and hopefully will show more of his skills in the CL.

Depending on the opposition, I could see a bit of rotation in these positions. Schweinsteiger can be complemented with either of those 3 players. Against weak opposition, I could see a very offensive and creative partnership between Schweinsteiger and Kroos. Likewise, Schweinsteiger/Bender would be a wall against opposition who's strong in attack. It's also possible to form 3-man midfields with these players.

Defensive (similar to Madrid's approach vs. Barcelona this year):
------------- Bender
--- Schweinsteiger - Khedira

Offensive (similar to Spain '10):
------------ Khedira
--- Schweinsteiger - Kroos

Prospects are Lars Bender and Gündogan, who both will hopefully have their breakthrough next season and play convincingly in the CL. Rolfes is just an alternative, in case others get injured. The same applies for Träsch. Ballack is obviously dropped.

· LM/AM/RM

Müller plays on the right. Schürrle and Podolski fight it out for the left side. If the current development is confirmed, Schürrle will get the place by then. But, at first, he needs to keep up his form and improve on it; also in the CL and in further NT games. Podolski has obviously much more experience, but playing a decent season at Köln and scoring a few goals vs. Kazhakstan or Belarus here and there might not be enough anymore. There's more competition around for his position than there ever was since he joined the NT in 2004.
Reus is a good alternative for the right side, but, despite his talent, I don't think he'll be able to challenge Müller for the starting position. Still, he's one of the players that can replace the starter adequately, which means there will be no more terrible situations like there was for the Spain game in WC 2010, when Müller couldn't play and had to be replaced by Trochowski. For once, the bench is awesome again and full of interesting options.

Özil is a given in the center. Götze is his direct replacement as the playmaker. The latter has to keep up his form and improve on it. I'm sure he will, since he likely has the biggest talent of all players in the squad, along with Özil. He will gain CL experience and play more NT games in the meantime. I don't know if he will have earned a starting position by 2012, but he will most likely by 2014. Also, he should not solely act as Özil's substitute for the playmaker role, but also be used on the left or right wing, whenever possible. A partnership between Özil and Götze looks extremely promising. I'd say, by 2012 Götze will still have 'super sub' status, given the competition in midfield. Afterwards, until 2014, it would be wise to find a constant place for Götze in the starting line up and let the Göziller or Gözirrle combination grow and flourish.

In the post-2012 future, I could see a switch to something like this (at least as a plan B):

--- Müller ---- Özil --- Götze
------------ Schürrle

or

--- Götze --- Özil --- Schürrle
------------ Müller

Similar to Spain/Barcelona, no targetman (Klose, Gomez). All 4 players interchange and swap positions constantly and become unpredicable. All 4 have the capabilities of doing so, due to their tactical awareness, vision and technique. Özil can play all 3 offensive midfield positions, so can Götze. Schürrle can play both sides and as a CF (hopefully, we'll see more of this at Leverkusen next season), Müller can play all 4 positions.

Prospects: Sam for the right, Großkreutz for the left, though both should only be considered when injuries strike. Holtby is also a great prospect for the center and a good one for the wings, but it seems like there's just no place for him. I guess he'll captain the U21 for another year or two, then we'll see what happens with him. Leitner also looks promising (almost on the Özil/Götze/Kroos-promising level), but his time will come after 2012. Maybe even after 2014.


· Forwards

Klose to play his last tournament in 2012, Gomez as his replacement. Gomez is a goalscoring machine at the moment, but so is Klose in the NT - and has been so for a good part of the decade now, with no signs of him slowing down (unlike Podolski). Klose is more proven against big time opposition and in big time occasions. Gomez has the talent to score against any type of opposition, but hasn't really shown this yet. His time should come after Klose steps down. Also, Gomez needs to work on his weaknesses, which there are plenty of. Pretty much everything aside from pure goalscoring/poaching. In Germany's current and future technical system, he's not the biggest help yet, because he can hardly participate in the build-up play. On the other hand, Klose has worked on this over the past few years and has managed to become the perfect forward for Löw's evolved system. If Klose doesn't get injured alot or constantly ends up on Rome's bench, he should be the first option in 2012, win the Euro, then step down (or stick around as a substitute until 2014, win the World Cup and grab the WC alltime goal record, preferably with 2 goals in the final vs. Brazil, the second one being the 3:2 winning goal in the 91st minute). Gomez' time comes after 2012, unless the system changes to what I've described above, with Schürrle or Müller acting as CF.

Other strikers to watch: Petersen (will be interesting to see him at Bayern next season, hopefully he'll get some decent playing time), Lasogga, Schieber. Then there's the VERY young ones like Yesil, Thomalla, Ducksch, Parker, Volland. Maybe one of them will have stepped up before WC 2014, otherwise they can just join the squad afterwards. The likes of Kießling, Helmes and Cacau are also around, but I doubt they'd get a spot in the squad unless injuries happen.

[BarrileteCosmico]

Talk about making an entrance

[rwo power]

Great post as 1st post. Welcome and rep+1 for that!

[juventus101]

This should be Germanys starting lineup in my opinion:

-----------------------Neuer
Beck--Mertesacker----Hummels----Lahm
-----------Schweini--------Khedira
----Marin------------Ozil-----------Podolski
----------------------Gomez

I think beck is the best fullback available after lahm himselfof course. And since bayern bought rafinha, lahm will probably be moved back tothe left anyways so hellgo back to being a leftback full time. Everyone suggesting goetze and muller and shurlle in thestarting lineup are forgetting that podolski is a perpetual god for the national team, and leaving him out of the starting lineup would be our biggest mistake by far, especially after he had an excellent season with Koln. And personally I believe Marin is our best option for the right winger spot, I consider him superior to muller and goetze. Though I havent seen that much from goetze other than a dortmund vame here and there. So I thinkits a fight between marin and goetze. And the bender from dortmund, lars right? He could get a starting spot over khedira possibly, thats another close one, so for now ill stick with the spartan. On the bench, I would have: Adler, schmelzer, howedes, friedrich, jansen, ballack, lars bender, goetze, muller, reus, kroos, klose. Helmes and kiessling could fight klose for that spot but kloses national team form, no matter how old he gets, never seems to drop. And tasci and schafer can fight friedrich and jansen for the defensive spots, but friedrich has been solid for germany so hes a safe pick, and the same goesfor jansen.

[MJ]

Low should have let Ballack announce his own retirement. This way is just a disgrace to a great German player.

[Toffer Harley]

yea apparently there have been some misunderstandings...

[Sushi Master]

Loew is too buzy calling up all that insane midfield talent Germany have to retire Ballack properly.

I'd say F Ballack, and give Sven some playing time

[Sabra1]

Neuer; Lahm, Hummels/Friedrich if he still has it by '12, Mertesacker, Schmelzer; Schweinsteiger, Khedira; Mueller, Oezil, (please forgive me King Podolski) and Goetze in his natural left-wing position; Klose. If The New Bomber is (GOD-FORBID) not available, I wouldn't go with Gomez. I would go with the younger, faster, technically better Schuerrle! But Klose should always be Germany's first choice.

[rwo power]

Well, Gomez is out for the next two NT matches due to injury. Time for some new experiments?

[Geo]

I say give Nils Petersen some NT experience

[Serge Gnabry]

Qualified!!!!

Now Jogi can experiment the remaining games. Awesome!

[rwo power]

For tomorrow's match against Belgium, Löw sent Mario Götze home. Klose is out due to injury, Boateng and Schweinsteiger may be in doubt and Özil could or could not play either. Looks like Neuer will do have to stand in as playmaker again XD

Oh, and by the way, Germany's U21 won 8:0 against San Marino today (5th win in the 5th competitive match (U21 EC qualification).

Standings Group 1

Code:

                        Games    W  D  L    Goals  Points
1. Deutschland            5      5  0  0    23:1      15
2. Weissrussland          4      2  1  1    7:5        7
3. Griechenland            3      2  0  1    6:3        6       
4. Bosnien-Herzegowina    3      1  1  1    4:4        4       
5. Zypern                  4      1  0  3    8:9      3         
6. San Marino              5      0  0  5    0:26      0 


[Geo]

Emre and Köz are GREAAAAAAAAAAAT!!

Emre and Köz are FCB youth product

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

English invasion

[Geo]

YAAY!! I just saw the cookie!
Actually I missed the cookie

[rwo power]

Here's the line-up for the friendly Germany - France in Bremen at Feb 29, 2012:

GK: Manuel Neuer (Bayern München), Tim Wiese (Werder Bremen)

Defenders: Dennis Aogo (Hamburger SV), Jerome Boateng (Bayern München), Holger Badstuber (Bayern München), Benedikt Höwedes (Schalke 04), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund), Philipp Lahm (Bayern München), Christian Träsch (VfL Wolfsburg), Marcel Schmelzer (Borussia Dortmund)

Midfielders: Lars Bender (Bayer Leverkusen), Sven Bender (Borussia Dortmund), Sami Khedira (Real Madrid), Toni Kroos (Bayern München), Thomas Müller (Bayern München), Mesut Özil (Real Madrid), Marco Reus (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Simon Rolfes (Bayer Leverkusen), Andre Schürrle (Bayer Leverkusen)

Attackers: Mario Gomez (Bayern München), Miroslav Klose (Lazio Rom), Cacau (VfB Stuttgart)

Source: http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/nationalelf/startseite/564982/artikel_loew-haelt-an-cacau-fest---hanke-nicht-dabei.html

Both Benders, but no ter Stegen... Schweinsteiger, Götze, Podolski and Mertesacker are out with injuries.

[VivaStPauli]

Double-Bender

Too bad he'll probably play Khedira.

[VivaStPauli]

I'm wondering where he'll put Kroos though. Defensive midfield, or just on the left flank, where Podolski is out injured?

[rwo power]

Hm. Normally Schürrle is better to replace Poldi, so one has to wonder.

[VivaStPauli]

Yes, but Löw really likes Kroos these days (and why wouldn't he?) so I wonder. But he'll probably use Kroos as a Piggy-replacement, meaning neither Bender will play, assuming Kroos will be paired with Khedira.

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