GERMANY MANAGER JOACHIM Löw insists the team’s latest problems are nothing they haven’t dealt with before.
Having won the World Cup for the fourth time in their history last summer, the European heavyweights have begun the current European championships qualifying campaign poorly — scraping past Scotland before Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at the hands of neighbours Poland.
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As well as a number of recent retirements including captain Philipp Lahm, Löw has also lost several players to injuries with Mesut Özil, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Sami Khedira, Benedikt Hoewedes, Marco Reus and Mario Gomez all out.
Ahead of tomorrow night’s game with Ireland, however, the German boss is playing down their mini-crisis.
“The difficulties that Germany are experiencing at the moment are the kind that we have experienced many times before,” Löw said during his pre-match press conference this afternoon.
“Post-tournament is never easy because some players have more difficulties than others to get back into a steady rhythm. We also noted that over the years players become more susceptible to injury and the players lose their form.
There are players who have different problems at various stages but generally speaking I don’t think the situation now has become any more difficult than it has always been.
“As world champions we know that we used to be the hunters, now we are prey to all other teams,” he added.
“Teams like Scotland were playing with incredible motivation against us but that was also true after 2010 and 2012. So we know the situation and how to deal with it as it is no different now to what it used to be.”
'We used to be the hunters, now we're the prey' - Germany boss Löw
GERMANY MANAGER JOACHIM Löw insists the team’s latest problems are nothing they haven’t dealt with before.
Having won the World Cup for the fourth time in their history last summer, the European heavyweights have begun the current European championships qualifying campaign poorly — scraping past Scotland before Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at the hands of neighbours Poland.
As well as a number of recent retirements including captain Philipp Lahm, Löw has also lost several players to injuries with Mesut Özil, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Sami Khedira, Benedikt Hoewedes, Marco Reus and Mario Gomez all out.
Ahead of tomorrow night’s game with Ireland, however, the German boss is playing down their mini-crisis.
“The difficulties that Germany are experiencing at the moment are the kind that we have experienced many times before,” Löw said during his pre-match press conference this afternoon.
“Post-tournament is never easy because some players have more difficulties than others to get back into a steady rhythm. We also noted that over the years players become more susceptible to injury and the players lose their form.
“As world champions we know that we used to be the hunters, now we are prey to all other teams,” he added.
“Teams like Scotland were playing with incredible motivation against us but that was also true after 2010 and 2012. So we know the situation and how to deal with it as it is no different now to what it used to be.”
Reporting by Stephen Doyle
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