Christoph Kramer has analyzed the surprising tactics of the German national team in their World Cup group match against Ecuador. The ZDF expert sees it as a deliberate test by head coach Julian Nagelsmann for the knockout rounds. “We stood deep in a block without necessity with our A-team,” Kramer said. He is convinced that this was the instruction and plan to test under competitive conditions how the team operates in a deep defensive setup.
The background is the observation that top teams like France, England, and Spain struggle immensely against deep blocks. However, the experiment did not work, according to Kramer: “We don’t have the team, we don’t have the players for a deep block.” Germany needs the ball to be successful. Fellow expert Per Mertesacker also criticized the idea of a five-man defense as “rather questionable.”
Kramer did not want to overstate the defeat, as Germany had already secured top spot in the group. Nevertheless, he warned: “Now you have to get it out of your heads, it was an emotional dampener.” For the remainder of the tournament, the team must always push to their limit, otherwise it looks bad.
Source: www.sport1.de
