Joachim Löw suspected that the three-way chain would cause him trouble one day. Finally, the national coach was warned about her.
In 2010 Löw played a successful World Cup with the German national team. But tactically, he wanted to develop further. So he inquired about a three-center-back formation that had the potential to be hard to come into fashion. A man who was coaching a small club in Italy at the time was asked about his expertise. He had experimented with the modern triple chain for many years. And because such an exchange of knowledge should remain a secret, they tell the story at the DFB without naming them.
That expert first asked Löw a question before granting him access to the wondrous world of the new system: “Are you ready to make mistakes?”
Loew understood how that was meant when he tried the three-man chain for the first time in November 2011 – in a friendly against Ukraine. The unfamiliar defensive arrangement created a mess on the pitch, Germany were 1: 3 behind at half time (final score 3: 3). It can be said that some mistakes were made.
“The system doesn’t matter”
Nine years later there was another game against Ukraine. Löw and his team won it 2-1 on Saturday. But since then there has been a tactical debate about the question of why Löw is so stubborn as to let his eleven come up against weak opponents with the back three. Bastian Schweinsteiger, for example, actually one of Löw’s old favorite players, spoke out in favor of the back four in his role as ARD expert and said somewhat vaguely that one could “no longer really identify with the national team”.
In the press conference before the next game in the Nations League against Switzerland in the evening (8.45 p.m. / live ticker SPIEGEL.de, TV: ARD), Löw had to answer as many questions about his tactics on Monday as he had not for years. “The system does not play a role in our game idea,” replied the 60-year-old, looking more organized than it was immediately after the game against Ukraine. Then – when asked about the criticism – he let himself be carried away to the sentence: “I am above things.”
It is more important than the starting line-up that his players push into the dangerous areas with speed, said Löw, “then we are good.”
Lightning rod for general annoyance
Löw is currently the lightning rod for a general annoyance of the public from the national team and the DFB. A lot of things that are going badly are also credited to him: the embarrassing TV ratings, for example, or the games in tight intervals such as the 3: 3 against Turkey, to which Löw reacted by nominating a B-Elf. Of course, Löw cannot do anything for the appointment calendar. But people may have grown tired of it.
The debate about the chain of three is another one that has so far been conducted more on the perceived than on the factual level. And she has not yet named the real basic problem of the national coach: That he lacks quality in the squad on the defensive – whether with a back three or four. That the chain of three is a reaction to the World Cup disgrace. That Löw demands stability and aggressiveness at the same time, but that he lacks the right types of players.
Löw has by no means committed to the three-way chain. Since he sorted out the world champions Mats Hummels, Jérôme Boateng and Thomas Müller in March 2019 and thus forced the generation change in the national team, there have been 14 international matches. Eight times, Löw set up with three central defenders, six times with a back four. The impression of stubborn holding on is probably mainly due to the fact that Löw bet on the triple chain four times in a row after the corona-related break. And there was a simple reason for that: “At the moment we only have very few training units to practice something,” said Löw. That’s why he wants to use the games.
“I want us to be more flexible at the EM, that we are prepared”
National coach Joachim Löw
For the sake of simplicity, Löw could stick with the back four. The fact that he does not do this has firstly to do with the fact that he does not have a world-class center-back pair. Second, it is due to his experience in Russia. Germany was calculable at the 2018 World Cup like no other top team. The Mexican coach Juan Carlos Osorio said after his team’s 1-0 win over the world champions that he had known how the Germans would play six months ago. There were 13 games between the 2017 Confederation Cup and the World Cup elimination. Loew started ten times in a 4-2-3-1.
“I want us to be more flexible at the EM,” said Löw before the Swiss game. His team could always play the back four, but against world champions France, a counter-strong group opponent at the European Championships, the back three could prove useful: “I want us to be prepared.”
Joshua Kimmich is the only player in Löw’s squad who offers stability and offensive creativity
Photo: Marc Schueler / imago images / Schüler
The installation of the three-man chain stems from the fact that the national team was completely open after losing the ball at the World Cup. The triple chain has the advantage that it can secure the center in front of its own goal through the presence of three central defenders. The big promise that the chain of three offers is the combination of defensive stability and offensive force. But this requires flank players who take on defensive tasks as well as those of a winger. And Löw doesn’t have that.
A prisoner of one’s own upheaval
Marcel Halstenberg on the left and Lukas Klostermann on the right are solid full-backs. Above all, Klostermann also offers speed. But neither of them has high creative potential. It is not for nothing that her club coach Julian Nagelsmann uses her as a central defender in a chain of three at RB Leipzig.
Wingers who can prevail in one-on-one would be a weapon in a team with a three-man chain. The only player in Löw’s current squad who offers both – defensive stability and offensive accents – is Joshua Kimmich. Löw sees him in midfield, however.
Jérôme Boateng (left) and Mats Hummels in top form would be predestined for a three-way chain – but Löw cannot bring them back
Photo: PATRIK STOLLARZ / AFP
And that brings us to another quality problem: in order for the three-man chain to work optimally, a team needs central defenders who can build up the game – if necessary with a push into midfield. But Löw manages shortages here too: Neither Antonio Rüdiger nor Matthias Ginter are good development players. Niklas Süle can still be.
But as it is, Kimmich or Toni Kroos often fall between the defenders to build up the game from behind. As a result, a pass station is missing in midfield. If you combine this with the lack of creativity on the outside, you have a reason why the German combination game sometimes stagnates.
The irony of the story is that two players in particular would be predestined for the back three with high wingers, as Löw wants them to play: Hummels and Boateng in top form, as last. They combine stability with clearance reduction. But for reasons of team hierarchy, Löw will not bring her back. And so the national coach with his dysfunctional chain of three is also a prisoner of his own upheaval.
