Whether on instructions from manager or not I saw CP attack the by-line for cross in first half and in the second take his first touch centrally. He causes so many problems for cm and cb with his first step. A shame to waste him on the wing
For a long time people placed Bale first as fullback then winger then one match Bale made a run from center of the pitch beat five guys with ease and scored. Some managers can manage a team but not talent .
I'm still torn on the issue of playing Pulisic centrally or wide. I can see that most coaches look at him and don't see the prototypical AM or SS. He's not super creative in his passing; he's not a clinical finisher; he's not a guy who likes to play quick 1-2 touch passes through congested areas. He's more about getting the ball, running at the defense, and then setting up someone else...classic winger traits. However, we saw with the US at least in those games against Honduras and Panama how devastating that skillset can be when deployed centrally. Most DMs can't run with him, so he'll break into space between the opposing midfield and backline unmarked. Then, CBs, who are already dealing with a forward or two, will have to decide whether they'll step to Pulisic or stick with the forward. So, Pulisic is able to exploit that difficult decision to either take the ball to goal himself or slip in the forward who now has more space. And he can also drift wide from his initial central position to pick up the ball in space, if the middle becomes too congested.
Completely different take than yours. He was the only consistently dangerous player for Dortmund all day. Should’ve won a penalty. Put the ball on Kagawa’s foot for an almost sure goal and then finally scored himself. Plus add a lot of incisive runs.
Or we could note how VAR was in place and the incident was not even reviewed. Which either means the VAR made no recommendation to review, or that the ref had total confidence in the initial non-call.
It was a penalty. The ref must have realized as much later, and forgave Dortmund a clear penalty to compensate in the 30' (Akanji stepped on Bittencourt's foot). The most clear miss was by Hoffenheim in the 18': great run by Schulz on the left, with a cross that only needed Leonardo to beat the keeper, but he pushed it right in Burki's direction. All in all even game, but the guy who scores when his team is down 1-0, down a man, and with less than 10 minutes to go, is a hero. So Puli is the guy of the night over there.
Yeah that is more of a penalty that he has ever won. 100% penalty. Terrible moment for the entire officiating crew.
Dortmund on the whole looked toothless. To suddenly see them flip a switch when down a man... I was not expecting that. Hoffenheim should be kicking themselves for not wrapping this up — they should have finished this, all things considered, at the back post. Shocking miss. CP was ok overall, I didn’t think he was great but he had some good dribbles and made a great run for the goal. And yeah he should have been given a pen too. When CPs final ball is more consistent he will be a much more effective attacker, whether playing on the wing or through the middle.
Seeing how long his touches video was, it’s no wonder he was the best player on the pitch. He needs to make that his consistent offering.
Liked how CP was slicing into the half-spaces to cause havoc. He's at his best when he can use his technique while in motion, beating defenders and combining with teammates. With legit playmakers in Reus and Kagawa, it'd also be nice if he had effective fullback support to drag defenders wide...
I'm all for reality-based analysis, but "ok overall" seems to be taking moderation a bit too far. I think you're overlooking the fact that nobody on Dortmund was making much in the way of good passes/final touches in Hoffenheim's final third, due to the fact that Hoffenheim was set up to defend and then counter (which they did very effectively, for the most part). CP was by far the most successful in that challenging context (both commentators noted it throughout the match), which was also why he got dumped on his butt so often. He consistently distorted their defensive shape with his movement with and without the ball, which was no easy thing to do. He had maybe one seriously poor cross (that went over everybody), but that came after but one of many lung-igniting efforts to get free to make crosses, but agains that I'd say he probably should have had an assist (Kagawa's miss). It's kind of like dinging a golfer's performance when they've only shot even par on a windy day at St. Andrews, while the closest competitor was 3 over.
No. In Bundesliga the ref has three choices when VAR informs him of his opinion. He can ignore it, accept it, or watch a video replay before making a final decision. https://www.bundesliga.com/en/news/...s-var-video-assist-work-in-germany-474105.jsp
I'm in the, "He was OK" camp. I think he looked pretty damn good because everyone else around him was either "Meh" "Bleh" or "Yuck". That said, if Reus and the mid-field get their shit right, CP will indeed continue to have those brilliant performances we know he can have - we've seen them before. I'm going to say that he did pretty much all he could with what he had to work with. I'm not faulting him for not playing better but the players around him. Few players were not able to justify their salaries yesterday at Dortmund, including the manager.
Wow who knew? So very atypical of you to post on the subject matter at hand when it is on point. All very good points, but you do know we do have a couple of posters here who act as if every dribble and every pass must come off for him to be good. Winning free kicks, drawing yellow card fouls, etc. count for very little in their mind. I wanted to add to your point about him distorting defensive shape as he pulls defenders from everywhere. One of the reasons I want him playing inside is that he puts more pressure on a defense when they cannot use the sideline as another defender. If people are expecting more than what we saw yesterday then he is going to disappoint them. I think yesterday is what he is capable of on the regular if he doesn't have to play fatigued or with niggling injuries. When all hope was lost and Dortmund was leaving with nothing, he and Reus took a buli game over and salvaged a point. Imagine the kind of game he could have had if the midfield had not been utter s___ for 2/3 of the game.