2014/2015 European Football Thread

If James is indeed going to Madrid, that means Di Maria has got to be out. You can only have so many attacking players.

Unless they make Cristiano as the top striker and have Bale, James and Di Maria behind him.

 

Di Maria will definitely go.

 

No love for Kroos, breh?

 

arsenal got debuchy though

 

But, they don't play the same position tho???
James was a brilliant player before this World Cup. He was a brilliant player before the move to Monaco. He was excellent even without the hype.

 

Lahm retiring from the national team, wtf?! This really sets us back, don't understand this decision. He's only 30 and never had struggles with any injuries, could've played for at least four more years and we would've been favorites for next EC and WC.

 

Probably wants to retire on a high note.

Lahm should have waited at least until 2016 Euro was over.

 

Meh no biggie. Maybe he want's to do like Kevin Prince and retire prior to qualification for the tournament and then come back into the international fold when it's go time for the tournament lol. Nah that usually just works for African players that don't want to travel back to the motherland for qualifiers.

But srsly who knows, maybe he plays this season, changes his mind after and reverses course after the season is over.

Plus maybe it gives Jogi more time to experiment and figure out who will take over for Lahm(Hopefully he doesn't decide again to stick Jerome Boateng out there and he instead plays a natural RB. Not that Boateng doesn't do a good job out there though).

Anyway chill breh, y'all will be ok regardless.

 

Think we'll try something like Durm-Hummels-Boateng-Großkreutz, would be the best guys available and also 3/4 of the BVB defense, so the chemistry and automatisms would be great.

 

Großkreutz

How do you pronounce this name? What kind of B is that?

 

Kind of a raw "s". We call it "sz" sometimes.

 

You're right about them not playing same position.

Madrid will have to change formation to accommodate James. To me, Bale, Benzema, and Ronaldo (BBC) are fixtures. With James right behind them it looks awesome, but that means Madrid will have four players on the field that don't defend much. Di Maria defended. That's where they're going to miss him.

With them trying to sell Khedira and Alonso getting older they don't have a world-class holding midfielder. To me, that means that the three players behind the BBC have to defend like last year. That makes Di Maria at least more valuable, if not better, than James.

 

Lahm's decision is confusing, especially when Germany has all have the pieces in place to win Euro 2016. They're still good enough but, for his own "legacy," it's perplexing.

 

retire when you are on top, saves you from embarrassment.
smart, smart move

 

The last 2 world cup champions were eliminated in the group stage (Italy and Spain).

 

The last world cup champion also won the European championship (Spain).

 

Hard to tell how the Germans will do at the Euro Championships....
Without Lahm and with Marco Reus (fan of his)

7 games at the WC
2 against African teams
2 against South American teams
1 against USA

The remnant 2 games against European competition was telling. New power France was an important test while Portugal was below any competitive level in the first match.

The last Euro they won was in 1996 when Oliver Bierhoff(co-managing the team now)
scored the historic golden goal.
This year they scored the silver goal and won the WC.

I am not sure if they can score the decisive goal in Overtime in every final game.
A lot of luck or skill.

 

gross-kroyts

the r is a little different. less errr'ing