Hungry Sex wrote:
Playing Kroos and the way he was told to play is what destroyed the German team.
The lack of German press off the ball was what killed them, not Kroos. A week ago people would've been delighted for him to start instead of Müller in whatever capacity. Löw screwed up tactically but the players were shocking too. Bunch of bottlers. It's been like this for years now.
The game was lost in midfield and not on the flanks. Italy crammed it with people who can play in both directions and just kept the team short. Typical Sacchi tactic. You can pause the match at pretty much any given moment when Germany attack and you'll see Pirlo, de Rossi and Marchisio dropping down quickly to help out the defence, and a second or two later Balzaretti and Chiellini will be there too. For every German player in the box there were three Italian. Likewise, every time Italy attacked those same players stepped up in the field. There were so many times on the break when the only defending German midfielder was Khedira. Montolivo and Marchisio passed in rings around him.
