Fucking hell Jed, it's not like it's one or the other. Reus is the best German player they have, of course they're not leaving him out when he's finally fit for a tournament.

That said, I'd have taken Sane regardless of his international performances.

Jed wrote:
jones wrote:

Sane not going is not controversial, he's been shit for the national team and his competition isn't Brandt who plays on the other wing but Reus and Draxler both who're clearly better. Gomez on the other hand over Petersen is a travesty, expected however just like him keeping Rudy in the squad. Löw simply loves his Stuttgart players

Sané had a better season than both of Draxler and Reus. If it's about performances for the national team then surely Götze had to be in there ahead of Brandt.

Reus is Germany's best player ffs, can't believe this is an actual point of contention. Draxler is a lot more valuable to Germany because how versatile and mature he plays, he's basically a midfielder nowadays who can play on the wing. Götze has been dogshit both for club and country for a good while already, just because he scored an important goal years ago doesn't make him any good for Germany.

You need to take off your Premier League glasses mate. Sané was great for City but even there his form was wildly inconsistent. He has completely shit the bed at every opportunity for Germany and looked completely out of sync with everyone else, Brandt did a lot better whenever he got a call up.

USArsenal wrote:
Captain wrote:

They have bigger players to build their system around and it's a successful system. Doesn't seem all that strange to me, really. They need players who are going to do 'it' from the first minute and the coach has gone with his tested options.

i dont think Sane is a player that they should build a system around.  Nor is he even a starter.  However, he is a great option from the bench if they need something different in a game.  Then again, Low is pretty rigid when it comes to what he allows/wants his players to do...

More to the point, though, is Brandt a better player than Sane or a tested option?  doesn't really seem that way to me, but hey..  

You said Germany don't use him a way that allows him to play well - my point being, that isn't going to happen so why bother.

Is Brandt a better player? Probably edges it for Low.

I rate Sane very highly, he should be there instead of Brandt. Sane can play on both wings as well.

Tah and Petersen should be going instead of Rudiger and Gomez too. Low is too safe.

Holy fuck, no wonder Italy isn’t at the World Cup. Just watched the first half of a friendly and they missed 5+ great chances.

Insigne looking the part, Italy has been too slow to incorporate him.

Speaking of, how have the Netherlands become so shit? I mean Ryan fucking Babel still players for them. The talent coming through can’t be that bad surely?

jones wrote:
Jed wrote:

Sané had a better season than both of Draxler and Reus. If it's about performances for the national team then surely Götze had to be in there ahead of Brandt.

Reus is Germany's best player ffs, can't believe this is an actual point of contention. Draxler is a lot more valuable to Germany because how versatile and mature he plays, he's basically a midfielder nowadays who can play on the wing. Götze has been dogshit both for club and country for a good while already, just because he scored an important goal years ago doesn't make him any good for Germany.

You need to take off your Premier League glasses mate. Sané was great for City but even there his form was wildly inconsistent. He has completely shit the bed at every opportunity for Germany and looked completely out of sync with everyone else, Brandt did a lot better whenever he got a call up.

Fair enough.

A bit surprised about the debates post Sane’s ommission, particularly regarding Reus and Draxler. Reus is probably the best player on the squad when healthy, and the gaffer must be thanking his gods that he finally has the chance to take him to a tournament.

How much does Low rate Draxler? The PSG man captained the Confederations Cup squad.

Brandt is probably closer, but there isn’t daylight between the players. Brandt was the man at Leverkusen.

Finally, on Sane, fans need to be careful about looking at the raw statistics. He was part of the most ruthless attack in Premier League history. Everyone scored and assisted with reckless abandon on that team. Take him out and put him on another team, and his numbers are probably depressed. In fact, he’s never shown this free scoring and assisting form at Germany, with no goals in a dozen or so games.

Argentina cancel friendly against Israel. So fucking stupid. Don't blame them, they don't want to take a chance with their players safety having received numerous threats of action against them should they even dare play a game of football. What happens when Israel qualify for a major tournament? What then? Giving in to extremist is never the way to go. Should have gone ahead with the fixture in my opinion.

Going ahead with the game would be giving in to extremists .

Tambourine Man wrote:

Argentina cancel friendly against Israel. So fucking stupid. Don't blame them, they don't want to take a chance with their players safety having received numerous threats of action against them should they even dare play a game of football. What happens when Israel qualify for a major tournament? What then? Giving in to extremist is never the way to go. Should have gone ahead with the fixture in my opinion.

Shouldn't have organised a match against them then.

Heard on bbc that they wanted the Palestinian vote for the world cup bid in 2030.
And if there's a threat, there's a threat. At some point safety has to be considered, not about giving in. They're not soldiers or diplomats. Pakistan don't got any cricket in their country after the Sri Lankan team was attacked about 6 years ago.

GooneriC wrote:

Going ahead with the game would be giving in to extremists .

Spot on. Playing a proto-fascist pseudo-democratic apartheid state is one thing, playing them in Jerusalem is legitimising everything they've been doing in the last few months. Israel knew this very well which is why they've invited them in the first place.

Interestingly enough the match was supposed to be in Tel Aviv and only after Argentina agreed to the game it was relocated to Jerusalem, classic hasbara in action as the culture minister is all over the news playing the victim. Of course the hopelessly corrupt and right wing Argentine government as well as AFA didn't really give a fuck about it and only agreed to cancel the game after the players cited concerns about their personal security. Anyways well done on them for whatever reasons they eventually pulled out.

But playing in or against all other countries with horrifying regimes that abuse human rights, murder their own civilians and invade other countries is fine right? Like this world cup in Russia thing?

Sport and politics should be separated, Israel fucked up by trying to make a political statement moving the game to Jerusalem but the subsequent threats of violence to a political decision was atrocious. Protests should be peaceful and constructive. Threatening to kill footballers is not the answer.

Having said that I don't think Argentina should have agreed to a friendly in Jerusalem to begin with. No need for them to be used as a political puppet. The game was originally scheduled for Tel Aviv (I think) and the Argies should have insisted it stayed there. My issue is that after agreeing, they backed out due to threats of violence. I don't want to live in a world where events are cancelled not due to principals but fear of extremist behaviour.

It's sick that shit like this is still a problem in 2018. I hope it's not something that is swept under the carpet. If it's a few offenders, come down hard and remove them from the stadium with heavy fines and lifetime bans. If it's a large portion of the crowd, call the fucking game off.

Tambourine Man wrote:

Sport and politics should be separated, Israel fucked up by trying to make a political statement moving the game to Jerusalem but the subsequent threats of violence to a political decision was atrocious. Protests should be peaceful and constructive. Threatening to kill footballers is not the answer.  

Having said that I don't think Argentina should have agreed to a friendly in Jerusalem to begin with. No need for them to be used as a political puppet. The game was originally scheduled for Tel Aviv (I think) and the Argies should have insisted it stayed there. My issue is that after agreeing, they backed out due to threats of violence. I don't want to live in a world where events are cancelled not due to principals but fear of extremist behaviour.

Why should sport and politics be separated? Sport doesn't exist in a vacuum. Everything is political and sporting events are routinely used and abused for political ends. If you agree to play a World Cup in Russia, you really lose all rights to complain.