one or two comments about THE game of the Cup SO FAR
GOOD start to our campaign, as so OFTEN
and in view of what England, Holland, Italy, Argentina, the Africans... have produced so far:
JOLLY GOOD STUFF
not only do we now make the best BREAD in the world
but also the MOST WATCHABLE FOOTBALL
STILL
I am surprised that the MOST OBVIOUS POINT has barely been picked up on in the analysis and media commentary
against the Aussies we played a completely DIFFERENT SYSTEM
to everything we have played so far under Löw
the formation was the standard 4231
which we have been playing ever since the game against Portugal at Euro 2008
a system championed by BALLACK, by the way
agree
but there was a HUGE difference
after Bayern had won the title with van Gaal , LAHM was asked what the difference between van Gaal and Löw was
and he replied something like this
"under Löw we are FAR MORE attack-minded; our instructions are to attack IMMEDIATELY once we have the ball; van Gaal essentially wants us to KEEP POSSESSION; to make the game WIDE, and CHANGE SIDES; then we give the ball to Robbery to finish off the move"
ie
Bayern football is SLOW in the first two thirds of the pitch
there are A LOT OF sidesways and backways passes
when van Gaal first started this system Beckenbauer was BORED out of his skull and said "what's the point of having the ball so much when you do so little with it ? nowadys, you have to entertain; this football reminds me of Sepp Herberger football of the 50s; es ist nicht mehr zeitgemäss"
still
if you have flair players like Robbery at Bayern
or
Özil+Poldi+Müller at the Mannschaft
you get entertaining football in the last THIRD of the pitch
AS LONG AS YOU HAVE SPACE
Australia were VERY kind in providing it
you do NOT win World Cups against the Australias of the world though, but against the Italys, Argentinas, Brazils of the world
which is why all the euphoria is PREMATURE
how and why Löw changed his "once you have the ball you attack"-approach to the van Gaal "KEEP POSSESSION" approach is a mystery to me
surely, it's GOOD news
because, essentially, van Gaal is merely playing GERMAN football of the 80s and 90s
watch the Mannschaft footage of those days, and THAT is EXACLTY how Lothar/Klinsi and Co played
still, there are worries about our backline
Anne Friedrich was too slow one or twice; you can get away with it against Cahill but NOT against the top boys
the Schweini/Khedira combo did NOT work fully yet
and the WASTEFULNESS of Özil makes you wonder as well
EVERYBODY is raving about the Turk
BUT
Bremen/Mannschaft fans KNOW that he WASTES chances for FUN
note, that we only play with ONE striker
against the likes of Brazil, we might only get one or two chances
and Özil better get his act together ; we need HIS goals as well
-------
good to see Klose score again
van Gaal TRIED to destroy him
all Klose needs is ONE GOOD CROSS
in this case from Lahm
and he scores
for Bayern , Lahm would have given the ball to Robben who would have finished the ball himself
makes you wonder how good Bayern could be WITHOUT Robben
they could be UNBEATABLE
for the next generation
think about it
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