Joachim Loew considers his Germany side to be better equipped for Euro 2012 than before their impressive run to the World Cup semi-finals.
Germany were one of the most entertaining teams at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, where they dispatched England and Argentina in style before a 1-0 loss to eventual winners Spain in the last four.
Already among the favourites to challenge at next year s European Championship finals in Poland and the Ukraine, coach Loew intends to continue his team s evolution in search of the winning formula.
We need to keep experimenting because I feel that we are good enough to do that, having qualified so well for the tournament, and because I feel we need to, Loew said.
Overall, I think that our preparations are further advanced than at this stage two years ago.
The team understand better how we want to play than we did before. I think they re more on the same wavelength than before.
The foundations are certainly there, and I think that gives us a big base from which to shake things up a little for these two games.
Germany, who topped Group A of qualifying with a 100 percent record, play Euro 2012 co-hosts Ukraine in Kiev on Friday before hosting neighbours and traditional rivals the Netherlands in Hamburg four days later.
For Loew, the international fixtures between now and the start of next year s tournament are crucial opportunities to fine tune Germany s strategy, on and off the pitch.
It isn t just these two games that are important for our preparation for Euro 2012, there are three more games as well, he said.
It s the training sessions we have together as a team, the meetings we have as well that are important in this phase of our preparation.
Germany will be without Lazio striker Miroslav Klose due to a knee injury, while Borussia Moenchengladbach s promising young forward Marco Reus has been sidelined by flu.
Regular captain Philipp Lahm is being rested, and his Bayern Munich team-mate Bastian Schweinsteiger is out with a broken collarbone.
As can often be the case, a few of our plans have been somewhat upset, Loew said.
For example, I had expected Miroslav Klose to be with us, as well as Marco Reus, who s managed to score a few goals recently.
Both of them had been in my plans for the two games, especially this weekend, so we ll need to have a bit of a rethink as to what we can do.
