Toggle sidebar

World Cup: National Team threads #2

  • Xenforo Cloud will be upgrading us to version 2.3.5 on March 3rd at 12 AM GMT. This version has increased stability and fixes several bugs. We expect downtime for the duration of the update. The admin team will continue to work on existing issues, templates and upgrade all necessary available addons to minimize impact of this new version. Click Here for Updates
luiginb said:
There are like 15 other matches you can watch. Do it for your blood pressure
Click to expand...

To answer that poster's question, all of those kids that poster was told about last summer are either injured, celebrating their U17 title, preparing to defend their u21 title, or looking good for the senior team :naughty:
 
Colombia with better energy to start this second half. Bring on Flo & Füllkrug.

lol, right on queue. Deserved opener for the Colombians.
 
cgf said:
To answer that poster's question, all of those kids that poster was told about last summer are either injured, celebrating their U17 title, preparing to defend their u21 title, or looking good for the senior team :naughty:
Click to expand...

How convenient. “Oh….they’re coming….you just wait!” Is basically what you’re saying.

Germany are in shambles. There is no wave of new young talent in the system that can provide a new back 4 or a legitimate striker. They continue to lose. They continue to be embarrassed. The pressure is mounting and yet you sit here as if they’re still one of the elite teams in world football. They’re not even top 20 as of this moment. Nobody takes them seriously anymore. They aren’t on the same level as the top tier teams.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rob
SimpleJack said:
How convenient. “Oh….they’re coming….you just wait!” Is basically what you’re saying.

Germany are in shambles. There is no wave of new young talent in the system that can provide a new back 4 or a legitimate striker. They continue to lose. They continue to be embarrassed. The pressure is mounting and yet you sit here as if they’re still one of the elite teams in world football. They’re not even top 20 as of this moment. Nobody takes them seriously anymore. They aren’t on the same level as the top tier teams.
Click to expand...
As an outsider I was just assuming that Germany would be back to its old self by now. Unbelievable how bad they are. Must be a serious sense on panic in Germany right now
 
  • Like
Reactions: SimpleJack
Rob said:
As an outsider I was just assuming that Germany would be back to its old self by now. Unbelievable how bad they are. Must be a serious sense on panic in Germany right now
Click to expand...

Most true fans are. Especially back in Germany. For some reason a few supporters around here are in denial and seem to think they’re still one of the elite teams. They’re lying to themselves. There’s zero help on the way that can fill out a back 4 or become a legit goal scoring threat, just more of the same: “attacking” midfielders. It’s all they have. They can’t finish and can’t defend to save their lives. And again…it’s not getting better any time soon. They need to completely overhaul their entire youth system.

al secord said:
Wow. Germany really sucks.
Click to expand...

Nah man they just need to change formation one more time…that’ll do it…
 
Sample size is relatively small, but Flick currently holds the second worst winning percentage of any manager in the history of the German national team. Twelve wins out of 24 matches, he’s slightly ahead of Ribbeck, who won 10 of 24 in his stint between 1998 and 2000, in what was truly a dark period for Germany.
 
  • Wow
Reactions: luiginb
PansCyans said:
Sample size is relatively small, but Flick currently holds the second worst winning percentage of any manager in the history of the German national team. Twelve wins out of 24 matches, he’s slightly ahead of Ribbeck, who won 10 of 24 in his stint between 1998 and 2000, in what was truly a dark period for Germany.
Click to expand...
And most of his wins have been against the likes of Armenia, Liechtenstein, Romania, etc... Flick could get away with tinkering this much if he had a successful core lineup and tactic to go back to, but that hasn't existed during his tenure. And his tactics don't make any sense either. You have Wolf and Gosens creating width so they can knock in crosses to...Havertz? They are now, what, 7-8 matches out of Euro '24? Those Japan and France matches could get ugly.
 
I’m not willing to writer them off in terms of a continuous and clear trend, as with Italy. To be fair, the last time they looked this bad many people predicted the same fate that many are now in terms of a one way decline, they went on to rattle off 5 consecutive top 4 tournament finishes, including 2 finals and a World Cup between 2006-2014 with a great generation of players.
 
Had to leave for the last half hour but the match was going as I expected it to when I saw the lineup so I doubt anything surprising happened. Can't take much from offseason friendlies with a lot of guys not getting selected or being sent home early, especially when even the coach admits that these matches aren't very serious...but Flick can set the back-3 experiment aside now.

Gunna need to bring a much better effort next summer.
 
Last edited:
Power Man said:
International football and club football are 2 different beasts

Some coaches can suceed in both environments, others can't
Click to expand...

Could be, but it's not like the team played badly at the WM...like they had under Jogi, when they deserved to go out in the group. In Qatar the football was good, it was just undermined by Neuer being awful and us not playing Füllkrug or Moukoko enough. If we can play at a similar level only with MAtS in goal and one of those strikers starting, we'll be back in the QF/SF.

Granted if we play as lackadaisically as we did this window we won't make it out of the groups again :laugh: But it was a long ass season, this wasn't our best selection, and Flick was open about the fact that this window was more about experimenting with a back 3 than the results.

Here's to hoping that this window will turn out be like our friendly defeats leading up to 2006, which helped band the group together and motivate them to play their best when the games started to matter.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Power Man
Duchene2MacKinnon said:
Wirtz, Musiala, Mouoko and Adyeimi. Are all serious talents.

I don’t really care but I mean they have some good talents
Click to expand...
Did you even watch the match yesterday? Wirtz, Moukoko, and Adeyemi were totally invisible.
I, for one, am thoroughly embarrassed that our teenagers have yet to win the WM...

EDIT:
Being serious. We're definitely a lot better at developing attackers than defenders, and we've even started to develop goal scorers again with kids like Adeyemi, Moukoko, Weiper, Brunner, & Ramsak on their way.

Now we just need the new defensive prospects to develop better than the last age group did and actually reach their potential, instead of leaving us with a gaggle of Tah's, Ginter's, & Kehrer's...and for Martel, Breithaupt, or Ouedraogo to reach their potential at the 6 *fingerscrossed*
 
Last edited:
Bringer of Jollity said:
And most of his wins have been against the likes of Armenia, Liechtenstein, Romania, etc... Flick could get away with tinkering this much if he had a successful core lineup and tactic to go back to, but that hasn't existed during his tenure. And his tactics don't make any sense either. You have Wolf and Gosens creating width so they can knock in crosses to...Havertz? They are now, what, 7-8 matches out of Euro '24? Those Japan and France matches could get ugly.
Click to expand...

Eh, when we've played a 4-1-4-1 with defensive FBs or a 4-2-3-1 with Can in the double-pivot, it's worked well. Switching to those shapes drove us to tie up the Belgium & Ukraine matches, dominate Peru, and would've been successful in Qatar if Neuer had broken his leg before the tourney...or we had started Füllkrug/Moukoko.

Not the same as having a title winning core that you're experimenting with, but a title winning core wouldn't require as much experimentation. Ultimately these past 6 months since the WM were the perfect time to experiment with shapes we don't know work, so I don't mind the back 3 trials this window.

But the attitude, selection, and formations will need to be much different the next time the NT gets together to start winning the crowd back.
 
Last edited:
cgf said:
Eh, when we've played a 4-1-4-1 with defensive FBs or a 4-2-3-1 with Can in the double-pivot, it's worked well. Switching to those shapes drove us to tie up the Belgium & Ukraine matches, dominate Peru, and would've been successful in Qatar if Neuer had broken his leg before the tourney...or we had started Füllkrug/Moukoko.

Not the same as having a title winning core that you're experimenting with, but a title winning core wouldn't require as much experimentation. Ultimately these past 6 months since the WM were the perfect time to experiment with shapes we don't know work, so I don't mind the back 3 trials this window.

But the attitude, selection, and formations will need to be much different the next time the NT gets together to start winning the crowd back.
Click to expand...
I don't really see how it could be argued it's worked well when they haven't managed results against any teams they haven't had a significant talent advantage against. They also would've been successful in Qatar had they managed to finish any of the wide open chances they had against Japan which would have put the game out of reach from any Neuer mistakes (of which the 2nd was the really bad one and Schlotterbeck's defending was also awful on that play).
 
Bringer of Jollity said:
I don't really see how it could be argued it's worked well when they haven't managed results against any teams they haven't had a significant talent advantage against. They also would've been successful in Qatar had they managed to finish any of the wide open chances they had against Japan which would have put the game out of reach from any Neuer mistakes (of which the 2nd was the really bad one and Schlotterbeck's defending was also awful on that play).
Click to expand...


Belgium & Spain aren't significantly less talented than us but that didn't stop us from outplaying Spain or Belgium after bringing Can on.

1 more goal for or 1 goal against less in either the Spain or Japan matches would've had us top the group.
 
Last edited:
cgf said:
Belgium & Spain aren't significantly less talented than us but that didn't stop us from outplaying Spain or Belgium after bringing Can on.

1 more goal for or 1 less against in the Spain or Japan matches would've had us top the group.
Click to expand...
Against Spain, they had 4 more shots (only 1 additional on target). xG is varied depending on site, but footystats has it at 1.39-1.07 for Germany...an advantage but hardly a significant one. They were also massively outpossessed. Belgium they outplayed statistically, but the xG is bloated by being given a penalty (probably just about parity otherwise)...they again only managed an equal number of shots on target despite taking twice as many overall. Even if you want to say they outplayed either team, it didn't translate to results.

They generate possession offensively but they suck at finishing. When they don't suck at finishing, they can't keep the ball out of the net. They also don't get going until way too late in games:
-only goal against Oman - 80'
-only goal against Spain - 83'
-3 of the 4 goals scored against Costa Rica from 73' on, in a game they needed to score big in
-second goal against Belgium (in a 2-3 final) at 87'
-the 2 goals against Ukraine to tie it at 3-3 at 83' and 90+1' (the latter a pk)
-several qualifiers against subpar teams the offense only got going in the second half (Armenia, North Macedonia, Romania)
 
  • Like
Reactions: cgf
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Top Bottom