Important win, no doubt. Glad to see Sahin and Reus play. Both must be starters against Monaco. Tuchel should use this setup with some alterations - Guerreiro for Schmelzer, Passlack for LP and probably Ginter for Bender (seeing as how Bartra is not an option).
Agreed. Though Sahin should start, his weakness and lack of mobility was still exposed today. I would add that Dembele should start on the right instead of Pulisic. Kagawa I thought was very poor today. Next season with Dahoud in for Sahin, and Gotze in for Kagawa, we could be the strongest team out there. Interesting stat today. It was about the best attacking young players (U21) in the top 5 leagues. The top 4 players with the most goals or assist combined were: Dele Ali, Werner, Mbappe and Dembele. The four best attacking young players for me. Throw in Sane and Brandt to the mix too.
Glad you're stating this. Intelligence, vision and maturity are things you can't take away from a playmaker regardless of the injury that beset him, he would always have them. That's why I find it difficult to accept he was done when some were implying so. I even think he was a little bit restricted in his role today which is understandable but I would love if he could be given a free role on wednesday like he had against Monaco. A role similar to that of Xavi's role at Barca which had him pulling the string everywhere both beside and in front of Busquets while Iniesta sits in a withdrawn attacking role above/in front of him to provide the necessary support. That was the vibe I got in the match against Monaco when he came on. Granted the prime midfield of Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta were superior to Weigl, Sahin, Kagawa but we can make do what we have and it's not like the latter are average players, they are all good players that can pull in their weight. We all know Xavi in his prime wasn't really pacey neither is Kroos yet both players were still able to command the no 8 role and dominate the midfield. I think if our midfield can dominate and swarm Monaco 2-man midfield thereby preventing Fabinho from getting the ball to either Bernando Silva or Kylian Mbappe and at the same time, continue to create and connect with our forward trio at the other end, I think we would have no problem dismantling them. As long as the team move in sync with one another both in defending, attacking as well as providing options for one another when pressed, we should be good to go. The Monaco team isn't as impressive as ours, we've got better players than them hence, I don't think we should cower against them. All their goals were because of our errors and the Ref mistake. All they did was to dive all day and if we were able to control the match, the momentum would shift to our side. That said, today was a good match.
I have good news for you, Fabinho won't play on Wednesday because he got his second yellow in the home match.
I always laugh out loud at your baseless hypothesis most time.. Funny at how you concluded the sidelined Gotze whom we still don't know of what his form would be because he's not been in any good form for 4 yrs now and a kid in Dahoud would make us stronger. Whichever, if I were TT I would rather keep Sahin and Kagawa in the team to avoid story that touches when things turn south although if I were either of them, I wouldn't even stay back in a team I feel I'm not wanted but as a coach, I wouldn't trade them for anything. These two are fine playmakers who are quite rare out there although one operates in the central midfield while the other, in the final third.. And don't make me laugh at your 'Kagawa was very poor'. He wasn't quite good today as he was constantly hacked down at every moment but he wasn't very poor.. The word "very poor" should go to your Ozil of this world who has been dogshite and has hardly had a good match since the beginning of the season yet no one is talking of replacing him. The funny thing is people are lambasting Ozil now when he has always been the most inconsistent player in this 21st century yet no one ever talk about him because he was able to pad his stats up in lesser matches, people like you were calling him worldclass until the stats all but dried up! That's when people started calling for his head even when he has always been like this.. LOL.
If Ginter goes, which I think he should do for his own good, then we may need another centre back. Ginter still has it in him to be an excellent defender at 25/26, but needs to play regulalry. I was very pleased about the formation today, that was until I decided to watch the City game over the Bayern one. As expected Manchester City are playing a 4-2-3-2 with a double pivot.
That's a good news because he's their best CM. However, we still have to prevent the ball getting to Mbappe and B. Silva because those are threat but without the ball getting to them in the right place, they can do nothing especially Mbappe. His main weapon is his fox in the box movement and precision but if our midfield can dominate and prevent there midfield from creating for him, there's little much he can do. There's also B. Silva who's got some creativity in his arsenal but thank God, he's often deployed on the wing when he's more of a central player. If we can cut off his source of supply and prevent the ball getting to him, there's little much he can do. He wasn't able to do much in the 1st leg especially in the second half because their midfield was dominated hence, his supply was cut off and if not for our error, they would have gotten little out of the match. All still boils down to controlling the midfield.
Sahin can't run. If being an intelligent and technically great was all that matters then Xavi would never have declined. Just like when we played Uniom Berlin what people weren't paying attention to was every time someone ran off the back of Sahin. Now Sahin is intelligent and tried to get in the right position or close down earlier but he just doesn't have the athleticism. We will see what Dahoud brings next season. Your point about Ozil makes no sense. People rated Ozil when he created lots of chances. When he stopped creating lots of chances then people stopped rating him. As for Gotze, I have mentioned many and seen many players recover their form. If the treatment works then Gotze I fully believe Gotze will get back to his best. I stood by Zaha, I stood by Benteke and this season has proven me right. I could name dozens of other players. If Kagawa was good enough for you today then we have different standards and not much else to say.
Kagawa was poor today. He's not even remotely consistent. Put in about 3 excellent performance and then hasn't done much. Apart form Sokratis, PEA and Weigl, no other player can deliver on a consistent basis. Sahin was decent today. His problem is clearly mobility or lack thereof. But apart from that he's an upgrade of Castro in all regards. Castro was invisible.
I wonder where Dortmund and City would be had both managers just played a sensible 4-2-3-1 instead of messing about with stupid formations and players out of position all season. Lucky for Dortmund the season can still.be made the greatesy one ever.
I think it's really important to come third. Finishing 4th means we have to go through the playoff round which reduces preparation time and recuperation for the players. The automatic qualification doesn't kick in until the following year. Also if Bayern win the CL and Schalke win the EL, we would be have to cecede our CL spot since an association can have at most 5 CL spots.
A team of our quality really doesn't need to worry about the qualifiers. Yes it would be better to finish top 3, but winning the cup is more important than that for me let alone the CL. I am not sure what you mean by your last paragraph. Bayern winning the CL and Schalke winning the Europa League means we would still have a qualifier. I think either of them winning looks unlikely now
I'm not worried about the qualifiers. It's the time we lose for prep and recuperation. Ah never mind about the last paragraph. I miscalculated. We aren't in any danger even if they win.
It's quite funny whenever you compare Zaha to Gotze. I'm beginning to wonder if you hardly know what you're talking about. First, Zaha is still a shite player, get that fact right and come back to the ideal world. Zaha shouldn't be a standard for any top club out there. Secondly, Zaha never saw game time under Moyes and rightly so because he's an un intelligent pace-merchant with little skill, compared that to Gotze who had enormous amount of game time under Pep but was quite average for 3 yrs. In essence, Zaha was never given a chance and now that he has that time in abundant, he's showing his normal level for a small time club like it should have been from the beginning whereas Gotze was given chances but has been off form for 4 years now. As for Sahin, he's quite mobile but not pacey. If you actually watched the Monaco match, you would have noticed that he provided some added energy in the midfield. I think TT instructed the team to sit back in the second half as they were giving lot of space for Frankfurt to counter and that was why he withdrawn into his shell a bit. TT was right though because our defence, especially Piszeck looked clueless out there and needs to be protected. And let me tell you, Xavi retired not because he was slow, he has always been slow-paced but because he couldn't sustain the intensity of the game anymore nor could he shield the ball from pressure as he used to do and that makes him a liability. This isn't the case with Sahin, he was quite mobile in the Monaco match and today's 1st half match. In fact, I realised in the Monaco match that it was because TT designed Weigl to be the mobile no 8, out of the two was the reason a midfield of Weigl and Sahin never worked but with Sahin as the no 8, it worked wonders. And yes, Ozil is quite relevant to the discussion. He's a player who has never been consistent in all his life yet he's given the status of a worldclass player because he had the luck to play for Madrid and got an enormous signing fee to his name on his way to Arsenal. Now I realised why players don't try to talk down the signing fee when a new club try to sign them because the higher the price, the more chance they get to play in their new club because the manager would be scare to drop them. Just look at him ruining Arsenal season like he almost did to Madrid until Mourinho moved him to the right to accommodate Granero in the centre in their league winning season. The fact is Ozil has always been a player who uses his stats padding to gloss over his poor performance in most matches and now that the stats has dried up and there's no where to hide, people are seeing him for who he is, a fraud.. Lmao. The truth is no one is ever consistent throughout the season, get that fact in. Even Messi and Ronaldo often have some off days but no one hardly criticise them because their consistencies often outweigh their inconsistencies, not to mention that they often tend to decide tough big matches all by themselves and that's how it should be. Now we can compare this consistency to Kagawa who's been phenomenal since his return to full fitness in the Hertha berlin match and has decided some big matches but because of an off day today, deluded haters like you are cropping out when you're the same set of folks who idolises the inconsistency king himself, Ozil. Mtchew.. BTW, I never stated that Kagawa was good, I stated that he wasn't good but not very poor like you implied. As for Dahoud, regardless of his talent, he's still young lad who's hardly known to control top midfield. In fact, Gladbach fans and directors are saying Dortmund needs some much work done him and that's the truth. All this your imagination and fantasy are cluelessness at its peak.
Monaco laboured to a win thanks to a Falcao free-kick in the dying minutes of the game against lowly Dijon.
Yeh I saw the free kick, it was a great one. It just goes to highlight my point. Unless a player is physically ruined by an injury, patience and love can get them back. Falcao is 31 now or else he would have been what he once was. His career has been held back by stupid moves. If Gotze gets the all clear, give him the patience and time he will need. For the record I never once said or believed that Zaha had the same talent as Gotze. Gotze had the talent to be one of the best players in the world, maybe the very best. Zaha has the talent to be a good winger for a top team. However, just like Falcao it's another example of a player needing time and nurturing to get back to his best. It's good for us that Monaco were pushed so much, but it's bad that they remain on a high with another win.