Like Slash posted on another thread, for the first time in forever none of our players got injured during the international break and are thus all available to play. This final stretch of the the year won't be as tough, with Bremen, Schalke and Gladbach being our most challenging opponents on paper. Let's keep keep racking up the points and win this game.
The "won't be as tough" stretch of upcoming games will be the toughest psychologically as it will test the mentality of the team to be up for every game, every opponent. A team fighting for a title cannot be dropping points against teams they should be beating a la Hannover away this season. Favre and Reus will have to get the team to focus against every opponent.
I really fear we could be losing points against Mainz or Freiburg. As for the following games, Düsseldorf is another must win but Bremen was one of the surprise teams early in the season, Schalke won't make it easy with their ugly football and Gladbach is at second place for a reason. They will be a hard test at the end of the round. I hope that just like it was in 2010, the win against Bayern will give the team the confidence that they can actually win it.
Bayern is not done. Funny how so many fans are just counting them out... We have a lot of football left. We cant drop points over the next three weeks or we could bein for it.
No pulisic today or Alcacer in the starting lineup...No dahoud either. Favre gets results and that is all that matters. Mainz should not be able to come within two goals against us and we have midweek match against Brugge.. So this lineup does not trouble me at all. Just get the points and the rest doesnt matter.
we have had chances and not capitalized... its a start that will help keep mainz alive and in this game early on.
Not that he was a weak link but I'd be open for Dahoud instead of Delaney again. Alcacer will be brought in again anyways. It's quite a physical game where Delaney is kind of useful but after good 15 minutes, we didn't have solutions in the offense anymore. Bruun Larsen also didn't do enough.
Larsen can be a liabilit offensively at times. not quite there. meanwhile we need a 2nd half goal again to eek out points. Man getting early goals and leads is something this team struggles with
im going to assume we make 70th minute subs as usual.... probably dahoud in, alcacer on for Gotze, and pulisic in for Sancho or Larsen
It's not like Mainz is a fortress and there are opportunities because they try to play football themselves. But we need someone who can get the final ball to someone or the other way around. Right now, the accuracy is missing but the ideas are there.
Alcacer to the rescue yet again. Nicely assisted by Sancho and Reus. I hope the team can bring the win home. Mainz has shown often enough in this game that they can be dangerous and the team should be warned.
Bayern conceded in the 92' against Fortuna...Leipzig lost. We have a 9 point lead ahead of Buyern. What a wonderful matchday.
We win, but damn my nerves. Good character by the team but we make it so hard for ourselves. We had many misplaced passes by players who are usually so reliable. Hakimi was probably the worst player on the pitch. For all the potential he has and I hope we can somehow keep him, defensively he has much to learn. Bayern managed to give away a two goal lead and only drew against Düsseldorf. It's getting hotter for Kovac. I still wouldn't bet against Bayern though. We weren't convincing today but we win the 50:50 games this season.
That was a very close win. We were very lucky with the LP stunner. At some point Lucien Favre is going to lose his touch and then I wonder how we are going to continue winning games like this. Witsel and Reus will have moments of fatigue, Paco won't be clinical, and that defence is going to have a bad day. And Bürki too will struggle. Basically, we are relying on the same factors to carry us through the laborious matches. I don't see Dahoud given chances to shine consistently (maybe being saved for a rather decisive mid-week fixture), Gotze played again in a position he has never ever excelled at, Guerreiro not getting a chance when we needed so much creativity. I'm sure some Nice and BMG fans are waiting to see what happens to us around the 25th matchday.
gotta just win.. all that matters right? everything else is unimportant.. we dont have to be a style team so long as we get the points. Yeah, eventually Favre's choices may hurt us but luckily this team is pretty well put together that we wont find ourselves in a huge defecit often. Only been down 2-0 twice in league play and came back to win both. IN Champions league play we are not in a terrible position either. I would like to see us go to the the final 8 at least and that is very doable. After that we are house money I think.
Same goes for our competition. Dortmund fans are also waiting to see what happens to BMG Frankfurt RBL Bayern by the time matchday 25 comes around. Those teams have less quality on the bench than us and playing on Thursdays with two extra Europa round of 32 matches takes a toll.
The defense wasn't good at getting the ball forward today. Akanji's passing has been off and Diallo was on the bench. It was a struggle to get the ball to Witsel whenever Mainz pressed. But man is Witsel a rock. For me, the main way I judge of a coach's game day is which team wins the second half. The coach has had time to see all cards and make their best adjustments. Favre has been passing the test. And I think he has been doing it without running his key pieces into the ground. Only Reus has a worrying workload, and him not playing many minutes for Germany is really helping with that. Overall, I give the team a B. They won away from home, against a midtable team with a strong defense, even when the bounces mostly went the other way. They were never getting outplayed. They weren't dominant, but the worst they could have done was draw; they were never going to lose.
We were never going to lose because Mainz were awful in attack. They scored a goal off a deflection. I don't understand what LF is trying to do with the attack. Other than defend and control the midfield at kickoff, there's no clear attacking strategy until he figures out what the opposition weakness is at the half time mark. And even then that answer is usually Paco Alcacer. Until then it's hoping that Burki, Reus, Witsel and Sancho are keeping us in the game.