World Cup 2018: 5 reasons for Germany’s exit

#3 Lack of Pace

Mesut Ozil

Germany’s staleness wasn’t limited to their tactics as the team lacked pace throughout the team. In defence, Hummels and Boateng are both great players- but none of them posses the pace of a Gerard Pique or Rio Ferdinand. This prevented Germany from playing a more aggressive high line. While Kimmich and Hector are certainly quicker, they are not as fast as most full-backs are expected to be in this day and age. Thus, the full-backs struggled to get back on counter-attacks (more on that later).

However, where this lack of pace really proved problematic was in attack. Germany dominated possession in all of their games- averaging a ridiculous 656.3 passes per game- 2nd highest in the tournament. Despite all these possession, Germany were found it difficult to score against compact well organized defenses. This was mainly due to their lack of pace as they had very few players with the ability to get behind a defence. In Kroos and Ozil, they perhaps had two of the tournament’s slowest attack-minded players. In addition, the likes of Muller, Draxler and Goretzka aren’t particularly known for their pace either.

Even the players who were supposedly “pacey” like Reus and Werner struggled to provide another dimension to Germany’s pass heavy attack. Reus did not seem like he was at 100% throughout the tournament as he did not have his usual burst of pace. Werner on the other hand spent most of the time on the wing (as discussed earlier) rather than trying to get behind the defence. Thus it is little wonder that Germany averaged the 9th least dribbles in the tournament as they did not have enough players who could take on opposing defenders. They also ranked 1st in shots outside the area- a clear sign that they were unable to break down more defensive teams. All Germany needed was a pacey winger with competent crossing and shooting ability. I wonder what Leroy Sane has to say about that.