Germany will apparently line-up in a 4-3-3 in their first game on monday against Portugal
Expected line-up (source: BILD)
---------------------Neuer---------------------
-Boateng-Mertesacker-Hummels-Höwedes--
-------------------Lahm------------------------
---------Khedira----------Kroos---------------
-Müller------------Özil------------Podolski----
I think there is not a single person in Germany who is convinced by the line-up
except of Jogi Löw.
My thoughts:
Neuer, if fit is the obvious choice.
Boateng at fullback is alright. He is strong, is very fast and is experienced at top level.
He already played as a fullback in 2010 (on the left side) and did well, so I expect him
to have a good World Cup on his more natural right side. He is not too bad going forward either.
Him and Khedira are a good match for Ronaldo and I'm convinced they will keep him quiet.
With Boateng playing on the right there is no choice to make in the middle. Mertesacker and
Hummels are the only experienced options and I hope both will step up, as I'm not really a fan
of Arsenal's 'Big fecking German' and I did not see Hummels play at his absolute best for a long
time. The way to go for opponents is to attack them with pace, Mertesacker is fairly slow and Hummels
always tends to 'fall asleep' for a few seconds during matches.
Höwedes at leftback. I - and about 81.199.199 other people in Germany - have absolutely no idea
why there is the need to play somebody who NEVER played left fullback in his professional career, who is right footed, who is a natural centreback and who is everything but good going forward , in this position.
Marcel Schmelzer is not even in the squad, Erik Durm, who played a fantastic Champions League campaign, will sit on the bench and we will see non-existing overlapping and no danger going forward instead coming from the leftback position.
Germany's strength was their offense these last years, but we conceded lots of goals and instead of making a few adjustments in style of playing, Löw build a new defense consisting of 4 defensice capable centrebacks. in my opinion this will take away a lot from our great offense, it's like playing a back four of Jones, Ferdinand, a better Smalling and a worse Jonny Evans. Sounds Moyesish to me and certainly not good enough to become World Champions.
The midfield -
Lahm decided to play in midfield which is alright on the one side, because he's great in that role,
but stupid on the other side, as he is our only world-class fullback and we have more options in midfield.
The midfield will be completed by Khedira and Kroos.
In my opinion there is no need for Khedira if you play 4 defensive defenders (makes sense,huh?) and Lahm in front of them. Sami is bad going forward and will run around a lot without adding anything to our game.
Kroos had a good season and deserves his place, but him Khedira and Lahm is too defensive in my opinion and not creative enough going forward.
Müller on the right is the obvious choice, everybody knows he'll score goals and have a great tournament.
Not a fan of Podolski, but he always stepped up for Germany and is a pretty realiable scorer and hard worker, too.
It's too sad that Marco Reus is injured, he was by far the best German player for the last 6 months and would have set the World Cup alight cutting in from the left side.
Mesut Özil at false 9 - It never worked well and I guess it never will. Löw is in love with Özil and always plays him, for me his form is not good enough though. If Klose is notfit the best option would be to play Müller upfront, atleast he sometimes plays that role on club level.
The whole line-up is a disaster waiting to happen, but at the end of the day it's Germany
and when it matters we're always there.
My line-up(with Lahm wishing to play in midfield) would be
--------------------Neuer---------------------
-Boateng--Mertesacker--Hummels--Durm-
--------------Lahm--Schweinsteiger/Kroos--
---Götze------------Özil---------Schürrle---
--------------------Müller--------------------
There is loads of people here who really hate Jogi Löw, some don't even support the team because of that and I see where they are coming from, but somehow we'll still reach the semi-finals and I hope confidence will grow during the tournament so maybe we can finally win something
Auf geht's!