Germany’s footballing woes

Germany have suffered a stunning 2-1 defeat at the hands of Japan in their very first match at the 2022 Fifa World Cup. This has brought back memories of the nation’s humiliating campaign at the previous World Cup in Russia, where the defending champions failed to make it past the group stage. The squad is now set to meet Spain, who are in top form which they demonstrated in their 7-0 defeat of Costa Rica and are sure to be hard to defeat.

Germany’s issues range across the field, from an unsure offense to a leaky defence. This makes the team error-prone and unable to finish off the chances it creates, along with an unstable defence suffering from communication issues. This isn’t unexpected as coach Hansi Flick has rotated his defence players multiple times to play 12 defenders in 17 games.

 According to Ilkay Gundogan, the team may be lacking on both maturity and quality. Nico Schlotterbeck, David Raum and Lukas Klostermann, who are part of the defence are not among the best defenders in the world. NiclasFullkrug and YoussoufaMoukoko are also middle order strikers with potential, who have failed to shine.

Furthermore, veteran and star players like Kai Havertz and Serge Gnabry could not salvage Germany’s game against Japan. Germany now needs to step up against Spain, if they wish to continue their campaign at the World Cup, and this seems increasingly unlikely.