Loew: Ball control rules his world

The first goalless draw is far from turning Joachim Loew into a happy man after Germany' s second Group C match against Poland.

But as the German head coach and 2014 World Champion, he knows full well that patience is required in football, especially against defensively-oriented teams.

The draw in the Stade de France this Thursday evening means both Germany and Poland are in a good position to finish the group in the top two places, but both need a win in their last game to be sure.

Poland might be happier with the draw as Germany as the latter controlled most parts of the game, but did not manage to score.

"We played better at the back. But we have to improve our attacking game. We need more speed and determination," German defender Jerome Boateng said. But game control seems to be the way Germany' s coach Joachim Loew wants to be successful at Euro 2016, at least in the group phase.

Modern football has developed several tactical concepts. The most successful one in the last years inevitably was the Spanish variation by controlling the ball and the game.

Joachim Loew has for a long time now been thinking about how to overcome the system and break the Spanish dominance.

At the same time, Loew has become aware of the fact that it might be a good idea to adopt the advantages of the Spaniard' s game as many teams play football the other way around, meaning by closing all doors, leaving hardly any space for the technically superior opponents like the Spaniards and Germans.

In addition, their answers are counter-attacks which are supposed to destabilize their opponents in a weak moment, just when they are on their way back.

Looking at Germany' s second group match against Poland, fans could see a team on it` s "Spanish Way".

Not without reason as Toni Kroos, a midfielder at 2016 Champions League winners Real Madrid, is the person ruling the German game. The former Bayern Munich player is regarded as having improved significantly since moving to Spain.

After Miroslav Klose, a real center forward, retired, Loew has started favoring the option with a false nine and rotating with his fellow strikers.

Against Poland, Loew for the first time in the past years changed his first eleven after the first game of a major tournament to counteract Poland' s dynamic two-man attacking game and to have a third option to provide impulses from the back.

It' s an area defender Jerome Boateng and midfielder Kroos are normally responsible for normally. Hummels now is the third option. Like Boateng he is a man for long passes if space in the opponents half get tight as they did in Germany' s first group match against the Ukraine in midfield and along the flanks.

Mats Hummels, who will join Bayern Munich next month, increases the ability of Germany' s back four to close down the opposing strikers. And he is perfect for Loew' s strategy of controlled attacking football.

To a great extent, the German team at the 2016 Euro appears like a copy of the Spanish "tiki-taka" style. Alone in the first half Germany had 63 per cent of possession, but did not manage to create a substantial number of chances.

Hummels is regarded to be stronger when it comes to technical demands for the attacking game as it was Shkodran Mustafi who played alongside Boateng in Germany' s curtain raiser as Hummels was not fully fit. Besides Hummels at the back alongside Benedikt Hoewedes, Boateng and Jonas Hector, Loew did not make any changes.

Mario Goetze again was Germany' s false nine, Thomas Mueller and Julian Draxler raided along the flanks with Mesut Oezil behind Goetze. Sami Khedira and Kroos were Germany' s defensive midfielders.

Playing again with a false nine, without a spearhead, Germany' s strikers were rotating in the box and around to allow their midfielders to find a gap in the Polish defense.

Lacking the required speed for tactics like that, Kroos and Khedira and Oezil were not on song. The German game was far too static, at least in the first half, and contained far too few long-range shots.

And another weakness again in the German game was the right-back position with Hoewedes who usually plays as a centre back and lacks the quality to find answers going forward.

"No doubt we have improved in defense and finished the second game without receiving a goal. But we had problems in the last third of the pitch." Loew said.

"We could not get through. But I am sure this will get better after the group phase as then both teams have to open up their game more in order to win the game," he added.

In the second half, Loew' s players started to play with more speed and for the last 15 to 20 minutes Andre Schuerrle along the left flank and Mario Gomez enriched the German game up front.

But Germany still concentrated on ball and game control right up until the last second of the game.

In the end a good idea as Euro 2016 seems to be a tournament of late goals. Teams have been scoring the winning goal more than ever in the last 15 minutes. Endit