Anyone who has not dealt with major football tournaments for a long time, for example because an epidemic was over the country, will have prepared for the current European Championship in a very classic way. You take one of the special issues and approach the tournament in the most direct way. First you look at the squad: Ah, that’s right, the Dutch are missing the injured Van Dijk. What’s the name of the Belgian coach again? The French have a lot of good strikers! And the Modric, is he really almost 36?
Next comes the comparative part: Germany, oh, respect, eight players from the great FC Bayern, plus three from Champions League winners Chelsea, one from Manchester City and then one from Real Madrid! These new Italians, on the other hand, are all called Barella or Berardi and the majority play for Sassuolo. And funny, there’s still the old real estate, it didn’t pack it near Dortmund back then.
The EM has been running for a week now, and one thing can now be said: At the moment you wouldn’t want to see the Germans play against Italy that much. The Italians have been unbeaten for a total of 29 games and, based on the findings of the first round, there is no reason to believe that they should lose to the Germans of all places.
If you dig deeper into the biographies of the players in a third preparatory part, you will recognize what this Italy is: a coaching team. Coach Robert Mancini has put professionals with rather unspectacular careers together to create a harmonious something that gives the impression that the only meaning of life is to play football together.
Löw let himself be talked into the necessary competitive attitude late in the Nations League
In the first week of the tournament some coaching teams already appeared, in addition to the Italians of course the French, also the Dutch and the Belgians, and in their own way the Spaniards. Even supposed middle-class teams like the Ukraine seem coherently combined and appropriately coached. Which raises the question: Who are and where are the Germans actually in this tournament table?
It is a first trend of this EM that the favorites have largely lived up to their role so far. The fact that the DFB-Elf starts with zero points in their second game is not a contradiction in terms. Although Löw’s team is top-class despite the known problem areas in the storm center and in full defense, they still don’t follow a convincing idea. Mancini coaches a team, Löw still coaches set pieces. Shiny gold, but just: set pieces.
Of course, Löw could plead for mitigating circumstances, the standstill during the pandemic cost him many months, he could not finish his upheaval team. But it is like this: other coaches also had a pandemic, and they are done. The Nations League, for example, let Löw go by with a rather medium interest and only let the association talk the associated competitive attitude towards the end.
There are still solutions in Löw’s squad, for the game against Portugal and for the entire tournament. He’s already proven that he can find her. It’s time he did it again.
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