Germany 2-2 Poland: The 4-1-4-1 Shows Its Defensive Deficiencies Once Again

Before Germany's previous Euro 2012 qualifier against Austria, manager Joachim Low made a surprising statement that his very successful 4-2-3-1 system would be replaced by a more attacking-oriented 4-1-4-1 for the remainder of the footballing season and into the big event in Ukraine and Poland.

Just why Low came about with this is anyone's guess, but after the formation was exhibited against Brazil, Austria and now Poland, it seems clear that Germany would have considerable trouble against the world's best offenses. 

After conceding two against the South American giants and Austria, Germany came into the Poland friendly playing the same formation but with a very different defensive line-up, the result was much worse than anticipated.

The Polish attack, frontlined by Koln's Peszko and Dortmund duo Lewandowski and 'Kuba' Blaszczykowski,consistently managed to get past the last line of German defenders and cause significant problems for second-choice keeper, Tim Wiese.

In fact, if it weren't for some great saves for Wiese, and some poor finishing, Germany could've lost against their rivals for the first time. 

The main issue going into the match was how Mertesacker would handle himself after being out of the German side for so long with a long standing foot injury finally being treated with surgery over the summer.

Mertesacker has been a fantastic servant for his country over the 'renaissance' era German football from the time of Jurgen Klinsmann's arrival to today under Joachim Low, as 75 caps at the age of 26 is a tremendous achievement for a player of any nationality.

The big question on everyone's minds is who Low has in mind to play alongside Mats Hummels in the upcoming European Championship. Mertesacker is probably on top of that list, down to not only his abilities. but also his experience of playing in top level national tournaments. 

The deficiencies in his game are obvious, and over the years, Low has tweaked his formation to put haste to any possibilities of exploiting them when up against the bigger teams, therefore enabling Mertesacker to play to his strengths.

On evidence of the match against Poland, it would seem that the 4-1-4-1 formation caters more to Mertesacker's weaknesses than strengths. (Formation: http://www.this11.com/boards/abBbFQVaov.jpg)

The team is playing not only with a high line defence, something Mertesacker is used to playing with for both Germany and Bremen, but also with only 1 defensive midfield to protect the defenders against advancing midfielders.

Both of those went hand in hand with Mertesacker's weaknesses in terms of speed and mobility, as the Polish attackers regularly found themselves in one-on-one situations with acres of space to attack in, a dead end situation for Mertesacker. 

Ofcourse there were other factors pertaining to Mertesacker's weak performance. Playing at the right hand side in central defence, Mertesacker was partnered by out of position Christian Trasch at RB, a position he had previously played in against Brazil, also a very problematic position for Joachim Low since there doesn't seem to be one great RB in the country.

Having played as a defensive midfielder for the past 2 seasons at Stuttgart, Trasch consistently found himself out of position and well ahead of his fellow defenders; that led to Poland's Left Winger, Pezsko, consistently having acres of space to attack at Mertesacker when Poland attacked on the counter.

Pezsko found himself with three clear chances within the first half and in all occasions Trasch was well behind the play; subsequently Mertesacker was left to deal with the space of Pezsko, which he was never going to be able to handle.

Along with Trasch having a horrible defensive game, Rolfes' performance was also problematic for the defenders. Rolfes, while being a good player, is nowhere near as energetic as the regular defensive midfielder, Bastian Schweinsteiger.

While Schweinsteiger in previous matches was able to offer defensive cover to his defenders with his combination of power, pace and tenacity, Rolfes was not about to provide the same quality.

Having played with a roadrunner of a midfielder in Arturo Vidal for the previous three seasons, Rolfes was more accustomed to the role of as a box-to-box midfielder with Vidal covering defensively more often then not, therefore him being sworn into the defensive midfield position was always going to be a risk. 

Therefore, Rolfes was not able to handle the swarm of Polish midfielders racing forward whenever Poland got the ball.

Obviously, Mertesacker was is not to be completely blameless for Poland's first goal. With a midfielder in possession in clear sight, he could've done better to block the passing lane but with the space Dudka had to run into completely unopposed, the pass was always going to be easier than usual.

Whether the 4-1-4-1 will remain a success with a stronger defensive line is a different issue but the defenders who have been playing as first team members with that formation certainly better equipped.

Hummels and Badstuber are quicker and more mobile than Mertesacker, with Hummels possessing as good an ability to read the game as Mertesacker has shown over the years. Also, with a more defensive right back in Boateng or Howedes, there will be less of a chance for the opposition wingers to find themselves in acres of space to run into.

Another point worth nothing about both Badstuber and Hummels (and Boateng) is their ability with the ball at their feet, the natural progression of Germany's overall game has gone from flanking the ball from the wings to slower possession based.

The basis of the 4-1-4-1 is to have the maximum possibility of keeping possession by replacing the one extra defensive midfielder in the 4-2-3-1 with a more attacking option.

Badstuber and Hummels add to the possession based game more than Mertesacker or Howedes would since not only are their passing abilities above that of their rivals but also that their respective club sides operate with similar tactics of passing out of defense, something Low prefers.

While Hummels seems a dead on certainty for one of the positions, the battle among Mertesacker, Boateng and Badstuber (Howedes hardly gets a look-in) is going to be a fierce one.

While Badstuber has the passing abilities, his reading of the game is not at the level of both Boateng and Mertesacker. While Mertesacker has the best game reading abilities, his passing abilities are lower then that of Boateng and Badstuber. Therefore, it will be a decision as to whether Low looks for the specialist passer, defender or the mix of both.

Lastly, there is also the addition of Neuer as goalkeeper. One of Neuer's greatest strengths is his ability to read the game and sweep any long balls played over the defenders; while that has led to errors from time to time, Neuer is able to avert any danger most of the time.

His speed will be a huge asset to Germany's ability to hold a high line with success, as the opposition will have the option to punt the ball over the defenders on to attackers racing past the defenders.

It is there that Neuer will have to show his ability to come out of goal and clear the ball, something that hugely underrated Victor Valdes has made a living for while playing for Barcelona.

With all the talk about defence, it should not be forgotten that Germany have also now managed to score 11 times in their 3 matches playing the 4-1-4-1 therefore showing that the formation is working in terms of making use of Germany's vast array of talented attackers, especially in central midfield.

The man to make most advantage out of this change is Toni Kroos, a man whose best position is yet to be figured out but is made great use of as the fourth attacking midfielder ahead of Schweinsteiger and slightly behind Ozil.

Low labels the position as box-to-box, which is a gross overestimation of Kroos' defensive work, something which doesn't seem to worry Low at the moment.

Kroos' performances have been very encouraging and after removing the odd foolish pass, he has been fantastic at managing to not only keep possession but also create chances for his fellow attackers, something his rival for the midfielder position, Sami Khedira, is not able to do at will. 

Kroos was once again in fine form against Poland as he repeatedly broke apart the Polish defence while also managing to find himself in goalscoring opportunities, only to be thwarted by the super-human alien named Polish keeper, Wojciech Scezney.

Kroos' fellow attackers were also consistently frustrated by the Polish keeper's superb saves (though he maintains the Germans were simply shooting straight at him).

Not much can be said about Germany's attack that has not already been mentioned. It was fluid, quick and precise, everything to make a world-class attack besides the finishing part, something to be attributed more towards Scezney's great performance.

Mario Gotze and Andre Schurrle started, which was always going to create a buzz amongst German fans and their performances once again showed the immense depth within the German team.

Gotze, while not being his best, was creating multiple chances and rotating position well with Podolski, Schurrle and Kroos.

Schurrle looked a bit out of sorts down the right of midfield, which in his defensive is not his natural position and it was only after Thomas Muller came on for Podolski and Schurrle was moved to his favoured left wing position that he was able to play more freely and be more threatening. 

Overall, the offense was never going to be in question. Any combination of Ozil, Klose, Gomez, Kroos, Podolski, Muller, Gotze, Schweinsteiger and Schurrle is good enough to break through the best of defenses in world football. The defensive issue looks yet to be solved under the new 4-1-4-1.

Regular leader in defence, Per Mertesacker, does not seem to be comfortable with such a formation so it might be up to the new breed of German defenders to man the stations and protect the fort in the upcoming matches.

More then any other, the next matches against Turkey, Ukraine, Belgium and the nutcracker against 'World No.1' Holland will decide whether this formation is really viable for the long-run.

Even though the matches against Turkey and Belgium are part of the Euro 2012 qualifying, all matches would be meaningless within regular circumstances but with Low looking to slowly blend his side into a new formation, the matches possess significant importance and the performances will no doubt be looked at with extra scrutiny.

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