Undav takes MOTM after coming off the bench

J

Jacob1984

Community Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2025
Deniz Undav getting player of the match against Ivory Coast has kicked off a proper debate. The numbers are ridiculous in a way only football can be, with people pointing out how little time he actually had on the pitch and still ending up with the headline moment.

At the same time, plenty are saying Felix Nmecha was the real driver of the game and should have got more love. It feels like one of those cases where the scorer gets the award, but the actual performance is a bit more complicated than that.

Either way, it says a lot about Germany's depth that this is even a discussion. Some are already asking why he is still a sub, others reckon that is exactly why he is so effective. Nagelsmann's decisions are definitely under the microscope now.
 
12 touches and 2 goals is ridiculous really, bloke barely had time to get his boots dirty and somehow he is taking the whole headline, proper super sub stuff and the rest of them must be fuming
 
Honestly this is why people overthink football sometimes because you can have a lad come on and do absolutely nothing for long spells and then bang he has two goals and suddenly he is player of the match and everyone is acting like the debate is over when really the whole thing is just about who got the final touch and the award not who actually controlled the game, Nmecha was apparently the one driving everything from minute one and that gets ignored because highlights culture is mad and the scorer always gets the shine, still fair enough if you are Germany because having that kind of option off the bench is ridiculous and most teams would kill for it but it does feel like the whole thing gets simplified too much and then people start talking as if the manager has solved football when really he has just got a brilliant finisher sitting there waiting to come on and nick the headlines
 
The sensible point is that a substitute with two goals is always going to catch the eye, and in that sense the award makes sense. But then you look at the wider thread and everyone is saying Nmecha was the one carrying the game from the first minute, which is exactly the kind of thing that gets lost when people reduce a match to a scorer and a statline. And then you start thinking about Nagelsmann leaving him on the bench again, which is classic football manager behaviour, keeping options open, acting like he has some grand plan, when half the time it just looks like he is making life harder for himself and then relying on the bench to sort it out anyway
 
The officials absolutely love letting these debates get silly because once the award is handed out everyone forgets the actual flow of the game and just shouts about goals, 12 touches, 2 goals, player of the match, end of story, when really the whole thing is influenced by who gets protected, who gets fouled, who gets the easy decisions and who gets overlooked all match, and if you are going to talk about impact then you cannot just ignore the lads who were doing the work before the goals went in, because that is how these awards always end up feeling like nonsense and the ref and the whole match control side of it gets swept away like it never mattered
 
fair enough if he got motm but nmecha was doing the proper work from the start and people are acting like that doesnt matter because the goals came late and the bench angle is funny but it also says a lot about how germany are set up
 
Undav being named player of the match is understandable because two goals from limited minutes will always stand out. That said, the comments about Nmecha carrying the game from minute one are also fair, so this feels like a classic case of the scorer getting the award rather than the most influential player overall.
 
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