Including Kroos is silly. But I think England's biggest issue is that they don't have an overwhelming collection of CBs and CMs. Rice and Henderson are really the only two standout names in that group to me (although I know some here will want to include Gomez). If Maguire is your best CB, I think you're going to have problems being considered a top contender.
I honestly don't see anything special in Rice either
Until he signs with Chelsea I would imagine.Rice is already world class. Extremely strong, amazing defensive reading of the game, completely press resistent in possession, sublime passing and ultra high IQ. He can reach close to prime Sergio Busquets levels.
Until he signs with Chelsea I would imagine.
No just incredibly wrong at a remarkable pace.If he joins Chelsea he suddenly becomes shit, yes.
Although I have called Pulisic a future potential Ballon D'or candidate, so maybe I am not biased?
No just incredibly wrong at a remarkable pace.
It’s so absurd that Low is further weakening the side by refusing to call up Muller who has been one of Europe’s best players the past season and a 1/2.
You know how amazing a top 6 would be with Muller playing behind the Werner/Gnabry/Sane trio with Kimmich and Goretzka holding the middle...I mean it doesn’t get any better than that. That’s essentially Bayern Munich only replace Lewandowski with Werner.
When you have THAT kind of talent there’s simply no excuse to be fielding these inept, disinterested, lackadaisical lineups.
Tbh if you think Germany has as much talent and depth as France, you need to look again. Nobody thinks that, even the most die hard german fans.
I think it is pretty clear Germany have had a drop off in talent, they no longer have a player near the caliber of Özil, Lahm or Muller, but their team arguably isn't worse than Spains on paper. For them to win a world cup, they need better centre backs, and ideally Werner needs to be replaced, he simply isn't good enough when he isn't given space to run in behind. They could also probably do with a creative midfielder. But coaching is the main thing holding them back, they have an extremely good squad. Only France and maybe England have squads I think you could say are clearly better at the moment.
Yup. All we can do is hope that Jogi can copy Flick's Bayern or somehow stumble into the right lineup/structure. Which wouldn't be that hard if he gave up on playing Toni's corpse & we had an attacking right back. Our best 11 would actually be pretty damn good, but alas I don't expect to see us hitting the tourney with some iteration of...
Sane - Werner/Havertz - Gnabry
Brandt/LeGo - Havertz/LeGo
Kimmich
Halstenburg* - Süle - Koch - Klostermann*
MAtS
*Kehrer
----------------------------------------------
Havertz/Werner
Gnabry/Brandt - Sane/Havertz
Gosens - Kimmich - Gundo/LeGo - _____
Halstenburg* - Süle - Klostermann*
MAtS
* Kehrer/Can
----------------------------------------------
Gnabry/Werner - Sane/Havertz
Gosens - Brandt/LeGo - Havertz/LeGo - _____
Kimmich
Halstenburg* - Süle - Klostermann*
MAtS
* Kehrer/Can
England aren't better lol
I like the first lineup, but Kehrer over Koch. I think the way to go is Havertz splitting time in midfield with Brandt. Both are a little inconsistent right now, so they can rotate. Goretzka has to be a starter right now, in my opinion. I agree with the rest. It’s a pretty good team. Not as good as what it was at its best, but on the rise again after a few weaker age groups. Germany should still, at a minimum, not being destroyed by Spain, a country whose produced less talent than Germany since their own golden generation.
How close do you think Neuhaus is to the best XI?
Guendouzi is not good because he left Arsenal?
Somebody should see what he did to give Frances U21 the top of the group two days ago in ET.
He should be Arsenal's top midfielder if Arsenal did anything else but park the bus and pray for a counter.
You're overstating the drop off in midfield & attack. Gnabry, Sane & Kimmich are on that Mesut / Müller / Lahm level, Havertz should join that tier very soon (if he's not there already), Werner may never be quite on that level, but he's every bit as good as the Reus's & Klose's of previous generations, while LeGo is pretty top class when he's allowed to push up to play as a late-arriving forward in the final third. Hell even Mr inconsistent Julian Brandt would've upgraded our WC winners as an 8. At it's best, our attack is better than when we won the cup & the midfield should be comparable, they're just nowhere near as deep & used poorly.
It's in defense where there's a big drop off now that we no longer have Hummels & Boateng alongside a prime Neuer & Lahm. I like Süle & Klostermann a lot, Koch's shown some very nice ball skills over this break (as had Max in the previous matches), Rüdiger is a good vet, Gosens is a quality LWB, while Kehrer & Halstenburg are good utility defenders that can do a job as defensive FBs in a back 4 or outside FBs in a back 3...but none of these guys are world class.
That drop off in defense is why dumbass has had to try so many back 3 shapes despite not having someone to play RWB in that formation, and why I think our best bet (like in 2014) is to copy Pep & go with a back 4 featuring Halstenburg & Klostermann playing like inverted FBs...not push too far forward & shifting inside to give Kimmich more support while freeing an attacking 5 of Gnabry, Sane, Havertz, Werner & Brandt/LeGo, to run wild...around Süle & Koch.
Werner/Havertz
Sane - Havertz/LeGo - Brandt/LeGo - Gnabry
Kimmich
Halstenburg - Süle - Koch - Klostermann
ter Stegen
That's all BS and everyone knows it.Guendouzi has been shit for Arsenal for very long, basically the entirely of last season ( and I was alone in seeing his huge flaws the season before when he got all of the "new youngster hype"). He was not near the level of Xhaka, Torreira and Ceballos, not even close, and that says a lot. Even Elneny is playing better than Guendouzi did. U21 performancekonstnären don’t change anything, if U21 performances mattered Nketiah would be the bloody GOAT.
That's all BS and everyone knows it.