Löw: “We’ll attack in October”

The German national side have once again let a lead slip; they return from Switzerland with a 1-1 draw. Head coach Joachim Löw speaks about man-marking, being vocal on the pitch and the return of key players for the next international break.

Question: Joachim Löw, what do you make of the last week after two draws in the Nations League? Joachim

Löw: Mixed feelings at the moment. I said that development is important, but you obviously want to win games. I’ve learnt a lot about the players, some things were implemented well despite the side’s fatigue – the players were always up for it. And when we implement things correctly, we have good passages of play, we win the ball, we make chances. But we don’t do it over 90 minutes. I have to let them off with that though; it’s been an extraordinary week.

Question: You implemented man-marking in both games across the whole pitch. Did that work in your opinion?

Löw: We’ve never done that before, but I wanted to do it in these games. I knew that the opponent would play their way out of it on occasions, but we did it well for lots of the time.

Question: Where do you see shortcomings?

Löw: It’s really frustrating that we didn’t score a second goal with all of the good chances that we had. That was the problem in both games. If you don’t use your chances, you get punished. It has a knock-on effect. We need to work on that.

Question: Do you think that your young players are too quiet on the pitch?

Löw: I’ve mentioned it to the players again. Some players were new, others haven’t been with us for long – you can’t demand it from them. It’s also about their maturity and the individual’s personality. I’ve said before, if you're vocal, it can give others energy and be a great help - some players are more reserved in that department. We also need to improve at that. It’ll be better in October, we’ll be more vocal when we have players back who take the responsibility to help others.

Question: Don’t you find it difficult that you now can’t do anything for weeks? I can. Obviously I’d rather have games, no doubt about it, but I’ve been able to get used to it. It’s important again now that I get in touch with those who are returning from holiday, the Bayern and Leipzig players. Then we’ll have a look at the games again and decide what we need to do in October. We have three games then. That makes it harder, we need to select a big squad and use it wisely.

Question: So does that mean you’re planning to select the strongest squad available?

Löw: We’ll pick our strongest squad in October and November. Seven or eight players will come back and play a key role with us, and we’ll keep working. In October and November we’ll really go on the attack and we’ll win games.