Forget shackled Ronaldo: Germany's Mueller is man to watch

Brazil benefited from an early refereeing blunder and a scuffed Neymar shot, Argentina struggled to break down a well-drilled Bosnia-Herzegovina team and the champions Spain capitulated to a 5-1 hammering from Netherlands. None of the favourites have looked as comfortable as Germany, who dismantled Portugal in brutal fashion on Monday night. Here are three takeaways from the 4-0 rout of the Cristiano Ronaldo-led Portugal: Ronaldo can be shackled: Ronaldo’s bad day on the pitch had nothing to do with his form. His form is perfectly fine. It was partly his team's failure to get the ball to him in dangerous areas and utilise his pace and partly a zonal marking system that pushed him out of the game. Ronaldo had just 15 touches in the first half and managed just 25 passes in 90 minutes. [caption id=“attachment_1573851” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Meuller scored a hat-trick vs Portugal. AP[/caption] If you see his action areas in the chart below, he hardly wandered infield in the first half — spending 32 percent of his time on the left wing compared to just 16 percent in the second half. He only attempted take-on in the entire match was on Mats Hummels in the 56th minute and he failed even that. The second chart shows how right-back Jerome Boateng was not allowed to roam forward when compared to left-back Howedes — another move to stifle Ronaldo on the wing. Phillip Lahm is not the purist’s choice of defensive midfielder, but he provided excellent cover for Howedes. (Bonus stat: Lahm spent just 1.92 percent of his time on the right flank – where Boateng just sat waiting for Ronaldo to attack. The skipper spent 7.69 percent of his time covering the left flank).

Ronaldo’s action areas in the second half, when he moved more central to get involved.

The left pitch shows heat maps of Howedes and Boateng, showing you how only one fullback had the freedom to attack. The right pitch shows you Ronaldo’s heat map Mueller could be the world’s best False Nine. Gotze isn’t bad either: All that clamour about Joachim Loew taking just one out and out striker to Brazil (Miroslav Klose) is pointless. The fact is, Germany don’t need a striker when they have two of the world’s best false nines in Mueller and Mario Gotze. The passing chart below shows that most of the support they provided was in wide areas — with one falling in as striker when the other roamed the channels to support either Mesut Ozil or Toni Kroos. With Mueller and Gotze, you get two players who have different styles yet play in a similar role. Gotze is trickier (six take-ons to Mueller’s zero) and more direct his approach to getting dangerous areas and drawing defenders towards him. Mueller has a more positional approach, getting into pockets of space. He is of course, more clinical too (three out of four shots on target to Gotze’s one out of four). That both players took as many shots and got into scoring areas shows that Germany don’t miss a striker when they have two players who can do almost everything in attack.

Combined chart of all the passes attempted by Gotze and Muller Germany is the most complete team: Perhaps only Spain’s roster can boast of players who can fulfill multiple roles in a playing XI like Germany can. The six scoring chances they created came from five different players. The 13 shots they took came from seven players and their 12 crosses also came from seven different players. They made 18 successful tackles which came from 10 players, including challenges in their own half made by attackers Gotze, Kroos and Andre Schurrle. One of their defenders got a goal. It shows that while a few players are given area-specific roles, Germany thrives on a contribution from all their players defensively and offensively. Who do you mark? Who do you take on? Who do you cover? This German team has everyone doing everything.                        Germany’s 13 shots came from seven players Stats and charts courtesy Squawka.