I cant help but think that 'Yogi' has finally got his tactics wrong. I know Podolski and Gomez did'nt have great first halves but I think the main issue for Germany is down the middle. Khedira is supposed to be the defensive midfielder but is always REALLY high up the pitch. They need someone to sit in the whole and some more invention (Goetze?) seeing as Schweinsteiger is not fully fit.
Nice to know that Podolski will come in full of confidence ... Horrible first touch that half, can't blame the manager for getting rid of him. Sent from a mobile device.
I dunno exactly but I just have a connection with Italy and Italians, got loads of Italian friends, I hope to buy a house in Rome and live between London and there. I love the lifestyle, the language is beautiful, I love their style, their Latino passion, their food .... every time I go there I love it. Would happily be dual nationality
I'll tell you what, that donkey Lawrenson was bigging up Schweinsteiger saying he would be more effective than Pirlo. Schweinsteiger is the most over rated player around - he flatters to deceive. I was not happy when Motta came on, so slooooooow, dilly dallys, didn't bust a gut. The Italians got lazy and sloppy. Not good omens, they cannot do that against Italia.
It occurred to me tonight, Bayern Munich are crap. All of the underperformers for Germany seem to play for Munich, barring Poldi who plays for us.
Today's game was good, but I am getting bored of the Euro's now, so I am glad that it's coming to an end, the group stages was decent but most of the knock out games have been tedious. I can't wait for the return of the PL. Yeah, it's tactically and technically inferior but I no longer give a **** and just want that hectic end to end game played at a million miles.
recently some were saying 'stop buying French - its Germans we need, now perhaps it will be - stop buying French, its Italians we need?
Fully agree on this. Ballack for example was far superior compared to Schweinsteiger. Martin Keown however topped Lawro's quote by saying that Schweinsteiger is Germany's technically most gifted player. He seems to have forgotten about Ozil, Reus or Gotze. Podolski was awful throughout the tournament, except for the first half of the Denmark. I said it before, if he is played out on the left, he is average and nothing special. I hope he does better in the Arsenal system, because with Giroud and hopefully RvP Podolski won't get to play in the middle, which is his best position. I was surprised that they left Reus out after his good performance, better than any of Podolski's outings for the country in the past 2 years. I fancy the Italians to shut out Spain.
Today the football played by italy was simply amazing at times. So many amazing moves with great reverse passes and movement. De Rossi is some player.....
The Italians tactically annihilated Germany. I hope you don't mind me posting a link, but I wrote a tactical analysis of the match here: http://thomasswan.hubpages.com/hub/Euro-2012-Semi-Final-Italy-2-1-Germany Tear me to shreds if you like!
Germany underperformed and Italy played well. Schweinsteiger is still a quality player - much like Rooney he was'nt fully fit so probably shouldnt have played. ((Although personally i do prefer Goetze anyways) Loewe made a BIG mistake when he changed his forwards in the second half. Ok both Pod and Gomez had started badly but that was'nt really the issue. De Rossi and Pirlo were controlling the midfield and Khedra and 'Schweine' were poor. This is where he should have made the changes.
Germany lacked cutting edge, only when Reus and Klose came on did things improve. they were lumping the ball to Gomez who couldn't hold up the ball for toffee, after one touch he was either crowded out or had no options. Ozil is another massively overrated players. He flatters to deceive. He looks good on the ball but what does he actually do with it ? He's one of those graceful looking left footers who you think is amazing but when you look closer at it ... he is nowhere near as good as you thought. Stand out player by far has been Pirlo and how anyone dared knock him before the tournament is beyond me. The thing is people are saying he is having good games - NO. Pirlo mostly ALWAYS plays like this, thats his game. Why do you think he was at Milan for so long ? why do you think Juventus bought him ? He's frikkin quality and his "type" of quality is very very rare. Yes he is slow, but did you see how he makes space with his first touch, the way he manouveres round players ... the way he only passes the ball when HE is ready ??? When you talk about World Class - PIRLO is frikkin world class
I can't believe i've never seen Pirlo play that much, he is truly a magnificant player. For me, he has been the player of the tournament.
He has everything, short passing, long passing, slide rule passes, dead ball delivery, speed of thought. He is always looking for the ball. When you compare him to Xavi you see how much better than Xavi he actually is, While Xavi has a subset of the array of passes Pirlo has, he doesn't have all. Xavi hasn't bossed a single game this tournament - Pirlo has. Pirlo has better close control of the ball as well as we have seen when he has players tight on him and he rolls them or twists, drags the ball with the sole of his foot, bamboozling players. As a midfielder myself I am in complete awe of Pirlo and how he plays the game.
Ozil is incredible what have you been smoking HH he created a few chances for Germany but was often isolated because the rest of the German midfield failed to pull their weight. He is Germany's best player for me because he his passing ability and vision is world class. You cant judge him based on one bad game where he was not entirely at fault. Just look at how well he has performed for Real this season he has been outstanding for me, Pirlo is player of the tournament though.