I don't like Hassenhuttl in general and even less for you. He’s one of those less charming Klopp-knock offs like roger Schmidt. He can organizing pressing schemes nicely, but if the pressing doesn’t create goals he’s absolutely clueless...granted Hecking’s possession structures are stale to, but that doesn’t make Hassenhuttl any better. And I dunno about Rose yet, like with Tedesco, I want to see what he builds now that he’s laid his foundation before I start to firm up my feelings about him. Granted Hütter would’ve been a question mark to, but I thought he had his team playing much more cleverly when they couldn’t just scorch opponents on the break. I don’t think Sow’s ready to start in the BuLi for a good team, although he progressed well, and the ******** would you need another midfielder for lol? Is Kramer, Zakaria, Cuisance, Benes & Neuhaus not enough exceptional midfielders for you? I’ll get back to you about the Tuchel-BVB drama in greater detail at some point, but there’s a reason why Heidel loved working with TT until his tactless departure, while Watzke and his clic butted heads with TT since day one. Tuchel is a very idiosyncratic character who deserves blame for being so hard to work with, but Watzke did a horrific job of managed a difficult character...regularly undermining Tuchel to the more veteran BVB players most of whom had been there for most of the Klopp era and especially the returnees like Sahin. Favre is not confrontational like Tuchel is, but if Watzke treats him with the same “do you know who we are? How dare you tell us how you want us to do things” ethos that he did TT that relationship won’t last longer than two seasons either.
Actually that about paints the broadstrokes of what I've heard about what went wrong for Tuchel at BVB...I have some friends in their PR department. So take this all with a pinch of salt, as it's secondhand knowledge that was presented to me as pretty widely known within their department..but I have heard from them about certain transfers before they started to be rumored, so I take only a small pinch myself: Apparently Tuchel is such a control freak that he needs a lot of latitude with how he runs his team, and that means the club needs to back him 100% if any players try to lead mutinies like Sahin did regularly...as Nuri seemed extremely resentful that he was getting so drastically outplayed by some schmuck that they pulled from a BuLi2 relegated 1860 (Weigl), and that the coach didn't respect Sahin enough for the great sacrifice he had made by coming back to Dortmund...after having failed miserably abroad. So when Watzke and his cronies started to back Sahin & some of the other self-important vets that sided with Sahin (like Schmelzer) over Tuchel, in order to humble him & teach him who's really in charge at Dortmund, it made the relationship untenable for long. Friction had started to really get agitated not long after that first season ended, when Tuchel was getting promises that he would get to keep at least one of their key players at the same time that Watzke was actively working on selling the lot of them.So I tend to take Tuchel's side in that fallout, though I'll be the first to acknowledge that he's very difficult to work with...even moreso than Pep, who's also notoriously prickly if not given his way. I'm over simplifying a bit but throughout that ordeal I almost couldn't believe how incredibly petty some of the actors in this drama were, but then I'd remember some of the more famous athletes that I've gotten to know & it would suddenly become much more believable lol. Pro athletes really can make teenage girls look civil when their egos get involved. I think the Qataris are likely to give Tuchel the freedom to do his thing if he gets them playing beautiful football, especially if he takes them deeper in the CL...as long as he has their stars on his side. But with the way Dembele, Weigl, Miki, and almost all of the best players on Dortmund loved playing for Tuchel, I'm optimistic that Neymar, Mbappe, & co will follow suit...a friend who works in french youth football and used to scout for PSG, same one who told me to get excited when you signed Cuisance, says that Rabiot is already gushing to anyone & everyone who will listen about what a genius Tuchel & how he can't wait to play for him.
As for who should leave: Drmic & Boba are obvious, if you could get an 8 digit offer from england for Herrmann I'd take it, Grifo's departure should be secured, Oxford shouldn't be purchased, and then come my two big questions ...does a massive bid come in for Hazard or Ginter after the WC? I can see Everton finally pulling the trigger on the 40-45M offer for Hazard that they've supposedly been planning for a couple of years now, and if Ginter plays at the WC you could see bids for him over 25M. And at those prices I'd sell & look for cheaper replacements...ideally including a RB that lets Elvedi play CB more often (since he's really ********ing good at CB).
Boba as inexpensive standby-crusher and integration commissioner for Villalba wasn't a bad idea (most people frown when I say this ;-) ... theoretically... if he stays healthy I said back then... he didn't... and maybe will not again... Drmic? change of sentiment, kind of... a lot of supporters suddenly want him to stay... obviously because he started scoring .. and he certainly scored stylish!... he showed qualities the rest of our offense seldomly showed... if at all ... but the interaction witch his teammates leaves much to be desired... is there room for improvement? is it because he is at 80-90% only right now? is he gonna reach 100% again? or is it just because the whole offense is flawed? quite impressive that (most likely) he is travelling to Russia... 8 digit offers for Herrmann are very optimistic I guess... Borussia would be happy with 5M I could imagine but I'm not sure if Herrmann would be happy, too... I think he isn't one of the adventurous guys and above all he has a very good contract (the thing is: we have more than one player who passed the zenith OR who's body is on strike more often than not OR both AND who at the same time naturally isn't getting a contract offer nearly as good from somewhere else... but if nobody gets off nobody can jump on... not an easy task for Eberl at the moment... Eberl did well letting Hahn go last season before his contract expired but that was kind of a fortunate coincidence ... tricky to repeat this again and again) Oxford is still making suggestions about "what might happen in summer"... I still don't think he is coming back... except West Ham desperately wants him off the roster my gut feeling is that we'll rather sell Ginter for 30Mplus than Hazard for 40M... only, of course, if Ginter makes the cut and gets some playing time at the WC (60min maybe sufficient) and comes across competent ;-) he's young AND very experienced AND knows how to score ... Hazard in contrast most likely isn't getting any playing time and still is more promise than coming-true agree regarding Elvedi! it was pretty slow on rumors for quite some time but now it's on again: Grifo seems to be interesting enough for Lazio (and another Italian club); 10M are mentioned (like always we don't know how serious this all is... but it sounds more 'reasonable' than 5M at least ;-) and Hazard attracts the interest of Valencia as it appears... apparently Borussia is genuinely interested in Bernardo from RB's 'Resterampe' (it sounds like they sorted him out), most likely for the second LB spot... or for a forthcoming back three (?), he can play DM, too ... I didn't saw enough of him to have a strong opinion H96's chatterbox Kind (president) told everybody who wanted to listen that they got (and refused) an official offer from Borussia regarding Füllkrug... media is speculating about 10M (which would mean Borussia is willing to pay at least 12M I guess)... yes, that's the different type of striker some are looking for... I kind of like him: he can scare kids with his teeth! ... he flew under the radar most of his career... scored just 5 (out of 27) in 16/17 (2.Bundesliga!) but scored 14! in Bundesliga 17/18... it's the big question if he is just a one-season-wonder or more... he certainly is no Stindl or Raffa that's why I'm not exactly flashed... honestly I wouldn't pay more than 5M but I still didn't adjust to the new high prices ;-) .... maybe this is the best we can get... we finished ninth and not fourth... puuuh, I really don't know... if Drmic' body has a realistic future in soccer I would stick with him... another (this time half-baked) rumor: argentinian midfielder Matías Vargas (Sarsfield)
I think Hasenhüttl would be huge as an anti-lethargy-weapon... for the rest I am exactly as sceptical as you (and contrary to others I don't think teams without european matches are tempting to him at all) don't know much about Rose and agree regarding Tedesco: a first season full of awful soccer but no wonder and no harm that he's trying to secure his job on the powder keg for a start... after all it was his first Bundesliga season... interesting to see what he's doing next... I'm totally curious about Kohfeldt 18/19 by the way they are! they are! of course! of course! I just couldn't resist and had to point out how small the world is ... sometimes... ;-)))) I mostly got infos from a reasonable and usually well-informed BVB-supporter (no insider at all) and from a deeper-focusing article in Süddeutsche Z. (quality journalism at least, couldn't find it online), but all this not as detailed... thanks, always love to hear from behind the scenes! I have no sympathies for Watzke or the Sahin-Gang (BVB by the way totally sucks at 'recalling' former players: Sahin, Götze, Kagawa...) ... simply speaking I'm more with the guys who give us thrilling soccer but it's just like you said: Tuchel 'deserves blame for being so hard to work with' ... Tuchel is smart in many ways but like all of us not in every way... he apparently lacks the discipline to not snub so many different people at the same club ;-) you always have to find out how strong your position is (managers usually are weak) and what it is you really want... and then you have to decide which battle is worth fighting and which battle is not... doesn't mean to become devout just means to not wear yourself out ... at the end before the final curtain at BVB fell for him it became pretty clear that he really would have liked to stay (it almost sounded like a peace proposal to me) but it was too late... that's what I meant with "he stood in his own way": at the end he didn't get what he wanted most likely because he didn't want to make certain compromises... but this is an artist's view f.e. not a manager's view... at least not the view of a manager without a title to his credit at that time... nearly all the great coaches are complicated characters and all of them try to minimize compromises (because they think they know better ...and often they do), but that's AFTER they've built their reputation... Tuchel in this regard might be a little bit precocious ;-))) just my impression, of course!!! I would have liked to see him in EPL... French-championship-title coaching Paris is taken for granted which doesn't help your CL-campaign at all) and, to finally focus on the true Borussia: I think Hecking is very good at dealing with the management and handling a team... nobody I know and no media who've heard any complaints from players at all... so far (in front of and behind Borussia's scenes ;-) then again one would wish he would appear as dedicated (as Tuchel) and as demanding towards the players (as Tuchel)... but Eberl says he is doing all this this... behind the scenes... I hope it shows on the pitch next season...
He's pretty unbiased with Argies, even if he roots feverishly for them to fall when playing for their NT lol
Re-watching some Colombia friendlies just cause I'm very bullish on them & Uruguay at this WM, and I'm trying to figure out just how far I wanna bet on them getting...and this Johan Mojica dude is impressing. Would love to see Eberl make a move for him to replace Wendt at LB/LWB. Fast & skilled with a nifty left boot, a willingness to take guys on off the dribble, and the kind of combativeness the position requires. I'm still hoping the Cucurella links become a thing again...or BMG can snag Raphael from corporate-Borussia if they decide to move on and spend well on new FBs. But I think I'd prefer Mojica to Augustinsson, Baba or Horn...who I think are other gettable alternatives for Eberl...if this match is representative for him. I know Bernardo played LB for Leipzig this season, but he's right-footed and I like him more at RB. So even if they do bring Bernardo in I hope that's so Elvedi can play more CB, and not to "solve" the LB spot when they use a back 4. Other RBs I want Eberl to be checking in on over Bernardo include: Henrichs, since Leverkusen just bought Weiser to play opposite Wendell; Bustos, if he's ready to come to europe; Arias, since he's pretty established in europe already and his contract with PSV is running down; Mbabu, who they should've snagged from Young Boys' long ago already; or Berezynski. Bustos & Henrichs might be too expensive, and Arias/Berezynski might be looking for bigger clubs than you at this point in their careers, but Mbabu would be reasonable & gettable, and I think the others are plausible. If you picked up one of the LBs & one of those RBs, while completing the additions of Vargas, Onyekuru & Brewster, things would be looking amazing for next season...or at least as amazing as they can with Hecking still in charge...
rumors, rumors, rumors: http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2018/06/04/report-gladbach-to-rival-wolves-for-felix-beijmo/ Boba is talking to Argentinos Juniors Pleá really might be a target (somebody has to be sold first, Boba won't quite cut it ;-) Nagelsmann seems to think Grifo is good enough to play CL-soccer new LB-names: Dalbert (Inter), Horn (Goattown) rumors, rumors, rumors ... all of them...
Ginter, Hazard & Veste made the cut for WC at their national teams only Drmic is on hold but he played the 2nd half yesterday against the Spaniards and should stay the next weeks, too... because of Drmic the Swiss won the 2nd half 1-0 (actually this is just positive thinking because I fell asleep at halftime)... but in 1st half Sommer looked strong... Zak quite good, two or three bad passes indeed but spanish midfield isn't exactly giving you much time to aim properly... Elvedi was benched... (I still want Lichtsteiner ;-)
If he were healthy Jogi would've just picked someone worse than him for his spot anyways, like he did with Uth, Sane, Vogt, and Gotze | Dahoud | Amiri. There's no reason for Gomez, Plattenhart, both Rüdiger | Ginter, and all three of Khedira | Goretzka | Draxler to be going ahead of those better options. But Jogi gunna Jogi. Who cares that Vogt was the second or third best german CB this season...depending on how much you wanna mark Boa down for his health? Or that Sane is our best LWB when we play a back 3, without question, and should probably start ahead of Marco at LW when we play a 4-3-3/4-1-4-1/4-2-3-1...and at least be our top joker when we need a spark in the final third to crack open a parked bus? Or that Draxler is our 5th best winger at best and at the 8 he's no better than Khedira or Goretzka; all of whom are second best to Gotze, Dahoud & Amiri? ...Mario, in particular, blew me away this year. I've long been begging for him to be played deeper since, as I've repeatedly stated, "he's the german Iniesta, not the german Messi". So this season he got to play the 8 and he was just an absolute maestro...I might even start him alongside Mesut n Toni ahead of Ilkay, if I was the coach, and I rate Gundogan's game extremely highly. Thankfully Brazil & France also ********ed up their nominations, hopefully in even bigger ways.
I mentioned the Beijmo thing on another board and got this response: To which I asked if he had seen him play: Dunno that poster though, so can't say if he's just a swedish homer *shrug* And I'm be down with Horn. He's not as dynamic with the ball as I'd like ideally, but he's more like Wendt with the ball, a capable part of the whole, even if he isn't a driver on his flank. Plus he has excellent potential against the ball with good pace, strength, & combativeness...and he can deputize as the LCB in a back 3. My preference would be more for someone like Mojica or Cucurella, but I'd prefer Horn to Bernardo.
man, this is stong stuff! ;-) I agree with some (Vogt f.e.), disagree with some (Khedira f.e.. not because I like him that much, it's because he's a 'unique' type... at least compared to the other 22 players) and I'm not sure about some of these (is this 1st-, 5th-best-thing really working when you have to build a TEAM?) ... but I'm certainly willing to keep close(r) track and reconsider my judgements when the occasion arises ;-))))) back to Borussia; more than just rumors: Beijmo is most likely signing for Werder soon Boba is most likely signing for Argentinos Juniors soon Grifo is most likely signing for Nagelmann's Hoppenheim soon (a lot of people don't like this and they're gonna dislike it even more if Hecking doesn't survive the first ten matches... but yes, someone had to go...) Müsel (K'lautern) is most likely signing for Borussia soon (2nd team or centerforward-backup I guess) and finally 17year old Sander Christiansen (CM) freshly arrived from Norway... place of action: U19 some hard facts regarding Füllkrug (still hope Max isn't gonna pull back considered the price range): his coach doesn't want him to leave his sister doesn't want him to leave following an accident at Werder Bremen’s training ground he once ended up hospitalised with the tooth of his teammate wedged in his forehead (acc. to wiki) he listens to Survivor’s 'Eye of the Tiger' for motivation [good gracious! lord help!]
thanks! didn't watch much of Horn... it seems you were right regarding Henrichs by the way... he was caught chilling in Ibiza... wearing a Borussia-shirt! companied by two other Borussen: Ndenge and Simakala! so it's settled! no doubt! he still is denying but who is gonna believe him now?... ;-)))))))) ok, I still believe he's out of our price range and Tante Käthe does not the least consider to strengthen a close(?) rival but they say the Herrlich-Henrichs-tablecloth is already & irretrievable cut and a move highly probable... a glimmer of hope at least...
17/18 average injured days per Borussia-player: 68,68 Bundesliga-rank: 18th (40! days lagging behind the 1st placed team) for comparison only: 14/15 (the highly effective Favre-season) average injured days per Borussia-player: 20,23 Bundesliga-rank: 1st (17! days ahead of the 2nd! placed team)
so, no WC minutes for Ginter at all this summer! don't ask me how I know but I know ;-))))))))) whereas Sommer is living up to his first two seasons at Borussia: certainly strong performances in Russia... tabloit's rumor mill is working overtime and Drmic s-c-o-r-e-d (assisted by Zakaria)... at the WC! can this only be explained by the word "miracle", or what? ... first we thought he'll never play again, then we thought: maybe for the 2nd team at the very most... just to struggle on his feet for 18/19... impressive! and then this longhaired guy called Lang came in for the Swiss... they say this is our new RB (transfer fee just 3M?) ... no hot talent, but rock solid and quite attack-minded (I guess that's the plan: more pressure along the sideline)... could indicate that Elvedi is moving inwards and one of the CBs is leaving... like Veste who (like Elvedi) is warming the bench at the WC https://readeverton.com/2018/06/27/everton-lodge-bid-for-world-cup-defender/ Poulsen is our new LB, 18 years and without noteworthy playing time in the denish league... not sure if the LB position is adequately manned by now (at least as long as Johnson's back is as bad as last season) finally Füllkrug: it's a bidding war! Eberl is increasing his bid every half hour they say don't know which level he has reached by now but it has to be quite impressive... close to a breathtaking height I would say (and this in light of the fact that Eberl is a man with many of abilities but signing fullblooded strikers unfortunately is not one of them) the officials at Hannover are ecstatically exclaiming "SELL, SELL, SELL, take the money and run" but their gabby president Kind deceitfully smiling says "No, I'd rather not... it's because of the supporters..." [HAHAHA]... they say and the player? Filljug (Füllkrug) despite being a local guy asks to let him go, they say... what's the fuss about? working assumption: he's not great at anything he does and he is not bad at anything he does... maybe that's exactly what you get for this pricetag... at least he definitely has the right attitude and he's really good at 1on1s... a striker who prefers to hurt instead of getting hurt... I guess we finally ran out of money and the transfer is on halt until somebody leaves (BVB asked about Zak, Eberl said 60M... end of story... they say) @ Rosebud in the meantime, I have reconsidered my Khedira-judgement ;-))))
the Füllkrug deal finally is OFF! (thank god, some say) the Pléa deal is ON... acc. to KICKER it was simmering all the time... acc. to L’ÉQUIPE there is a Borussia bid close to 20M... acc. to IFORGOTWHO there is heavy interest in Pléa from this island where they thankfully invented the beautiful game (not particularly beautiful in Russia at the present time)... interesting: at least Pléa doesn't seem to completely exclude the possibility to play for Borussia they say as far as I know Füllkrug & Pléa aren't exactly the same kind of striker... don't know what the club is up to right now Hazard already got more playing time than I expected and it seems the Belgians have a good thing going... his showcase against the island above was similar to his Borussia-performances: hard-running (his many sprints are praiseworthy), always trying to create something, never risk-averse but seldomly succeeding in completing the situations very good news, from some time ago but definitely worth mentioning: Cuisance extend his contract for one year! I hope he didn't get a release clause in return...
Given the rumored ask for Zakaria, I’d like to think that any potential release clause for Cuisance would be around double what Xhaka returned. Which is a sum I would enjoy watching Eberl figure out what to do with Especially given how well he’s been poaching some of the absolute biggest talents from abroad...Cuisance, Bennetts, Doucoure, Benes & almost getting Brewster; these are amongst the top talents in their age groups in all of youth football, not just for their specific countries. I’m happy with the Lang signing. Now Elvedi can start over Ginter alongside Vestegaard & the back 3 should be a more real option. ...and then I remember who’s coaching the team still...
rising Veste-rumors... http://uk.pressfrom.com/news/sport/-267457-southampton-hold-initial-talks-over-vestergaard-deal/... in line with this (?) Eberl confirmed that Elvedi's future lies in the center I would miss Veste... his long balls (Ginter & Elvedi aren't particularly capable in this regard) mostly were a good option at least as long as combination play didn't work once again... his willingness/spirit was always fine... his offensive heading quite good (defensive heading not that great)... but positional errors and slow reaction time repeatedly were part of his game, too... but overall he fits (fitted?) quite well with Borussia, that's for sure L'Equipe told us yesterday that talks regarding Pléa between Borussia and Nice came to a halt later on KICKER reported that Pléa and Borussia reached an agreement apparently the two clubs are not too far apart now... so it seems the striker-casting has come to an end...
If Plea can stay healthy he should be a nice fit. ...oh and Southampton can ******** right off with that Veste bullshit! If they want to overpay for a BMG CB they can have Ginter.
Southampton should be tremendously afloat because they sold this Virgin van Dijk guy some time ago... but I guess Ginter isn't a Southampton-kind-of-guy... (like Sommer who way back told that he's never gonna leave for a club like Swansea)... he chose Borussia instead of T-ham... Juve or England's top 'row'? different story! especially if he thinks Borussia isn't ambitious enough (the club, his teammates and, of course, the coach) while acc. to BILD EPL's third row (Burnley, Watford, Bournemouth) is interested in Drmic... and in the case he leaves BILD has the replacement: it's Muto of Mainz I'm totally curious if Thorgan is becoming Belgium's Götze... but honestly, I think France is bringing the cup home...
OMG if an EPL club gave you money for Drmic in the same week that Eberl wrapped up Plea, oh what a wonderful world this would be...whether any WC-heroics turned Thorgan into a must-buy for the idiot class of EPL big spenders or not lol ...though I am still waiting for Everton to eventually bid 50M euros for him; a former boss of mine was part of the american investment team that bought that club & he mentioned a couple of times when I talked to him about the BuLi & my football fanhood, how they'd love to have that kid someday...this was around the time when I was making fun of him for the Bolasie signing...