Its crazy that how little they have changed the formula. Behind? Throw on a striker with 20 minutes to go for Son. Ahead? Do nothing. Why not try Son up top (not like kiessling was doing much today) or put him behind or alongside (or even switch sides for more than 2 minutes a match). Or especially vs a slow-reacting Hamburg back line, get some speed in the midfield and try more balls over the top. I was worried when hyypia talked early in the season about playing patiently even though they looked near dortmund like on the break with son and sam out side. And despite playing slow having done nothing all year, you could still see players today stepping on the brakes when Hamburg was so out of shape.
well, that was quick. http://www.ksta.de/bayer-04-leverku...er-in-der-einzelkritik,15189374,26758422.html
I thought son played better than a 3 today for once though he didn't have his best shots today. Only 1 moment where I thought he made a decision too slow.
Son up top? Not sure about that & I didn't think Kiessling was bad. He didn't have much to work with... My issue is Hyypia's reluctance to make changes or even react to opposition tactics. For once, he made a formation change but with Castro completely anonymous or two double-six players (Rolfes and Bender) being fcuking poor, he should have reacted much quicker. Hyypia didn't even bother to rectify the issues he had in midfield & as predictable as he has ever been... he subs in Deridyok in 80th min.
I'm not convinced Son up top would have been ideal (but I don't think it would have been worse as kiessling was awful for me) as he was one of the few creative players out there today but at some point you have to make different changes as the Deridyok thing has not really worked at all. I'd be more accepting of failure and bad adjustments if Hyypia was trying something different at least at the 60th minute if not from the start.
Honestly what went wrong with Bayer this year? They went on a losing streak. Is it due to tactics or what?
That was a pretty predictable outcome (Loserkusen is no unknown to falling apart in the second half of a season). They could have tried the successful Hyypi-Lewa pairing again. Now we get to see Lewa alone which isn't bad either for seeing what he'd do on his own.
From what I'd understood, they were very disfunctional by the end of last season where the only contribution Lewandowski was providing at the end was just his license. But at the very least, its not a total rebuild, with a manager who knows the players.
From the point when it was clear that Hyypia would continue alone it looked very dysfunctional indeed, but I always thought the results they produced before were (in a tactical sense) far better than anything since.
We can only hope that Lewandowksi was the brains behind them doing well last year and whatever other skills he lacks aren't needed as much in a squad full of veterans.
Dunno about that. Lewa is slated only for the remaining matches this season. If he really does well I hope he gets to stay in this position.
I meant hoping for CL qualification. I'll reserve judgement on more after seeing some football That said, no manager can stop Rolfes from missing every pass, or defenders from losing their marks so easily.
Even though it's not the time to say this but make sure to vote for Son Heung Min in the Bundesliga Team of the Year! http://www.bundesliga.com/en/fanzone/team-of-the-season/index.php
HOLY COW! Son Heung Min is winning on the Bundesliga Team of the Year list with 51% vote and Frank Ribery 45%.