The former world-class stopper Karlheinz Förster denied that the German national soccer team’s defense at the World Cup in Qatar was “top format”.
“This quality problem is not new and cannot be explained away,” said Förster in an interview with “Stuttgarter Zeitung/Stuttgarter Nachrichten”.
Förster sees “a problem in the full-back positions”. There you are “at the best case, average staffed at the international level”. The 1980 European champion criticized right-back Niklas Süle in particular after the World Cup false start against Japan (1-2): “He was far too passive in the penalty area for the first goal, for the second goal he only has to take a step forward and then he stands the opponents were offside, so I think the starting line-up was just wrong.”
In the second group game against Spain on Sunday (8:00 p.m. CET/ZDF and MagentaTV), Förster is hoping for a different system from national coach Hansi Flick.
“I would switch to a chain of three. With Matthias Ginter, Süle, Antonio Rüdiger we would have a good axis,” said the two-time vice world champion, who would have taken Mats Hummels to the World Cup: “Mats is not the fastest, but he has one Good positional play, strong tackle skills and a lot of experience. He would calm things down.”