I'll give you Reus for Özil, but the other ones? Süle didn't get enough playtime, Brandt only got 5th and Gündogan is a dice roll. On a good day, he's good. On most days, however, he doesn't change the game. I'm not too impressed. I maintain that it's easy to call out players after a lost game, but I'm not convinced we actually have better alternatives. And I'm not yet hurting enough to start experimenting.
Sule has 42 appearances in all competitions, how is that not enough playtime? Alos many games with Germany last year and this year.
And you are seriously holding Leverkusen coming 5th as an argument against Brandt? What has that good to do with anything? He had a good season, he had a good Confed Cup and he was dangerous yesterday after coming in. His profile fits better than most for one of the Winger positions in Low's system, he could only do it better after the shitshow served by Draxler, Muller and Ozil.
Germany has serious problems based on the last 4 games, they are on the brink of crashing out if they lose the next one against Sweden and you think it is too early to change something? If nothing changes, they can fly home next Sunday and the "Golden Generation" of Muller, Ozil, Boateng, Hummels, Khedira, Kroos etc can write off ever winning another title for Germany.
Tactics may be a part of the problem. But only a part. When half of the players have an indifferent season or come back from injuries, we shouldn't probably expect too much.
Boateng, Ozil, Muller, Draxler struggled last season. Werner scored only 13 league goals. The front 3 have scored, what, 25 league goals between them? That's rubbish. I know Klose wasn't exactly brilliant in the league but he was an exception.
Would any of Werner, Draxler and Muller make Brazil's squad on the basis of their form last season? Probably not. Muller looked like a better player when he was 20 y.o.
Still, early days. Germany will beat Sweden and S. Korea, imo. And then everything is possible. Brazil didn't look brilliant either.
I agree about most points (don't think we have a chance against Brazil) and Werner was very bad yesterday, but his last season was easily good enough for Brazil.
Yes he scored "only" 13 goals for a patchy RB Leipzig, but I don't think that is a low number for a 22 y/o striker. Gabriel Jesus is the starting striker for Brazil and he scored 13 in the league, Firmino's tally in the league is 15. That is not much better than Werner, and both played in much better teams.
In all competitions, Werner managed 21 goals and 10 assists, that is fecking brilliant for a striker of his age and only topped by Mbappe in Europe.
He also scored 8 goals in 14 for Germany, better goals/games ratio than Ronaldo and Messi (and Gabriel Jesus and Firmino, if you want comparisons with players playing less games).
Going overkill on the hindsight one might ask whether Götze and Sane would have helped yesterday. Sane would've gotten the space he needs had he played as a LM (or at least given Kroos some more space by demanding more attention than Plattenhardt) and Götze, who is probably Germany's most pressing resistent player, would've helped keeping it cool in the center.
Mexico had 8 man in the last third yesterday, Sane would have dribbled into opponents like he did against Austria. He would have been the alternative to Brandt, who did fine when he came in. I like the idea of Gotze because he can create something out of nothing. The thing is, he does not have the physical attributes to compete in a fast and intense game like yesterday. He is also not the right player to cover for fullbacks.