Another weekend, another game against a direct relegation contender. Fortnight since the last match, i'm not sure how ready the boys are for this one. I fear the game has not been hyped up as much as it should have been. An away victory would be an absolutely IMMENSE result. Not only a great result in itself, but would also move us ahead of a number of teams. It would be awesome. But, it's unlikely. I think Bremen are the favourites for this and, while it's always hard to predict how Bremen will turn up, i'd put them as minor favourites. But I hope we beat the bookies. Predicted lineup according to Kicker: Ulreich--Boulahrouz-Tasci-Delpierre-Molinaro--Traesch-Kuzmanovic--Harnik-Hajnal-Cacau--Pogrebnyak. We will have to see. Gebhart misses the game through a minor injury, definitely a blow. Okazaki would be demoted to the bench, if this is accurate.
Well a 1-1 draw. I couldn't watch the second half but from the stats I saw, it appears it was a deserved score. I'll take a point rather than nothing.
Bremen were much better, we are lucky with the point. Match number 5 in a row where I repeat the same thing: not pleased with the performance, but happy with the result. Another point won in the relegation fight, and considering Bremen were much better throughout, I can easily live with it. It means we will almost certainly stay out of the bottom 3 for another week. Now we will have to work on winning at home. Our best man? Sven Ulreich, without a shadow of a doubt. Some great stops. We knew he would require time, but the faith is starting to pay off it seems. At this rate we may yet one day have a very, very good keeper in this guy.
Have to agree, obviously. Saw nearly all the first half and then a bit of the second near the end. We had some periods in the first 15 minutes or so where we looked pretty sharp and were controlling the flow, but after Hajnal's goal we were mostly lame. Bremen took complete control after that. A point in that situation is great. Bremen outshot VfB by a huge margin. It could have easily been 4-1 or 5-1. Ulreich was in excellent form. Plus some defender (Tasci?) made a great clearance off the goal line late (I think). 6 games to go and I think Stuttgart needs to win half of those to probably be safe (plus a draw). I've seen the "40-point mark" thrown about as the "magic" number to stay up for most seasons. Does that generally seem true?
Since the rule to award 3 points for a victory was introduced, no single side has ever been relegated after having gotten 40 points. And yeah, Tasci was the one to clear off the line.
Player Ratings: Sven Ulreich: Kicker Rating: 1.5 (28 games played, 28 as starter, 3.07 avg.) Khalid Boulahrouz: 4 (10 games, 7 as starter, 4.11 avg.) Serdar Tasci: 2.5 (20 games, 20 as starter, 3.83 avg.) Georg Niedermeier: 3 (23 games, 19 as starter, 3.89 avg.) Cristiano Molinaro: 4 (24 games, 21 as starter, 4.45 avg.) Christian Traesch: 3 (28 games, 28 as starter, 3.41 avg.) Zdravko Kuzmanovic: 3 (26 games, 21 as starter, 3.73 avg.) Martin Harnik: 5 (26 games, 11 as starter, 3.88 avg.) Tamas Hajnal: 3 (7 games, 6 as starter, 3.50 avg.) Shinji Okazaki: 5 (6 games, 6 as starter, 4.00 avg.) Pavel Pogrebnyak: 4.5 (22 games, 16 as starter, 3.76 avg.) SUBS: Arthur Boka: No Rating (18 games, 15 as starter, 3.63 avg.) Christian Gentner: NR (25 games, 22 as starter, 3.98 avg.) Cacau: NR (22 games, 20 as starter, 4.05 avg.) Unused Subs: Mar Ziegler Matthieu Delpierre Daniel Didavi Sven Schipplock Do you guys think the captain may yet struggle to return to the first 11? I think he'll be back in place of Niedmermeier by next weekend.
-Delpi will be back. -Traesch must be replaced, Bah, Gentner, whoever. -Harnik and Pogrebnjak, when they play together, they are defenders of the opponents. -Please take Harnik out of RM/RA or whatever it is called. I've never seen a player who can have such a terrible position sense like Harnik. (Explanation, every time I see plenty of room in the right front, I feel angry and sad. There is a lot of opportunities that can be created in this place, but our RM/RA/whatever is missing) -Now I really want to sell Pogrebnjak, a player with no sense of responsibility. I don't think he has ever tried to improve his header -Okazaki has to be replaced, sorry, he is just too unfamiliar with his teammates and this league. The lack of winter training seems really fatal now. But sometimes he can appear in his position, which is much better than Harnik -Molinaro made many mistakes, but now he is the only one that can create constant attack. He mainly uses his speed and sudden acceleration, so he is now easily exhausted Conclusion It is needed that players who have a better understanding of what LM and RM should do. Now we have three strikers on the pitch. One is a newcomer, two have bad skills and bad sense of position play. Hajnal has too much burden and is also a clear and easy target for the opponents.
One more thing. I've always mentioned a phrase: off-the-ball running. I go to many VfB forums and noticed that some people said that Hajnal's goal was too simple and easy and anyone could make it. True. But when Molinaro made a cross, Kuz and Harnik were much closer to the ball than Hajnal. And in the end we saw that only Hajnal appeared in the proper position and saved the poor header made by pogrebnjak. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PVwAUHIpuM"]YouTube - [Sportschau] SV Werder Bremen (1:1) 1:1 VfB Stuttgart 02.04.2011 Zusammenfassung[/ame] When Kuz and Harnik stopped running, Hajnal used his off-the-ball running (he was much away from the penalty area if whoever noticed it) to catch this chance and made the goal. The goal was easily made, but the sense to notice the potential chance is gifted. This is not coincidence, because Hajnal had used a similar strategy to make a goal against Frankfurt, although that goal was more beautiful.
If you mean bench him because he needs rest, I can buy that. I interpreted it as he needed to be benched because of his skill, ha.
I don't think he should be benched, one of the few consistent members of the side, and a Kuzmanovic-Gentner lineup is not more suitable to me than a line up with either of those alongside Traesch. I think his performances this season in general have been overrated. He contributes to too few goals, for one thing. But I still rate him higher than anyone else in his position.
