Yea that's true. It was more about qualifying coming 2nd rather than third, because of the win against Portugal.
Maybe the other guy should so you don't respond sarcastically when it is not called for.
So you think it was a good idea to switch from idolizing Pep Guardiola to idolozing Niko Kovac? Interesting.
I was lot more confident when I saw Gnabry wasn't playing. A front 3 of Gnabry, Havertz and Sane would have been terrifying.
No, I think he should have stepped down or be sacked after it became clear in 2018, at the latest, that he couldn't find a balanced implementation of his idea, with just a couple of very highly rated players in place of the all time greats who carried him before, but had retired since. The shit show of the past couple of years didn't happen, because the evil public meddled in his business, it happened, because he kept flip flopping between ideas, because he had no idea how to shape die Mannschaft into a cohesive force.
Yes, but he didn't. So I'm pointing out what I think his mistakes were. Löw was a lame duck ever since the last WC and just did what he felt would appease the public. Hence the flip flopping between ideas and the lifeless playing "concept" that we saw at this EC.
So you're saying he was desperate to appease the public that didn't even want him there? I'm sure he must have wondered to himself why no one liked him then.
Yes, absolutely. He clung to the job as if his life depended on it. In 2018, Germany and Spain as the representatives of possession football had exited the WC very early, Niko Kovac had just made the German cup final two times in a row with an underdog team playing a very aggressive and vertical style, having 23% possession in the final win against Bayern 2018. He was then appointed Bayern head coach and said stuff like "possession football is dead" and the new world champion also played a rather negative and vertical brand of football. The public questioned Löw's play style and he gave in. After 2018, his position was far too weak to even continue, regardless of his actual football decisions. He went from being an idealist to being an opportunist and always did what he thought would propitiate the public opinion. He started a rebuild with new faces to create the image that real change was happening, he adapted a more vertical playing style without having the players for it and in the end went back on his decision to exclude Müller and Hummels from the squad because the public pressure was becoming too big.
You're flipping around the causality. Löw had already used more direct football at the 2017 confed cup, this wasn't something he just came up with after the 2018 WC. And to be frank it's ridiculous to suggest that public narratives had more influence on Löw's attempted stylistic adjustment than the fact that his previous approach brought terrible defeats upon him. Löw being Löw he actually kept going down the same path initially after the world cup (believe it or not despite esteemed top coach Niko Kovac proclaiming possession football dead!), it was only after getting dunked on by the Dutch in the NL, that he switched formations and started benching Müller.
Gnabry and Sane have been out of form for quite a while now. In case of Gnabry you could see it yourself in yesterdays game. He was invisible.
Sané is a shell of his former self, he was completely useless in the last few weeks and months. It would've been a travesty to field him in the starting 11.
Low could have changed bit earlier but should have kept werner. After Werner went out they totally lost the shape and england pushed up a bit. The run behind danger totally lost and england pushed up. I knew Werner couldn't do much but once he went England pushed up fullbacks changed the dynamics totally in my opinion.
Bullshit. Apart from the fact that most if not all of our players are better than what Löw's dysfunctional tactics and lineups let it appear, we also just won the u21 euros again.
If you want a proof of talent despite bizzare tactics by the coach then England is the example. English team is comfortably wininng the matches despite some over cautious defensive tactics by Southgate. If German team has real talent then the team should shine despite the coaching malfunction. It hasn't this year, it didn't in last WC. You can put the blame on coach only this much. This german generation is average at best, and I am being generous.
Gundogan was injured. The swelling on his head hadn’t receded enough to risk him
This, unlike England the Germans have never stagnated that much. Germany will rebuild and come back stronger.
I'm more pessimistic. We won the Euro U-21 in 2017 as well (with a second string squad no less), how many of them are in consideration for the national team now? Meyer can't get a game for Koln after failing at Crystal Palace, Stark isn't a confirmed starter for Berlin, Kempf is still at Stuttgard and doesn't look to be moving to a bigger club, Weiser can't get a game at Leverkusen, Toijlan is playing in a mid table team in Italy, Max Phillip failed at Dortmund (though did well at Wolfsburg this season). Really though Kempf and Stark could've been key players at that time but they haven't developed.
I hope so, I wish so, I like them very much. But this German team is rock bottom I have seen in last 40 years.
Unless something fundamental has changed 80 million Germans will continue to produce footballers.
They have a couple coming through I believe. The Sky Germany reporter mentioned the names but I can’t remember them
On point. There was no system, no attacking patterns, nothing. We only looked good in attack against Portugal when Santos weirdly didn't make any adaptions in reaction to Germany having superiority on the wings all the time. But when teams had the spaces for Kimmich and Gosens covered, we had no plan whatsoever. And the 3-4-3 was a terrible fit for our squad, too.
