By Oliver Trust
BERLIN, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- German fans seem to have made their peace with their struggling national team after a disappointing performance at the World Cup. In their first two games since, against France (0-0) and Peru (2-1), warm applause welcomed the four-time world champions, though national coach Joachim Low has good reason to remain concerned.
The 58-year-old has to solve a striker problem. His team's future seems far from bright. "Things have changed," Low lamented. "We are not one of the favorites for a major title anymore."
It is more than evident that Germany is facing a long and winding road in its attempt to scale former heights.
The time when top-class strikers seemed to grow on trees is at an end. Miroslav Klose's international retirement after the 2014 World Cup has been followed this year by Mario Gomez (VfB Stuttgart) and Sandro Wagner (Bayern Munich), although the latter did so before the squad left for Russia.
In Russia, Germany only managed to score two goals in three games. In nine games in 2018, Low's team has only scored eight goals, poor in anybody's books.
Timo Werner (RB Leipzig), Marco Reus (Borussia Dortmund) and Julian Brandt (Bayer Leverkusen) might be termed strikers, but each of the trio is far better coming from the flanks than bossing the penalty area. Equally, neither Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich) nor Julian Draxler (Paris Saint Germain) can reasonably be termed out-and-out strikers.
Low recently termed France "a coach's paradise" due to its seemingly inexhaustible reservoir of talents. Currently, Germany can only look enviously on at its neighbor.
Bavarian striker Muller was full of admiration for Kylian Mbappe, saying that French striker "has a strong engine inside him and one everyone would love to have."
German forwards like Reus are also fast, but perhaps lack the killer instinct a goal-scorer needs, despite Reus, Werner and Muller continuously trying to swap positions up front. "The yield wasn't the best when it comes to goal-scoring," Werner commented. "[We missed the necessary] killer instinct front of goal. We'd better start to get back to it."
Reus obviously wasn't happy playing as a target man against France and Peru as he missed several opportunities. Nils Petersen (SC Freiburg), Mark Uth (FC Schalke 04), Daniel Ginczek (VfL Wolfsburg) and Niclas Fullkrug (Hannover 96) still need to prove their quality on the international stage.
Both Bundesliga clubs and the national team's staff have recognized that more effort has to be put into developing forwards.
Low demanded an increase in training intensity, so that the country's young players are taught to deal adequately with one-on-one situations.
However, nurturing new faces will take time and Low has to try to get along with his current performers. The coach demanded more precision in front of goal and said that an element of greed is missing, as well as the determination to score a goal by any means necessary.
Low has two years in which to prepare his side for the 2020 European Championships, in which a good performance will be imperative. "We can only make people forget about the 2018 World Cup if we are successful in another major tournament."
The coach added that regaining stability and balance at the back is also a key issue, in addition to improving the team's general performance up front. "A successful team needs efficiency and firepower," Low emphasized. "It's something we still need to work on."
