Manu’s Law: If the German goalkeepers are equally fit and equally good, Neuer should play.
If two players are equally good, said Louis van Gaal, the former football coach of FC Bayern, then he will always use the player who is younger. As obvious as one may find van Gaal’s law (see Thomas Müller!), it should be just as obvious that an exception should be formulated for at least one case: If two goalkeepers are equally good (and equally fit), then always The goalkeeper is called Manuel Neuer.
It certainly wouldn’t end in German defeatism if Marc-André ter Stegen, the FC Barcelona regular who will be guarding the national team’s goal in France this Saturday (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the national team and on ZDF), did that also did during the European Championships. On the contrary, it is the great luck of German football to have one of the best goalkeepers of this century in Ter Stegen – but it is his personal bad luck that German football also has the best goalkeeper of this century.
Either way, there are still technical arguments in favor of Neuer, who recently had to leave the national team prematurely due to a torn muscle fiber. He is in a class of his own both in one-on-one situations and in extra-penalty clearances.
Manu’s Law: Neuer always plays – when he’s fit. : Image: dpa
But even if he and Ter Stegen are equally good, there is still an argument that sounds like mumbo jumbo but doesn’t seem to be mumbo jumbo: There are strikers who say that it really makes a difference when they have the ball want to shoot into the goal – and know that Manuel Neuer is in that goal.
It doesn’t matter that the German players are slow in the defensive midfield.
This season, according to the “Kicker” data collection, Robert Andrich sprinted through the midfield at a maximum of 31.1 kilometers per hour. On the one hand, that’s about seven kilometers per hour less than Kylian Mbappé, the super striker from Paris who awaits the Germans on Saturday evening, has already achieved.
On the other hand, that’s about one kilometer per hour more than Rodri ran this season, the super six from Manchester, currently probably the strongest defensive midfielder in the world. And even if Robert Andrich is certainly not a Rodri and certainly will not become a Rodri, you can see from the sprint statistics that, contrary to what is portrayed in some discussions in Germany, this is not the decisive factor for the stability of the national team.
Maybe not a sprinter, but a strong tackler: Robert Andrich : Image: dpa
It’s not about how fast Andrich and Toni Kroos, who will probably be side by side in the starting line-up this Saturday, can sprint, but about how quickly a connection can be created. And it’s not just about how they can win the ball back in critical situations, but about how they can perhaps avoid losing it in critical situations.
But even if they lose the ball and Mbappé sprints away with it, it’s not over yet. Because behind them the central defenders Jonathan Tah (this season: 35.8 km/h) and Antonio Rüdiger (34.1 km/h, in the past more than 37 km/h) can be what they can be: fast.
If the national coach wants to find stability quickly, he should look for suitable pairs.
The example of Robert Andrich and his teammates from Leverkusen shows that such club connections can create added value. Midfielder Andrich knows what central defender Jonathan Tah does when the opponent wins the ball and immediately switches to attack mode. But he also knows where and how playmaker Florian Wirtz wants to be played when his team has won the ball. And Tah and Wirtz, in turn, know how to support Andrich.
This text comes from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
The national coach should not forgo releasing such dynamics given the available preparation time. He could fill the right wing with players from Munich (Kimmich and Leroy Sané, if he is allowed to return to the squad after his suspension). And the left with players from Stuttgart – even if the offensive force Chris Führich, unlike the defensive force Maximilian Mittelstädt, will not be a player for 90 minutes.
