Defeat to France exposes Germany's disastrous quality

Germany were without a number of key players in the Nations League semi-finals and third-place match, but that was not enough to justify the poor quality of coach Julian Nagelsmann's players.

Germany just lost to France in the third place match of the Nations League.

Germany had a decent first half against France in the Nations League third-place match, but collapsed completely after Kylian Mbappe opened the scoring in the 45th minute. If it weren't for the brilliant saves from goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen - who had just returned from a long injury - perhaps Nagelsmann's team would have ended the 90 minutes at the MHPArena with 4-5 goals to spare.

"Virtual" numbers

The match's stats, from the number of shots on target (6-8), ball possession (56%-44%) to corner kicks (9-6) seemed to reflect a balanced match, but the reality on the field showed that the technical and tactical quality of the German team was far behind France in particular and other strong teams at the moment (such as Spain, Argentina, Portugal...) in general.

The weakness of the German team compared to France is clearly shown in the quality of the players in all three lines. Up front, Karim Adeyemi has extremely fast speed, but his amateurish ability to block the ball first made him miss a chance to face goalkeeper Mike Maignan in the 30th minute, even receiving a yellow card for diving.

Anyone who follows Borussia Dortmund regularly knows that Adeyemi is a terrible first passer. At 23, starting to enter his prime as a player, he shows no signs of improvement.

Nick Woltemade, a young striker for VFB Stuttgart, was very clumsy in the penalty area and missed a chance when facing Maignan. Striker Niclas Fullkrug is in serious decline at West Ham and has taken that poor form to the national team.

Unsurprisingly, all three of Germany's attackers have been disappointing. Nor have substitutes Deniz Undav, Serge Gnabry and Leroy Sane. Undav is just a decent Bundesliga striker, while Gnabry and Sane are pale versions of their peak selves.

The quality of German players is very poor at the moment.

Germany’s midfield is not much better. Without the familiar connection with Jamal Musiala (injured), young star Florian Wirtz looks lost and ineffective in dribbling and passing, completely unworthy of the $150 million price tag that Bayer Leverkusen is asking for Liverpool. Leon Goretzka and Pascal Gross are not capable of keeping the rhythm or making passes that break the opponent’s defense.

The only midfielder in Germany who can do that is the injured Angelo Stiller. But Stiller himself is still a long way off the level of retired star Toni Kroos. 21-year-old midfielder Aleksandar Pavlovic, who started Germany's defeat to Portugal, has yet to show the consistency needed to become a mainstay in Germany's midfield.

And Germany's defence is an even bigger headache for coach Nagelsmann. In fact, he has two quality central defenders in Antoni Rudriger and Nico Schlotterbeck, but both are injured.

In the substitute group, only Jonathan Tah showed his ability, while Robin Koch was never considered a top player. It was Koch who made a silly mistake that allowed France to score the goal that sealed the 2-0 score.

Germany is weak in all lines.

Full-backs are also a difficult problem for coach Nagelsmann. After Philipp Lahm, German football has not produced any other world-class full-backs.

On the left, both Maximilian Mittelstädt and David Raum are not reassuring, being good at attacking and very weak in defense. Germany’s right wing is even more “dry”, to the point that coach Nagelsmann had to temporarily put captain Joshua Kimmich in this position. He was so short of options that he had to recall forgotten defender Thilo Kehrer for this Nations League series.

Germany is lacking big stars.

The Nations League results revealed the fact that after many years of crisis, German football has not yet escaped stagnation and still lacks world-class stars. Coach Nagelsmann has a few outstanding faces such as Kimmich, Wirtz or Musiala, but that is not enough for the "Tank" to compete with strong teams with depth in all three lines such as Spain, France, Argentina, Portugal...

If nothing changes in the next year, the dream of glory for coach Nagelsmann and his team at the 2026 World Cup may just be an illusion, and they will most likely face bitter failures like the last two World Cups.

Source: https://znews.vn/tran-thua-phap-phoi-bay-chat-luong-tham-hoa-cua-tuyen-duc-post1559380.html