But LF knew that they were awful and were playing 5 in the back. He also knows he has CL this week. So I am okay with him resting Diallo and riding Gotze and LP, while still getting the three points. Also, we saw another game for JBL. Hopefully someday JBL will be useful, and we'll be glad for all these mediocre games that helped him develop, but today even Delaney looked more useful on offense.
Yes, JBL is improving, and yes he is still frustrating to watch on offense. Gotze and Pulisic were frustrating on offense too. Pulisic needs to chiiiiiiill.. and make that easy pass for Reus to tap in. He's overthinking. Gotze too.. overthinking. I'm definitely with the crowd that wants to see more of Dahoud and Guerreiro. The latter will do a better job on the wing that JBL. Both bring in much needed creativity and control. Side note: happy to see on Bayern and Madrid drop points on this beautiful matchday.
In his first few months in the senior squad Larsen is starting over a more experienced CP and making Wolf and Philip look like unnecessary buys. Not too shabby and he has a lot of room to improve. Disclaimer: Numbers were found elsewhere, good to compare players within a team but to compare CP to players at other clubs and leagues and claim CP is doing better than talented starters because of his minutes per goal or assist is misleading at best.
Götze is frustrating because he doesn't get to play where he's best at....ever. At best he's on the wing, otherwise he's deployed at no. 8 or no. 9. Let him play at no. 10. That's where's he's most dangerous.
Reus is the 10 and there is no chance at all of Gotze getting in ahead of him. He should be happy now to still be getting games. I actually think yesterday was a very impressive win. It was a tough away game after an international break. Reus didn't play much, but he was away and Witsel played two tough games. It was good to win and now be ready for the CL. I still think the wing is where we are week. Larsen is doing well for a kid, but he is way below the required level. It's good for him to be getting games, but I still think we need to reinvest in the squad. As things stand I wouldn't care if Kagawa, Philipp, Pulisic, Raphael, Toljan, Rode and Toprak were all let go by the start of next season. Then the money could be reinvested in a striker, a Left winger and a left back.
Unless he really wants to leave, I wouldn't get rid of Guerreiro. He adds a lot of talent and creativity. Somehow, I don't see him doing well there either, because even in this position he played this game, he had the chance at times to set up plays, and make runs into the box like a 10 would.. like Reus has been doing.. and he didn't do well.
There's a difference between how Götze plays the no. 10 role vs how Reus does. They don't have completely overlapping skillsets. Reus runs at defenders, pulls defenders away and runs towards goal. Götze retains possession and looks for through balls. Of course the latter doesn't dribble or run at defenders like he used to and this is a huge problem for him and the squad. If Götze actually ran more, showed some balls, took chances he might have more luck to build up his confidence. If he doesn't then he needs to be sold. 6M is a lot to pay a player for his marketing value.
Götze looked good physically but lacking in precision. I'd call that progress - as long as he holds up athletically, the quality will be back.