Friday, July 2nd, 2021
Controversial strategist stops
Kroos finds one last good solution
By Tobias Nordmann
Toni Kroos gave the German national soccer team a great moment. The playmaker was part of the team that impressed the world between 2010 and 2014. But like the team, Kroos lost more and more of its strength and fascination.
Is it a win? A triumph? Or just the perfect timing that has distinguished Toni Kroos over the years? You will find very good arguments for each thesis. Also for the thesis that the decision to withdraw from the national team after 106 games for Germany was overdue. Well, the choice of thesis says a lot about whether you are more of #TeamKroos or Team #Kroosout. For those who don’t know what it means: With hashtags (#) you show your opinion these days. And even if we don’t have a current survey: The people who like the 31-year-old’s resignation are definitely in the majority.
In fact, one recently had the feeling that the lobby group for Kroos is only a one-man operation. In personal union of all offices, the national coach Joachim Löw had intensively promoted the playmaker to the national coach Joachim Löw. What actually sounds a bit bulky can be summed up in one word: loyalty to the Nibelung. Löw was regularly accused of this in his 15-year leadership at the DFB. Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mesut Özil belonged to the select group of the Nibelungs. In fact, Löw repeatedly ignored the performance principle and brought his favorites to major tournaments in the squad and in responsible positions. But the truth also includes: most of the time they provided at least solid proof of work and justified their role.
This also applies to Kroos. After the World Cup debacle in Russia in 2018, no German national player was the subject of public debate so often. While Löw never allowed himself to be talked about when it came to Personnel Kroos, a whole country was talking its mouth fluff. The admirers of his outstanding passing game admired his outstanding passing game. They let the opponent’s arguments that the 31-year-old lack hardness, passion and (meanwhile) the perfect timing for the needs of the team rush past them without comment. Toni Kroos, that was the strategist, the handlebar, the cool heart of the DFB team.
That was his legendary game
And it was never better than on July 8, 2014. It was never better than when Germany bizarre humiliated World Cup hosts Brazil 7-1 in the semifinals. Humiliation is a big word. But it was seldom more appropriate. And Kroos was the conductor who led the most spectacular samba ever danced in the Estádio Governador Magalhães Pinto. Corner before the 1-0, introductory pass before the 2-0, the third and fourth goal he scored himself. Kroos put everything he can into this game. Standards, passes, shots – what a game. A game for the ages. Even more so than the finale a few days later, in which, by the way, Kroos did not develop. He couldn’t cope with the harshness of the Argentines, which tended to the edge of brutality. Meanwhile, his neighbor Bastian Schweinsteiger endured it. The Battle of Rio made it a legend.
Many people said at the time that it was a good time to step down. But Schweinsteiger continued. Two years later, in the summer of 2016, he dragged himself to the EM. Löw trusted his gladiator. It ended bitterly. It ended with the “hand of horror” in the semifinals against France. With the outstretched arm, he was faster on the ball in the penalty area than his opponent Patrice Evra, penalty in stoppage time in the first half. The moment that initiated the 2-0 defeat. About Schweinsteiger, who retired from the national team after the tournament, it was said: His resignation would be two years too late.
These things are also said about Kroos. What is overlooked is that there would not have been a perfect moment for him. Schweinsteiger could have resigned in 2014, as Philipp Lahm had done. A World Cup triumph, that’s a good reason. A World Cup debacle is the opposite. So anyone who claims that the right time for the DFB exit would have been in summer 2018 is underestimating the ambition of an athlete. An athlete like Kroos. An athlete who has won national championships and international handlebars in a row. With his ingenious free-kick goal in stoppage time of the second group game against Sweden, Kroos had given the DFB team, yes, a new hope to the whole country, which at the time was not so much alienated from “its” national team. Kroos wanted to know again. And Loew didn’t force him out of his line-up either. Unlike Mats Hummels, Thomas Müller and Jérôme Boateng. Löw made Kroos a key player in the upheaval.
It is not because of Kroos that Löw failed with the request. Kroos played like he always did. He drew the ball and distributed it. The data service provider Opta has played 2047 passes in major tournaments since the 2010 World Cup, significantly more than any other great strategist in world football. He never changed his game, he emphasized that again before the European Championship. Kroos was Kroos. But the team around him is no longer the same that impressed the world with their football between 2010 and 2014. After the 2010 World Cup, Kroos slowly grew to be the centerpiece. With Sami Khedira he had the perfect adjutant at his side. Important for filling holes, less important for passing. With Mesut Özil he had a brilliant ten in front of him. Sometimes you forget that too. And in front was Miroslav Klose. A striker. A striker! One that could be fed with balls.
Kroos lost his power in the system
In the end, Kroos didn’t have any of that. His great moments became rarer, unlike his influence on the game. But that should actually work differently. It should be more about speed and depth. This is how the national coach wanted to go to Russia. But Kroos wasn’t the man for it. Not in this environment. An environment that has never been stable. A team that Löw could never make it clear what exactly they should be doing. That went through until the EM. Löw was interested in roles, not systems. But with his preferred 3-4-3, the team mostly alienated, except in the spectacular 4: 2 against Portugal in the preliminary round. It also became increasingly a problem that the brilliant standards of Kroos, which had paved the way to the title in 2014, became a completely blunt weapon.
Kroos and İlkay Gündoğan in the center, it didn’t work out. Kroos played solid, Gündoğan below expectations. So there was more discussion about him than about Kroos. The interaction of the duo had an inhibiting rather than stimulating effect on the German game. Too little risk, not enough creative. The tournament provided a lot of arguments for a new center. A center with the gallant Joshua Kimmich and the power monster Leon Goretzka. It has proven how impressively this combination works at FC Bayern. Under coach Hansi Flick.
And Hansi Flick, who left FC Bayern to take over Löw’s legacy. He takes on a team with a lot of construction sites. With a disoriented defense, with a harmless offensive. To shorten it radically. He takes over an insecure team. Like in autumn 2019 in Munich. He stabilized the record champions hard at an impressive pace. Shaped into an omnivorous pressing monster. It was his idea of successful, spectacular football. And why should he move away from it? He can also rely on a large part of his successful Bayern axis in the DFB team. He can completely adapt the midfield alone. Kimmich (instead of the right-back position) and Goretzka on the double six, Müller in front, Leroy Sané and Serge Gnabry next to them. Only a striker of the highest quality is missing.
Not Kroos’ problem. He would certainly have been nominated further. He’s still one of the best who should play for Germany. But whether he is still the best (or second best) in his position, this question would have been very exciting. Probably it would have been answered to the disadvantage of Kroos. but who knows that? Kroos is now stepping down. As a winner over its critics. He resigns with the small personal triumph of having been a regular player until the end of his DFB career. He made one last perfect pass. Was he overdue? Everyone should decide for themselves.
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