Cape Town - Former Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann believes Manuel Neuer still needs to work on certain areas of his game following Germany's 2-0 loss to Poland.
Second-half goals from Arkadiusz Milik and Sebastian Mila were enough to secure a surprise victory over the World champions, with Neuer largely at fault for the opener as he misjudged a Lukasz Piszczek cross, allowing Milik to head home.
And Lehmann, who won 61 caps in a 10 year career with Die Maanschaft, believes Neuer's fearless attitude between the sticks can sometimes be to his detriment and hopes to see him work on improving his approach to crosses into the box.
"Neuer was courageous. Sometimes you can irritate the player when you run towards him," former Arsenal keeper Lehmann told German television station on RTL.
"But his starting position was not good to make that run out of goal. He does that frequently, and still needs to practice this a bit. His starting position is just too deep."
Neuer has since taken full responsibility for conceding the goal but feels that there was little he could do to prevent it due to the quality of Piszczek's cross.
"I have to shoulder the blame for the 1-0," the Bayern stopper said in the post-match press conference.
"I tried to play courageously and make that run out of goal when Piszczek crossed the ball in. But I was too late.
"I had no chance to get to the ball anyway. If I had stayed on the line, the ball would have still hit the back of the net."
Second-half goals from Arkadiusz Milik and Sebastian Mila were enough to secure a surprise victory over the World champions, with Neuer largely at fault for the opener as he misjudged a Lukasz Piszczek cross, allowing Milik to head home.
And Lehmann, who won 61 caps in a 10 year career with Die Maanschaft, believes Neuer's fearless attitude between the sticks can sometimes be to his detriment and hopes to see him work on improving his approach to crosses into the box.
"Neuer was courageous. Sometimes you can irritate the player when you run towards him," former Arsenal keeper Lehmann told German television station on RTL.
"But his starting position was not good to make that run out of goal. He does that frequently, and still needs to practice this a bit. His starting position is just too deep."
Neuer has since taken full responsibility for conceding the goal but feels that there was little he could do to prevent it due to the quality of Piszczek's cross.
"I have to shoulder the blame for the 1-0," the Bayern stopper said in the post-match press conference.
"I tried to play courageously and make that run out of goal when Piszczek crossed the ball in. But I was too late.
"I had no chance to get to the ball anyway. If I had stayed on the line, the ball would have still hit the back of the net."