Toni Kroos impressed for Germany with all-action display against Portugal

Germany’s Toni Kroos in action against Portugal in their World cup opener

Germany trounced Portugal 4-0 as their midfield's possession football combined with fluidity proved too much for Portugal to handle. Thomas Muller's hat-trick and Pepe's red card will grab the headlines, deservedly so for the former, but it was yet another all-action performance from Bayern Munich's midfield sensation Toni Kroos. He is an important cog in Bayern and Germany's setup and his defensive ability makes him one of the most complete central midfielders in the world. He works under the shadows and his defensive work does not get as much credit as it deserves.

Toni Kroos started on the left side of a midfield three for Germany and was tasked with the role of pressuring and cutting off Joao Moutinho as well as link the midfield with the attack. He succeeded and attempted 79 passes, completing 76 of them with an astonishing passing accuracy of 96%. He touched the ball 91 times, second only to Lahm with 94. He kept moving around looking for space and keeping possession of the ball.

Along with doing an excellent job of retaining possession, he displayed a tremendous passing range. His cross field passes to Ozil and Muller were pinpoint and he combined with Gotze and Howedes down the left. He attempted 11 long balls (game-high) and completed all of them. Kroos also showed tremendous defensive discipline to cover the left-back position whenever Howedes advanced up the field. As well as popping up in the left-back zone, Kroos was willing to get forward and he was also seen taking Lahm’s position whenever he moved forward. So while we admired Khedira’s forward runs, we should also look at the man whose sacrifice is making it happen and how he makes it look so easy.

As well as being decent on the ball, Kroos did the dirty work to formidable effect. Moutinho was always hassled and harried and in the first half only completed 15 passes. He barely had time on the ball and most of his passes were on the right flank to Nani and Periera, as Kroos made sure there was no route for him to pass through the middle of the pitch or across to Ronaldo. Moutinho ended up with a passing accuracy below 80% and could only complete 48 passes. Moutinho has averaged around 66 passes this whole season.

Another factor was that Moutinho barely attempted small passes instead looking for long-range passes. This was an effect of the German pressing (Kroos in particular) which focused on minimizing all passing options and forcing Moutinho to think quickly. Since no obvious passing option was available, Moutinho was increasingly forced to go long in order to keep possession and move the ball forward.

Moutinho’s 48 passes are also a result of Kroos and Germany easing off in the second half when the result had been secured. Kroos’ job was done by then, Moutinho’s influence was completely nullified and in turn that made sure Ronaldo saw less of the ball. While many people have turned to look at attacking flair over defensive discipline, Kroos’ showing was yet another example of how intelligence on the field is valued and what an influence it is.

Toni Kroos put in an extremely energetic performance as he covered a variety of positions. According to fifa.com, Toni Kroos covered the most distance of all Germany players despite having a near equal top speed close to Per Mertesacker – which means slower to everyone else. This reveals a lot about how you do not need to be running at top speed but still put in an energetic performance. His positional sense and high work rate meant that he popped up as a receiver of a pass for his team mates. He linked up well with Lahm and Gotze (who spent the majority of his game on the left side) and Kroos to Lahm, Lahm to Kroos and Kroos to Gotze were the most frequent passing combinations used in the game.

Kroos’s dead ball delivery came to the fore as his wonderful corner resulted in Hummel’s header which made it 2-0 while his cross led to Muller’s second goal. While Muller will get the plaudits for his hat-trick, Kroos’ and Lahm’s underrated work was a major reason for Germany’s dominance and based on the performance here, Bastian Schweinsteiger may not easily find a place back in the German lineup.

Toni Kroos did his market value no harm and gave even more reason for Bayern Munich to agree to his contract demands. His blend of creativity, energy and intelligence is a rare breed in football nowadays and that shows why he is rated so highly.