Goals galore in Germany-Switzerland friendly

Mertesacker doesn't deserve so much hate. It's quite clear he's not the best athlete in the world, and he has screwed up both for Arsenal and Germany in recent times, but he just came back from injury for Germany and for Arsenal it was his first season. IMO, when he played, his first Arsenal season was more impressive than Koscielny's, so give him time. He is still better than Djourou or Squillaci...

call up metzelder

The defense was horrible, so was the midfield. Can't believe Lowe fielded Khedira, Ozil and Gotze and then subbed Khedira for Gündoğan as if the midfield isn't already disjointed enough. Inler controlled the midfield and absolutely owned Germany along with Xhaka.

That pass to Litchsteiner!!

Eman wrote:Mertesacker doesn't deserve so much hate. It's quite clear he's not the best athlete in the world, and he has screwed up both for Arsenal and Germany in recent times, but he just came back from injury for Germany and for Arsenal it was his first season. IMO, when he played, his first Arsenal season was more impressive than Koscielny's, so give him time. He is still better than Djourou or Squillaci...

Thing is Mertesacker had a better season "as a defender" than Vermaelen, but everyone forgets that because Vermaelen is a "ball playing CB" and scores a lot of goals, while Mertesacker only does his work

Per did not have a better season than Vermaelen. Koscielny was the best CB for Arsneal, followed by Vermaelen and then Per. Per is just slow and a wimp. When all 3 were healthy, Vermaelen was played wide because he's fast enough.

Per is a good depth player imo. Nothing more.

I agree that he's a depth player and good enough as a 3rd choice. But he's not horrible like rewb is saying. Just stating that Vermaelen had a bad season but some Arsenal forget it because he scored some goals. Same for Hummels and all other CB's that score goals and get love for that.

And when Mertesacker was fit we barely even conceded goals. Just look at the Milan away match we were horrible without him.

On a side note, I'm still annoyed that Hitzfeld didn't let Yann Sommer play instead of Diego Benaglio. After all, it was a friendly and it was played at Basel's home stadium - why not give the boy his debut in such a match? *sulk*

rwo power wrote:On a side note, I'm still annoyed that Hitzfeld didn't let Yann Sommer play instead of Diego Benaglio. After all, it was a friendly and it was played at Basel's home stadium - why not give the boy his debut in such a match? *sulk*

butthurt sommer fan is butthurt

Not butthurt. I just don't understand it. And btw, in the Basel forum, most people are convinced, too, that Switzerland would have won 5:1 with Yann Sommer in goal.

ter Stegen deceived me :vagi:

Now I wonder what will be RWO's reaction is this sommer guy is benched by Basel for a new Gk

No talk of Barnetta's performance?

Created all of Derdiyok's goals and was MOTM imo..... someone is going to get a bargain this summer as he's available on a free...

I hope its us as we want him

In the first half, Germany used a 4-1-4-1, with Khedira covering the highly crucial DM/CM spot. At first, Germany were looking decent and were ripping the Swiss apart. Unfortunately though, after around 15 minutes Khedira apparently lost interest in the game...

After the break, Khedira was taken off and Germany played with an AM-turned-CM (Gündogan) and an AM-filling-in-as-a-CM (Götze).

It's no surprise the defense looked bad, as they were exposed badly over and over. It was one of Jogi's experiments, zero of which have worked so far over the course of the last few years. Regardless of the opposition.

If you also consider that Schmelzer is only solid when he has an absolute workhorse like Großkreutz in front of him (who is as much a defender as he is an attacker) and that Schmelzer's partner in this formation is Podolski of all people, it's easy to understand why the team conceded 5 goals.

Essentially, they were playing a 4-0-5-1 over long stretches of the game. (or, rather, a 3-0-5-1, since we can pretty much just forget about Schmelzer even being on the pitch).

Albiceleste wrote:ter Stegen deceived me :vagi:

with all honesty it was his defense that let him down

Kingofeverythingclassy wrote:Now I wonder what will be RWO's reaction is this sommer guy is benched by Basel for a new Gk

Actually, Yann Sommer (then just aged 22) replaced fan favourite and long time Basel Nr.1 Franco Costanzo exactly one year ago. Many Basel fans that time were totally not convinced of Sommer and would have preferred to keep Costanzo instead. Obviously the opinions changed after Sommer's top-class performances this season (okay, I'll spread a merciful mantle of silence over the 2nd CL leg against Bayern, but that was more the problem of a collective failure of the Basel defense and not the sole fault of the GK), and as things stand, he will not be kicked out any time soon. ^^

Sommer will defo get into Bundesliga or EPL methinks. He's already good enough.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:No talk of Barnetta's performance?

Created all of Derdiyok's goals and was MOTM imo..... someone is going to get a bargain this summer as he's available on a free...

I hope its us as we want him

And he refuses to sign an extension with Leverkusen. How that poor club keeps being screwed by all factors involved is dazzling.

What's with all this Mertesacker hate, especially from Arsenal fans? Did you catch him in bed with your girlfriends or something?

rwo power wrote:

Kingofeverythingclassy wrote:Now I wonder what will be RWO's reaction is this sommer guy is benched by Basel for a new Gk

Actually, Yann Sommer (then just aged 22) replaced fan favourite and long time Basel Nr.1 Franco Costanzo exactly one year ago. Many Basel fans that time were totally not convinced of Sommer and would have preferred to keep Costanzo instead. Obviously the opinions changed after Sommer's top-class performances this season (okay, I'll spread a merciful mantle of silence over the 2nd CL leg against Bayern, but that was more the problem of a collective failure of the Basel defense and not the sole fault of the GK), and as things stand, he will not be kicked out any time soon. ^^

I am pretty sure you knew very little about Basel prior to this season.

So you do all this research because a goalie looks cute

Kingofeverythingclassy wrote:I am pretty sure you knew very little about Basel prior to this season.

So you do all this research because a goalie looks cute

Well, I love to do research in general. That's why I do not only know a lot about my favourite club, but about a lot of others, too. (I bet I actually know a lot more about Bayern than most Bayern fans here, too )

Well replaced, or not replaced, you can still do nothing for match after match and still start.

Ter Stegen, Cacau, Draxler and Sven Bender are omitted from the squad.

The only one worth a shot was Draxler. The other ones disappointed. Reus at CF is possible. I hope Löw will make it happen, he looked awesome

wow, Sven upstaged by his bro

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO how could Löw pass up the chance of playing the double-Bender?

Seriously though I get it, he doesn't need more defensive mids, Sven has been injured a lot this season, and Lars offers more going forward.

Sven Bender would've been the best tackler we have, though, and I would've given him a shot at FB, personally. But I guess Löw wants Gündogan as a backup if both Schweini and Kroos are out, I guess that makes sense. I'm also glad he cut Cacau. I actually like the lad, he rather fits our system, but Reus and Schürrle are just so much better than him.

Don't worry Viva, when Ismaik gets a taste of the new Buli TV deal after 60 are promoted he'll bring them both home











I wish