2018-19 UEFA Champions League Group Stage Matchday 4: Atlético Madrid vs Borussia Dortmund

Toprak was terrible, but Akanji matched him at CB today and other players were very bad too.

The point as mentioned is Delaney can help us win the league.

Completely disagree with this. 3 outfield players have carried the team: Akanji, Witsel and Reus. Then to a lesser, but still very important Zagadou and Sancho have been huge contributions.

How the hell does Raphael deserve to even be mentioned? He has barely played and done virtually nothing this season. Gotze has done nothing this season and Pulisic has been very poor.

Larsen has contributed more than both Gotze, Raphael and Pulisic and even he has not been great.

He has been poor for the last two games, but hopefully it is a momentary blip. The truth is we all may have got carried away with his excellent start. Maybe his true level is a medium between his last two games and what we saw before.

 

A quick tour of Raphaels per 90 min stats will show you how he's involved and how dangerous he is.

Akanji was involved. He charged forward and went for his man. He was literally playing the role of two CBs. Have you never played football and been in such a scenario?

Gotze just said in an interview that he didn't train at all last week. He gets a pass.

I agree Pulisic has been weak this season.

 

Does Pulisic have any option than to extend in his current form? If he put off contract talks to angle for a move in 2018 or 2019, lets hope nobody watched him today or all the hype would be gone.

Paco's sudden drop in form is more worrying. Isak the other.possibility
Mm

 

Looks like Schalke are going to make the knock out rounds.

 

I didn't concentrate that much on Alcacer to judge him, he barely got the ball. It's hard for him to shine when he gets no service at all. I think we had no shot on goal. But one of his strengths so far was that isn't a striker who just waits in the box but one who plays with the other offensive players and therefore is also able to create chances himself. I didn't see that today but all our attackers except Reus were invisible or ineffective today. Our passing from the back was pretty much absent as well. It's tough against such a packed defense when there is no creativity and not enough movement to unlock that.

 

His stats like Alcacer and to a certain extent Sancho don't reflect the true story, because they scored/created a lot against tired opponents. In the games he started, he was wasteful and had poor positioning against Berlin and was solid against Wolfsburg. Nothing to rave about and not really part of the teams early success. He was very bad today.

Akanji is usually brilliant and has been great ever since he came here. Playing with Toprak, probably does bring down your level as does switching sides, but not to this extent. He was just terrible today. Lost the ball in very dangerous areas, made basic mistakes and probably should have prevented the first goal.

As I said he has been brilliant and our best defender, so I expect him to pick it up. With him I think we should just say it was a bad day at the office and there is no need for concern, but we shouldn't pretend he was good today.

That's fine, but he hasn't done much all season. An excellent game against Atletico and the goal against Augsburg is the extent of his contribution. He is not a player we are relying on.

We can't gamble on Reus being fit for the entire season. If he gets injured then not only do all hopes of the CL go, but winning the league disappears too. He is the most irreplaceable member of the squad. He is already overplayed.

When you look at the top players from other teams like Hazard, Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar, Griezemann, Silva, Sterling, Salah etc they have all had far, far more rest than Reus. The reason is we can't afford to rest him and that is not going to end well. We need someone to share the load.

 

This is good for the Bundesliga, which is in a poor state. If I would like to avoid the 2nd place team from the Napoli/PSG/Liverpool group. Also would prefer not to get United or Inter, but there is a huge difference between topping the group and coming 2nd.

 

Pulisic has some growing up to do. Thats for sure. He seems to outrun the team with nowhere to , dribbling into trouble, or he forces the issue too much. But whining when you come off the field is never a good luck with 20 cameras in a stadium not including the ones in the stands. Body language as a teammate is very important.

I still believe we sell him in the December period or just utilize him as a sub for Sancho, which may the correct decision anyway. He doesnt seem to command a lot of respect at times from his teammates as they defer to someone else usally. I am quite sure that his stubborness on the ball is problematic for teammates at times.

 

On the bright side it's very good for the team to get a reality check in a match against a top side who actually cared, but one which will probably end up being meaningless. Much better to gain this information in November than in a knockout tie in March.

The poor performance is somewhat mitigated by the quality of Atletico, and that several players are still shaking off injuries/illness - Dortmund took 3 extra players for the trip because it was uncertain if Götze and Piszczek would be ready to play. This was definitely a factor in the back 4 being so bad, although LP and Toprak at top form probably won't cut it either.

Aside from injuries/fitness, you see that even the players who have looked good this year have weaknesses. Delaney doesn't have experience playing against a strong pressing side, Hakimi makes some bad decisions, Guerreiro basically needs to be hidden away on defense. A striker who offers something different from Paco is at the top of the shopping list, even if it's simply a tall guy with sharp elbows a la Sandro Wagner.

 

I don't think experience had much to do with it when it came to Delaney. He gave his all and I don't think his game was effected by the occasion. He simply lacks the technical ability to play quick passing football when pressed. This level is a step above his skill set. It's Dahoud we need and we need for him to mature quickly, the same for Hakimi.

I see the argument for getting another striker, who is more physical, but I dont agree with it. A second choice striker is unlikely to have the skill to make much of a difference in the big games. He would be more useful in the league matches to give us another dimension. However, in the league games I think we can manage with Gotze/Philipp.

Our plan A will be to pass the ball from the back. I would rather we get another wide player and improve our plan A, than get a plan B option, that won't be enough for the CL.

At the moment watching the other teams, none are perfect, but the top teams have a little bit extra quality than us. If we can top the group then the quarter finals is a realistic expectation.

 

Guerreiro is intriguing. He's probably our best winger (together with Sancho) at this point because he has a good understanding with Hakimi and Reus and so they can do the passing creative game.

Yet, I feel he somehow shuts down before the game is over.

I feel he should start as winger against Bayern, with Sancho being the other winger. Then sub him out for a hopefully hungry Pulisic, or even for Phillip, if Paco can stay at Striker the whole game.

 

I brought up Wagner mainly as an extreme contrast to Alcacer, but you have a point in that perhaps transfer targets should be framed less in terms of tactical alternatives or specific positions, but more in terms of adding players who can consistently deliver at the Champions League level.

In attack there is Reus, and then a long list of wild cards who may or may not help you win on a particular CL knockout round matchday. There has to be one other guy - not necessarily world class but one that is good enough to play for one of the top clubs. The problem is that in January teams may not be willing to sell a younger player (Werner, Brandt), CL cap-tied players (Draxler comes to mind) don't help, and someone on the outskirts of a rich club may bring baggage or simply not add much to the equation. If they can swing another Batshuayi situation I'd call it a win.