Well, Leroy Sané dodged a fucking hell of a bullet there. Of the German players, only a few emerged with their dignity intact. Kimmich. Hector. Süle. Werner. Brandt. For one game Kroos and Reus.
From the kick-off against Mexico, Germany's body language signalled failure. A flukey win against Sweden was a false dawn. The negative body language was back against South Korea. If body language was a colour, Germany's would be a darkish grey.
Much has been said about complacency, arrogance and lack of hunger. All these were factors. There was a sense, treacherously "confirmed" against Sweden, that everything's going to be OK. That quality will win through; that a Mercedes doesn't break down on the highway.
But two factors weigh greater than that, in my view.
Firstly, the pressure. The language from Löw and the players was about the "inhumane pressure" of being "the hunted". The idea surely was to guard against complacency -- unsuccessfully, as we have seen. But that language had a debilitating effect on the team. The team didn't respond to the pressure by taking the fight to it; they let the pressure inhibit them. It engulfed the team in a cloud of fear. And, a few minutes against Sweden excepted, it robbed them of their self-belief.
Secondly, two squads and no structure. The Confed Cup experiment, when Germany sent a b-team which exceeded all expectations, paradoxically backfired. Löw became indecisive about his first team. Where in the past his experimentations worked because they were tweaks to a framework, there now was no framework. Then Khedira and Ozil played, then they were dropped for playing like stale bread, then they returned to play like stale bread.
In absence of a framework, Löw became predictable. During today's game, my brother and I Whatsapped. A few minutes into the second half he predicted that on the hour Khedira and Goretzka would be substituted on the hour, and Gomez would come on. So it turned out to be, a few minutes early. Whereupon I predicted that in the 79th minute Brandt would replace Hector. I was out by two minutes, but saw it coming nearly 20 minutes in advance. I have no visionary skills; it was predictable.
So now Germany have suffered the embarrassment of having done worse than England in a World Cup for the first time in 52 years, and only the second time ever. Can they fix it?
I expect several of the old guard to retire. Ozil, Khedira and Gomez; maybe Neuer and perhaps Hummels. Müller should not be an automatic choice. That will be a good thing. All of them can be replaced. Löw should stay. This failure should be treated as a blip. He can fix it. And who else is there? Klopp is a club manager. Nagelsmann is young and inexperienced (and bespoke to Franchise Leipzig). Tedesdco has just one good season under his belt. Hecking is average...
But the rebuilding, it should be unnecessary to state, is overdue.
From the kick-off against Mexico, Germany's body language signalled failure. A flukey win against Sweden was a false dawn. The negative body language was back against South Korea. If body language was a colour, Germany's would be a darkish grey.
Much has been said about complacency, arrogance and lack of hunger. All these were factors. There was a sense, treacherously "confirmed" against Sweden, that everything's going to be OK. That quality will win through; that a Mercedes doesn't break down on the highway.
But two factors weigh greater than that, in my view.
Firstly, the pressure. The language from Löw and the players was about the "inhumane pressure" of being "the hunted". The idea surely was to guard against complacency -- unsuccessfully, as we have seen. But that language had a debilitating effect on the team. The team didn't respond to the pressure by taking the fight to it; they let the pressure inhibit them. It engulfed the team in a cloud of fear. And, a few minutes against Sweden excepted, it robbed them of their self-belief.
Secondly, two squads and no structure. The Confed Cup experiment, when Germany sent a b-team which exceeded all expectations, paradoxically backfired. Löw became indecisive about his first team. Where in the past his experimentations worked because they were tweaks to a framework, there now was no framework. Then Khedira and Ozil played, then they were dropped for playing like stale bread, then they returned to play like stale bread.
In absence of a framework, Löw became predictable. During today's game, my brother and I Whatsapped. A few minutes into the second half he predicted that on the hour Khedira and Goretzka would be substituted on the hour, and Gomez would come on. So it turned out to be, a few minutes early. Whereupon I predicted that in the 79th minute Brandt would replace Hector. I was out by two minutes, but saw it coming nearly 20 minutes in advance. I have no visionary skills; it was predictable.
So now Germany have suffered the embarrassment of having done worse than England in a World Cup for the first time in 52 years, and only the second time ever. Can they fix it?
I expect several of the old guard to retire. Ozil, Khedira and Gomez; maybe Neuer and perhaps Hummels. Müller should not be an automatic choice. That will be a good thing. All of them can be replaced. Löw should stay. This failure should be treated as a blip. He can fix it. And who else is there? Klopp is a club manager. Nagelsmann is young and inexperienced (and bespoke to Franchise Leipzig). Tedesdco has just one good season under his belt. Hecking is average...
But the rebuilding, it should be unnecessary to state, is overdue.
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