IAfter a night with little sleep, the focus was on regeneration. In the early hours of the morning, the German national team returned from Munich to their EM quarters in Herzogenaurach on Wednesday after the 0: 1 (0: 1) against France. During the day, the players were treated there, and national coach Joachim Löw and his team analyzed the opening game.
Played quite well – but not good enough. This conclusion is under the first game of the difficult preliminary group F. It is currently not enough against this world class opponent. At least not with this style of play. It was a game that could have consequences.
Leroy Sané can hope for more playing times: his colleague Ilkay Gündogan wants better offensive actions in the game of the German team
Quelle: DeFodi Images via Getty Images/DeFodi Images
The system question arises for Löw. He now has to make difficult personnel decisions. And soon. How much risk is necessary, how much risk is possible? Löw’s plan did not fail, but it obviously needs adjustments. On the offensive, his team needs more courage, conviction and ideas.
In the second game, she meets Portugal on Saturday (6 p.m., ARD and Magenta TV). Defending champion and team of superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, who won their opener against Hungary 3-0. “If you lose the first game and only have three group games, the pressure is great,” said midfielder Toni Kroos.
Germany risked too little against France. Also found Bastian Schweinsteiger. “In the end there was a lack of activity on the offensive,” said the world champion. Also because a target player is missing. The offensive game sometimes seemed quite uncoordinated, Serge Gnabry often let himself go.
Löw’s plan was to achieve success through attacking full-backs Joshua Kimmich and Robin Gosens. That succeeded in part, Gosens kept causing danger. But in the attack the penetration was lacking. The occupation in the penalty area was poor. There is no “real striker” in the team, Gnabry, Thomas Müller and Kai Havertz castled. The team had three chances to score, but could have lost more.
Little danger with corners and free kicks
The Germans made far too little of the standards on the offensive: Kroos had two free kicks from a good position, substitute Leroy Sané stepped on once and shot past. “We trained a lot of standards. Unfortunately, we weren’t rewarded for this, ”said Löw.
The corners also brought too little danger. The national coach emphasized that France had been the best team ever to defend opposing standards in recent years. He generally referred more to the strengths of the opponent than to the weaknesses of his team.
In addition to the fighting and running qualities that Löw praised, there must be something effective. “We have to work on that,” says the trainer. “On Thursday and Friday you can talk about things, show what can be done better. And you can apply the lever selectively during training. ”The walking routes should be even better. Otherwise there is a risk of a preliminary round like in the 2018 World Cup. “You have to from the start, Portugal got to not from the beginning, ”said ZDF expert Christoph Kramer. “Portugal can let go a little, we’re running again and they have good switch players.”
While thinking about things in his container villa in the EM quarter on the sponsor Adidas premises, Löw has to weigh up: Do I stick to the three-way defense with two attacking full-backs in front of it? Or do I convert the system?
Experts, fans and players had already debated the right position for Kimmich before the tournament. Now it’s getting more intense. The central midfield is Kimmich’s favorite position. Leon Goretzka could play alongside him against Portugal. He is a so-called “box-to-box player” and could be valuable with his goal hazard and physicality. However, Goretzka was last injured and has not played a competitive game for weeks. With him and Kimmich, Löw would bet on the duo with whom his successor Hans-Dieter “Hansi” Flick was successful as coach of FC Bayern.
Gündogan wants Sané to be involved
From the team comes the desire for more offensive. Option number one is Sané. “We have players who came in who can help,” said Gündogan after the final whistle against France. Löw also came on as a substitute for Timo Werner, Kevin Volland and Emre Can. “Leroy is a player who needs the rhythm, the feeling that he can always make the difference,” said 30-year-old Gündogan, who played with Sané in Manchester for four years.
“He needs the self-image to always play. If he has that, he’s amazing. I hope that he will get as much time as possible so that he can get into this rhythm. We are here to help him, to support him, so that he can help us. ”In general, he hopes that“ we play more forward and create more chances, we should think offensively. Because we can do it too ”.
After the game, Sané was the last German player on the pitch. In the stands he was talking and smiling too. For this he was criticized on social media. “Nothing happened,” said Löw about the situation in the group after the 0-1 win. Four of the six thirds in the group advance to the round of 16. Germany have won all of their four games against Portugal with Ronaldo. In order to expand this series, it takes more courage to take risks.
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