World Champions Germany sealed qualification to the European Championship in France after the 2-1 win over Georgia. There’s still plenty of work for Joachim Löw to do between now and then, however, as the Germany manager revealed in an interview:
Question: Joachim Löw, 2-1 against Georgia wasn’t an easy win. How would you sum up the game?
Joachim Löw: It echoed the match in Dublin in many ways. In the first half we failed to take advantage of good opportunities and convert them into goals. We were frustrated and the opponents knew that they could get right back into the game with just one good counter attack. At the moment, we are like a boxer who lands many blows, but can’t get the knock-out.
Question: How would you say the qualification campaign went as a whole?
Löw: We won the group which is good and we can be happy about it. I am not particularly happy with the last two games, however, as that is not how we want to play. We know that we have work ahead of us to get up to a European Championship level of play. It hasn’t been easy, we know that, but there we have to keep going.
Question: What will you do looking ahead to the EUROs?
Löw: That is still a long way away. I know that we have a lot of preparation ahead of us, which is something that we normally do well. I think we will try a few players who have played fewer games than others in November. Also some that haven’t been included in the squad. We must consider one or two others and then work hard to become better.
Question: Do you miss having a traditional striker and is Davie Selke a candidate?
World Champions Germany sealed qualification to the European Championship in France after the 2-1 win over Georgia. There’s still plenty of work for Joachim Löw to do between now and then, however, as the Germany manager revealed in an interview:
Question: Joachim Löw, 2-1 against Georgia wasn’t an easy win. How would you sum up the game?
Joachim Löw: It echoed the match in Dublin in many ways. In the first half we failed to take advantage of good opportunities and convert them into goals. We were frustrated and the opponents knew that they could get right back into the game with just one good counter attack. At the moment, we are like a boxer who lands many blows, but can’t get the knock-out.
Question: How would you say the qualification campaign went as a whole?
Löw: We won the group which is good and we can be happy about it. I am not particularly happy with the last two games, however, as that is not how we want to play. We know that we have work ahead of us to get up to a European Championship level of play. It hasn’t been easy, we know that, but there we have to keep going.
Question: What will you do looking ahead to the EUROs?
Löw: That is still a long way away. I know that we have a lot of preparation ahead of us, which is something that we normally do well. I think we will try a few players who have played fewer games than others in November. Also some that haven’t been included in the squad. We must consider one or two others and then work hard to become better.
Question: Do you miss having a traditional striker and is Davie Selke a candidate?
Löw: At the World Cup we were more efficient. We have good finishers. Marco Reus, Thomas Schürrle and Thomas Müller can all score, and when one of them is in form and has the confidence I am happy putting them as strikers. It’s good when you have somebody who can score inside the box, but we can’t allow ourselves to think that we need another Horst Hrubesh. Our game should be set up the same way as it has been up until now. We don’t want to just be swinging balls in when there can be a method to our play. Players like Selke or Mario Gomez also aren’t the best in the air, so it’s better to use a combination.
Question: What problems are there to fix?
Löw: We have the problem that we play very well down the middle. The full backs are taught to defend at their own clubs. Jonas Hector does the job well, but at Köln he is a defender who plays on the break. We lacked the burst down the wing, and when we did break, we went down the middle. When the opposition sit back, you need one-on-one players. Emre Can, Matthias Ginter or Hector are very alert defensively, but they lack the forward going aspect of the game.
