World Cup: National Team threads #2

[cgf]

Füllkrug and Havertz will be starting together as a strike duo. Figure two of Sane, Musiala, Wirtz will get the creative midfield spots around that duo.

 

[al secord]

Disagree with a lot of this lol.

You're missing Füllkrug & Havertz...at least one of whom should start...and starting Brandt over Musiala would be crazy, even after the last two months.

In the midfield Can needs to start whether we play with 2 or 3...and you picked just 3 of the defenders that I would've (Schlotterbeck, Süle, and Raum).

Edit:
Though Toni's podcast isn't bad and I will always have love for the last star to be born in the same country as me, his NT time has passed. He just doesn't have the legs and we don't have Tchou & Cama to cover for him.

I could get on board with a midfield triangle featuring Kimmich, LeGo or Ilkay, & Can...if we didn't have Wirtz, Musiala, Sane, & Kai to play behind the striker even without Gnabry, Adeyemi, or Moukoko in this selection.

I know Musiala's form cratered after the coaching change, but he has to be in our best 11...ditto Wirtz...Havertz has just been too good for the NT not to be in the mix for a starting spot as well, and benching Sane is a tough sell too...even with Brandt's career year.

I sometimes can't help wishing you were allowed 12 players. Then we could just play a 4-3-3-1 to fit Füllkrug, a creative trio, and a midfield trio in front of the back 4...or even a 3-3-4-1 with all 4 creatives between Füllkrug and the midfield

I think our best 26...ignoring the U21s' needs...would look like:

ST (2): Füllkrug, Moukoko
AM (7): Musiala, Wirtz, Havertz, Sane, Gnabry, Adeyemi, Brandt
CM (4): Kimmich, Gundogan, Goretzka, Can
FB (5): Raum, Henrichs, Klostermann, Baku, Gosens/Günter/Netz
CB (5): Schlotterbeck, Rüdiger, Süle, Ginter, Thiaw/ABK
GK (3): ter Stegen, Trapp, Leno/Baumann

Might replace Klostermann or Thiaw / ABK with Arnold / Andrich / Khedira / Stach / Martel, since Klostermann provides cover at both CB & RB.

Your disrespect of the Brentford 2some is puzzling.

 

[cgf]

Your disrespect of the Brentford 2some is puzzling.

Schade should be starting for our u21s this summer

 

[al secord]

Schade should be starting for our u21s this summer

Hopefully he can regain a scoring touch. Having a semblance of service from the midfield will help haha.

 

[cgf]

Hopefully he can regain a scoring touch. Having a semblance of service from the midfield will help haha.

Good thing our U21 midfield is more pragmatic than technical

…it’ll be interesting to see how he does. Moukoko will be starting up front so Schade will either be playing in a front two with Mouki or on the wing off of him…and at the u21 level his physical tools are a handful.

 

[cgf]

Funny we talked about Schade, he's had to pull out of the senior team's match with Ukraine and will be joining the U21s right away...though he's not expected to miss any of the U21 euros.

Mouki has been called up to the senior team to replace Schade.

 

[cgf]

Interesting lineup. Back 3, no Can in the midfield, and Brandt gets the nod in the attacking midfield:

Füllkrug - Sane
Brandt
Raum - Kimmich - Goretzka - Wolf
Schlotterbeck - Ginter - Rüdiger

​

EDIT:
Bright start. Füllkrug almost scores after 90 seconds, Wolf opens the scoring in the 6th minute.

Nice chance carved open for Raum.

Rüdiger plays Tsygankov on and Ukraine gets an equalizer after two passes. Not unexpected with an inexperienced back 3, but still way too easy.

And after another sloppy lost ball it's 1-2

 

[cgf]

Got sloppy in the 15-25th minutes...the defense really showing how little time they've played together, especially in this shape...but they rallied and finished strong with a couple good chances in the final 15-20 minutes of the half. I get the thinking; a back 3 should give Kimmich the same support that he gets with Can & a CB-duo.

...but I like our balance better with a back 4 + Can. Though that could be a lack of experience together thing, I think I would move forward with a back 4 + Can as our main shape and try to settle on a CB duo so they could gel by the EM.

Füllkrug
Sane/Wirtz - Havertz/Wirtz - Musiala/Wirtz
Kimmich - Can
Raum/Netz - Schlotterbeck* - Süle* - Baku/Klostermann
ter Stegen

*Ginter / Rüdiger / Bella Kotchap / Thiaw​

Where I'd experiment would be with playing a back 4 with defensive FBs...even trying Schlotterbeck at LB until Netz or Rothe are ready for the senior team...to see if we could get away with with Kimmich behind 4 AM + Füllkrug. Something like:

Füllkrug
Sane - Havertz - Musiala - Wirtz
Kimmich
Schlotterbeck - Ginter* - Süle* - Klostermann
ter Stegen

*Rüdiger / Bella Kotchap / Thiaw

​

EDIT:
The back 3 I'd like to see would be:

Füllkrug
Sane - Havertz - Musiala - Wirtz
Kimmich - Can
Schlotterbeck - Hummels* - Klostermann
ter Stegen

*Süle / Rüdiger / Ginter / Tah / Bella Kotchap / Thiaw​

 

[koyvoo]

Ukraine has developed one of the best counterattacking games in Europe over the past few years.

 

[cgf]

NT-Kai is just so much more fun than Chelsea-Kai.

Second verse same as the first, and we're level.

Another NT match, another goal + penalty-drawn for Havertz.

 

[cgf]

Flick ended up switching to something similar to the 4-1-4-1 I suggested to accommodate Kimmich without partnering him with a more traditional 6 like Can (or Khedira), and the defense looked a lot better in a back 4 with conservative fullbacks.

Havertz
Sane - Musiala - Wirtz - Hofmann
Kimmich
Henrichs - Rüdiger - Ginter - Klostermann
Trapp​

I like the idea of Schlotterbeck & Klostermann as outside CBs in a back 3 because their athleticism and skill would really stand out at those spots...but unless BVB buys Klostermann & Terzic plays those two with Süle in a back 3 next season, it doesn't seem like an all out back 3 will be a viable option for us.

The 4-1-4-1 worked well against Ukraine, but I think it was still too vulnerable against a top team and we'll need to play Can (or Khedira) next to Kimmich against the top teams.

Musiala, Havertz, Sane, and Wirtz are just magical together so it really sucks not to be able to fit all 4 onto the pitch together but I do think we're best with Füllkrug at the tip of the spear. So one of that quartet will have to come off the bench in big matches.

Maybe the answer is benching kimmich against the big teams instead? Go 4-1-4-1 with Can (or Khedira) shielding the back 4 and the creative quartet taking turns dropping back to link our defense with the attack?

Füllkrug
Sane - Havertz - Musiala - Wirtz
Can
Henrichs - Schlotterbeck* - Süle* - Klostermann
ter Stegen

*Rüdiger / Ginter / Bella Kotchap / Thiaw​

 

[Bon Esprit]

Congrats to Ukraine, too bad they didn't win.
The German team (with a few exeptions) is crap.
Our defence is so awful it's not even funny anymore.

 

[cgf]

Congrats to Ukraine, too bad they didn't win.
The German team (with a few exeptions) is crap.
Our defence is so awful it's not even funny anymore.

Tbf to the defense it's only been a disaster when Flick has experimented with just how attacking we can get away with playing. Against Belgium it was very solid after Can came on, despite the attacking FBs, and today it was once again very solid in the final 30 min that we went back to a back 4 with defensive FBs.

With a year to go until the tourney now is the time to see if we have alternatives to playing a back 4 with either defensive FBs or Can at the 6 to allow for attacking FBs...even if all we found out was that we don't...because on paper a back 3 with Schlotterbeck & Klostermann at the outside CB spots seems like an interesting solution.

The next window Flick should start settling into these main shapes and allow the top options to begin gelling.

Füllkrug
Sane - Havertz - Musiala - Wirtz
Kimmich/Gundogan
Henrichs - Schlotterbeck* - Süle* - Klostermann
ter Stegen

Füllkrug
Sane/Wirtz - Havertz/Wirtz - Musiala/Wirtz
Kimmich - Can
Raum - Schlotterbeck* - Süle* - Wolf/Baku
ter Stegen

*Rüdiger / Ginter / Thiaw / Bella Kotchap​

 

[Power Man]

Ake starting for NL today only a few days after playing the CL Final wtf

 

[Savant]

Ake starting for NL today only a few days after playing the CL Final wtf

Dumfries too. It’s so irresponsible what they do . Virgil said he was burned out from too many games and he is playing too. No one cares

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Dumfries too. It’s so irresponsible what they do . Virgil said he was burned out from too many games and he is playing too. No one cares

Alvarez is playing tomorrow which is nonsense given that he should be celebrating with his team imo.

 

[Savant]

Alvarez is playing tomorrow which is nonsense given that he should be celebrating with his team imo.

Less than a week from the final.

If there want to play these nonsense games they need to use A and B squads. The players are going to get hurt

 

[Power Man]

Alvarez is playing tomorrow which is nonsense given that he should be celebrating with his team imo.

Judging from the footage I've seen, they have done plenty of celebration lol

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Less than 90 seconds. Best player in the world scores lol. Mls enjoy him.

 

[cgf]

Rewatching how we played after switching to the 4-1-4-1 and god damn are Musiala, Wirtz, Havertz, and Sane fun to watch together when given sufficient defensive support. We certainly lack depth in spots and our defense needs to gel over the next year, but our attacking play is an absolute delight.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Loool

 

[Power Man]

Less than 90 seconds. Best player in the world scores lol. Mls enjoy him.

Lads it’s Australia

 

[cgf]

Looking over the U21s roster and being reminded that Samardzic is now playing for Serbia, they could be interesting this cycle. They've got a very manageable qualifying group that they're off to a good start in, and on paper a very interesting team.

Vlahovic & Mitrovic as options up front with Kostic, Tadic, Samardzic, SMS, and Ilic to provide creative impulses, is plenty of talent if they gel & the defense holds up. Of course playing up to their talent on paper has long been a problem for the serbs, but things are lined up nicely for them.

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]

Come on Scaloni put Garnacho on.

I love that ADM kisses everyone when he gets subbed off

 

[Duchene2MacKinnon]