The NT Players Performance and Ratings Thread 2011/2012

Not sure why some are surprised by that. Messi is not the primary creator in his side while Oezil is for Madrid. He is their creative hub, and at the center of virtually all their creative moments.

 

I have a statistic that says Özil - in all club competitions - created 165 scoring chances and additionally assisted 25 goals last season (= 190). It doesn't say how many chances other players in Europe created, but I saw a list a couple of months ago that Özil topped by a large margin. I think Fabregas was number 2 and either Messi, Xavi or Iniesta (or all three) came afterwards. They all had much less than Özil's 190. Maybe around 100, but I'm mostly guessing here.

I would like to see such a statistic from Götze for last season. He had ~15 assists in the end (Bundesliga), but we all know about Dortmund's finishing skills and the amount of huge chances they've missed. I think Götze could have had 30 assists easily with more clinical strikers, since he was the creator of so many chances that Barrios and Lewandowski wasted. He set up like 10 shots that hit the post or crossbar alone. I wonder how many chances he created overall, especially in the 2nd half of the season, where he was already involved in the large majority of Dortmund's attacking efforts. They often had 20+ goalscoring chances per game...

 

Mesut' statistics from Spanish sports media: Ozil created 165 scoring chances last season, the most in Europe. He created 112 in La Liga, the most in the league. Plus 25 assists in all competitions.

Xavi and Iniesta COMBINED created 118 chances in La Liga last season. No one even compared Mesut's stats with Messi's in scoring chances department...

RM site has very detailed stats on every player but for some unknown reason only in La Liga. Spanish media love Mesut dearly so we can rely on them, they were accurate in that.

 

If Goetze can compete in CL and improve further this season, he and Ozil as the AM and LW could be unbelivable this summer along with Muller on the right. I am very interested to see how he copes in the group stages, whether he can stand up or be a shadow of his Bundesliga self. A bit harsh to rely so much on a 19 year old but he needs to show Loew he can compete at the highest level.

 

He hasn't performed up to par this season, namely because the squad obviously misses Sahin and the fluidity he introduced to the midfield. No doubt the kid is brilliant, but we'll have to see if he can repeat last seasons exploits.

 

Aside from a brain fart vs Leverkusen, Goetze has been pretty damn good and on par this season in my opinion.

Sahin being gone has nothing to do with it.

 

Götze has obviously improved compared to last season. He's bulkier, has more pace, takes more responsibility and can be found all over the pitch. He has gone from the gimmick boy talent to being the major offensive force in Dortmund's game in a short amount of time - pretty much every attack runs through him now.

That said, apart from the opening game against Hamburg, the entire side hasn't functioned as well as it should/could. Götze is not to blame for it though, seeing as he has played solid to good in all games and was often the only attacking player who actually created sensible attacks, but was let down by his team mates. This could be seen in the game against Hoffenheim, where he created 2-3 great chances that neither Großkreutz nor the tired Kagawa could put away and against Nürnberg, where Götze had to save the team with a great energetic run.

 

At the Brazil match, his chest sometimes reminded me of women's bodybuilder breasts.

 

Is that... good or bad?

 

No, Sahin did shit all against Leverkusen at their place last season too. That game was no different to this one, except for a 6 minute burst inspired by Goetze.

We lost against Hoffenheim last season too, he didn't play well there. (and Sahin missed a penalty IIRC).

We looked good against HSV and Nuernberg this season.


So.....how are we missing Sahin?

 

Depends on how you like you're 19 year olds, I guess.

 

Speaking about Sahin, how well is his Dortmund successor Gundogan doing?

I have rarely seen him play and I don't follow Dortmund but I would like to know what makes him special. Personally I thought Low just called him up to prevent a prospective talent switching to Turkey.

 

I think that Sahin's contributions are terribly overrated by this forum, and Gundogan is doing a fine job of replacing him.

 

BS. He has been just as good if not better.
Because of the hype people just put him under a microscope and expect
him to dominate every game which is ridiculous.

 

Yum. Iced tea.

 

He's already at the old age of 19, where the player reach their peak. If you aren't playing your best football by that age, you'll be past your prime by the age of 20 :S

I think we need to see how Dortmund adapts since Sahin has left, and it will take a bit longer to see. Imo Hummels was Dortmund's best last season, but I may be too biased for this decision.

 

No, you're not. There's a case for a few players in fact to be the best from last season. Anybody missing sahin so far hasn't seen how we lost at Hoffenheim by the same scoreline and did the same thing in Leverkusen last season except for 6 minutes. It's a near exact replay of last season with those two teams. Sahin didn't do any better than anyone who played the past few weeks. We never had a reliance on one specific player but it became fashionable to make Sahin the talisman.

 

I don't think you were reliable on a specific player either tbh, you guys have a very "team" feel from last year and before that. For me you still need to time to see how you change your style a bit from Sahin's to Gundogan.

 

Yeah, that's pretty much it. We still don't know if it will be Kehl, IG or Leitner who plays with Bender

 

Well I wouldn't start Kehl with Bender because that would be a very average duo offensively, neither are great at moving the ball up front. Leitner or Gundogan imo, unless you are protecting a lead.

 

Bender is quite good at that. If we were going to play a diamond he would be the RM, because he's good on the ball in his own right. He didnt really take a "back seat" to Sahin last year, even though he didnt orchestrate as much as Sahin.

But,

It'd make more sense of course to play Leitner or IG, because that wouldn't overwork the front 3. Right now IG is the starter, and with time we don't think he'll have a problem.

 

Bender is actually a lot better going forward than many might think...I'm not saying he is a box-tobox midfielder but if he has someone covering his ass (not Kehl) he has some pretty decent forward runs.

 

I'm not sure what you're implying by this? Sahin became the talisman because he was the best player and the team was more or less formed around him. You can see obvious gaps so far this season because of his loss. It's not something that won't be fixed but it was more than obvious his absence would have some sort of impact.