The "Line up and apologize to Joachim Low" Thread

They won in spite of his strange decisions, Howedes at left back isn't a great decision just because they won a World Cup with him playing there.

We don't know what would have happened had he played someone else. We saw what happened with Howedes, Germany won. So it was the right decision.
 
Anyone suggesting that Germany won despite him is deluded. He knows the setup inside out and has consistently taken his teams to the later stages of international tournaments. Also, the players who play at top European clubs respect him. That's enough for me.
 
They won in spite of his strange decisions, Howedes at left back isn't a great decision just because they won a World Cup with him playing there.
A lot more defensively sound that Grosskreutz. Jansen not that good. Missing that extra attacking outlet down the let didn't harm them much because they had the excellent Lahm on the right.
 
You don't win a World Cup despite the manager. The state of some people's opinions. :lol:
 
He corrected a lot of the mistakes he made beforehand and deserves credit for that. Good job this tournament. Still, the criticism wasn't unwarranted and some of it still remains. Thinking that everything is perfect when you win a title is absolutely deluded. I myself am still of the oppinion that another coach could do a better job with this German team. The solution that's floating around right now (Tuchel becomes his assistant until 2016 when he takes over) might be pretty damn good. Still, you have to applaud Löw for making it through all the difficulties at this tournament. He might not be a top coach, I'll stick to that oppinon, but he did a good job. Chapéau.
 
The criticisms were always a bit OTT. Thank you, Löw.
 
This win was over a decade in the making. Typically German. They've prepared to the tiniest details and done it right. Low deserves a lot of credit and so does the whole team. I think you should measure how many neutrals they won over in the process as the level of respect they've earned. The style of play has impressed many and all decisions he's made have been justified in the end.
 
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They won in spite of his strange decisions, Howedes at left back isn't a great decision just because they won a World Cup with him playing there.

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Anyways, jokes aside, he still won a World Cup. His team were (arguably) the most balanced out of all other sides, and even with some strange choices earlier on, his team still did well and didn't suffer too badly from them. Give credit to Low for this; he did a fine job getting Germany to win the World Cup.
 
When you have the best squad(s), you can make the odd odd selection.....Spain got away with it in both 2010 and 2012, Germany did this time.

But it can also hugely backfire.....as Spain found out this time.
 
Lets be honest, nobody liked the Germans before 2010 2008. Even they didn't like themselves. Biggest success he ever achieved, apart from today's victory, is turning the notoriously "effective" side into an inspiring team playing great football which won them many fans, no doubt.
 
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They played in the best games of Euro 2008. They weren't exactly boredom on their home World Cup either....it's Klinsmann you are talking about.
 
Thanks for Höwedes :)

Dropping Mertesacker for the Boateng & Hummels CB pairing was harsh, but inspired.

I'm not Löw's biggest fan, but the man did well.
 
They played in the best games of Euro 2008. They weren't exactly boredom on their home World Cup either....it's Klinsmann you are talking about.
Yeah, I meant to say 2008 actually. I don't remember being impressed in 2006. Still disliked them very much back then.
 
When you have the best squad(s), you can make the odd odd selection.....Spain got away with it in both 2010 and 2012, Germany did this time.

But it can also hugely backfire.....as Spain found out this time.

That's right. Löw did some bad mistakes between 2008 and 2014 and Höwedes/Özil are two of them. Germany have the best squad and you don't need a genius to bring success to the team. Anyway, well done Löw. Please retire :D
 
Would be a fan of Lowe myself, and rate him as a quality manager.

The claims about Germany winning despite him is just nonsense. Hire Moyes for the euros and see... a WC winning coach and that doesn't happen by chance!

Would he try his hand at Club management though..
 
Changing subjects a bit :

Why did Sabella take off Lavezzi? That was a huge mistmatch with Howedes
 
:lol: I was expecting some newbs to bite but not you lot.

Meh, I found the perfect opportunity to use that gif, myself. :devil:

In terms of Howedes, though, I thought that he would be problematic going forward, but as Germany went farther, he went forward less often and made the left side solid, giving Lahm the full freedom to push forward whilst making the midfielders' jobs easier, defensively, by sitting back rather than bombing forward like he did in the group stages along with Mustafi/Boateng.
 
Nah, I'm good. He didn't submarine the team this time, but Neuer saved his bacon against Algeria when he inexplicably decided that playing a high line with Mertesacker was a good idea, and they were probably narrowly outchanced today, all in all.

Did well to plug the LB problem in that Howedes had a good tournament and was unlucky not to have scored today. In general, having an extra CB out there seemed to help; They looked much more likely to score on a set piece than concede one today.

Still don't think he's a great manager or anything.
 
Changing subjects a bit :

Why did Sabella take off Lavezzi? That was a huge mistmatch with Howedes

I assumed Lavezzi was hurt. Otherwise it made no sense. He looked very capable of forcing Schweinsteiger or Howedes into a 2nd yellow, and opening up the game by playing 4-3-3 made no sense considering Argentina was certainly closer to scoring in the first half than Germany.
 
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Kudos to him. I have criticized him a lot but he has proven that he got what it takes to win a major trophy and there really wasn't any decision, apart from the Mustafi playing ahead of Großkreutz, this WC that I wouldn't have agreed with.

Oh yeah I also didn't really agree with Höwedes on the left, who was pretty much shit all throughout the tournament but I can't really say Durm would have done a better job either so I guess that's not really a point you can criticize if you are world champions.
 
The biggest decision he made and got right was swallowing his pride and putting Lahm back to right back.
 
I have both defended and criticised his decisions throughout the tournament and it was again the same yesterday. I'm still not sure if he fully understands the individual strengths of some of his key players and knows how to get the best out of them. For example, playing most of the regular 90minutes with Schürrle and Klose meant our best goalscorer Müller became the attacking player providing most of the width and was forced to play way too far away from goal; Götze in and Schürrle later for Klose would have made more sense than the other way round.

However, he clearly learned from his mistakes in the past and for most of the tournament did a great job. The overall plan for the tournament was simply perfect (and I praised him for it from the first game onwards) and most key players were able to peak in the perfect moment, Schweinsteiger the obvious example, how you build up a key player, who struggled before the tournament with injuries. You can't handle your squad better than he did throughout this tournament, he gave his players the trust and time to grow into their roles, made crucial decisions against his favourite players (trusting Boateng - Hummels over Mertesacker, ignoring Podolski in the end were clearly decisions few of the 'haters' would have expected). Right now I'd love it if he stayed. I really think he learned a lot in the past 2 years and added the right amount of pragmatism to his coaching to allow this team to peak. So yeah, no apology from me for what I said in the past, but a lot of respect for his work in the past two months. He's a fully deserved World Cup winning manager now for me.