Yes! I forget who posted this several weeks ago - but they commented on the fight being back in the team. We saw that again today. Belief must now be creeping in. Heja BVB!
The defense wasn't that convincing today. Akanji is still not up to speed and Piszczek was holding on with his fingernails. But Dahoud+Witsel in the middle looked good. Sancho turned it on in the second half, I think that the second has was good subs plus a much younger team. But overall, if you judge by how a team does after the coach makes changes, Favre knows how to use the tools that BVB has.
Game ends 3:2. Satisfying win but both teams are in the middle of a development and will look better next year. Even in the first half when we were dominated it was still visible that our team has more quality than last year. Dahoud is a game changer when he's on point. 7 points in front of Bayern now. But all that doesn't matter if we don't win against the lower ranked teams. Sancho had so many lost balls but also had his hand in the turnaround for at least two goals and created several other opportunities. He needs to mature but is such a great talent.
Have to hand to Lucas he had a good game after the rough start and had some really good defensive moments in crunch time. Very fun game to watch and looks like this coach might just be a good fit. He appears to know how to use his roster.
I would love to see the 4th official's accounting for that 5 minutes compared to a normal game. And then the ref added _50_ seconds for the Hitz shenanigans? If Munich had managed to tie that in the dying seconds I would have been pissed.
crazy match! We needed this win. We didn't have to blast the ball away at the end every time we got it. We need more belief! We created TWO sitters, and TWO good chances! (at least) Remember that, strikers! Reus! Your misses are forgiven Great play, great leadership! Great Goal #2 Goal #3 just showcases our talent and creativity!
What happened to James, did he diddle someones wife? Because it's great for us if he has been frozen out.
Positives: - We won and have now extended the gap to seven points from Bayern. - The steely resilience after twice going behind on the scoreline. Negatives: - We were at times too naive defensively. It ain't over yet, not by a longshot. There's still another 23 games to go, and you can't afford to be careless especially when you're up against a scumbag club like Bayern. Enjoy the international break and may our players make a healthy return.
Can't think of a single player in our team that messed up or didn't play to his potential. BUT, I have to say: Pulisic or Guerreiro have got to be playing instead of Larsen. Pulisic's head is somewhere else, and Guerreiro I guess is recovering. But they both need to catch up so they can be in the starting 11 more often. Sancho was great! Piszczek still has it when needed, although it's always a mismatch with him against Ribery. Both played better than usual.
That match must have killed a few people with weak hearts. Götze and Weigl were so poor. I wonder if it has something to do with insufficient playing time. Dahoud, Akanji, Witsel and Reus were excellent. The Spanish players were outstanding. If it weren't for awful finishing from Reus and Alcacer we would have won 5 - 2. The most impressive thing was the mentality. Haven't had this since Thomas Tuchel imparted this three years ago. We were down twice and came back to win. I still have doubts about Lucien Favre but let's see if he can maintain this lead in March.
I hope Leipzig and Eintracht do everybody a solid and take all 3 points tomorrow to kick Bayern out of the top 4. As a bonus Schalke also loses tomorrow. One bad news. Raphael is going to be playing for Portugal which means we've lost him until Christmas.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day and today Bayern were very good. They may be having a relatively poor season, but they played well today. Then there was Favre's team selection, which in hindsight he got a lot of the decisions wrong, but I supported most of them before the match and still do. Delaney after his poor performance against Atletico, had shown he didn't have the required skills to start at the highest levels games. Weigl had played well recently and I can see why Favre chose him, but I would have gone for Dahoud. Alcacer had played poorly in his last couple of games and I think it was harsh, but I can see why he was dropped for Gotze. Pulisic and Raphael had both been very poor last game and again I see why Larsen started ahead of them both. As for the match, MOTM was Reus. He missed a few good chances, but his performance was exceptional. He was always in space, played some great passes his movement was excellent and scored 2 goals. After him Witsel was the second best player on the pitch, but these two are amazing almost every week. Sancho really came into the game in the second half, but what impressed me most about him was his work rate. I have commented before that Sancho is a bit of a wimp and didn't like the defensive work, but it's obovious Reus is a role model for him. When Reus is charging around like a madt Dahoud came on and changed the game for me. I have always wanted Dahoud, because he has the special quality to take the ball off the defenders and play it into the attacking players. His energy and movement, means he can always find space and he is a fighter. He can improve his final ball, which is often wrong and we know his biggest weakness is giving the ball away cheaply, but he has a lot of potential. Hakimi, Akanji and Zagadou did well in a difficult situation. In the first half we were too deep. It was a great win. Now the negatives. Gotze had a poor game and contributed little. LP despite the assist was poor too and sadly can't keep pulling out miracles. He was destroyed by Ribery. Weigl was terrible too. I still think he is going to come good, but he must become more physical and looked off the pace. I think he is rusty and missing the preseason, but for now he should only start the easier matches. Larsen worked fairly hard, though he should have tracked better for the second goal, but he lacks the required quality. Going forward we still need to answer the LB problem. Then the most important thing for me is to invest in a quality wideman. We need a better option than Larsen or Raphael. For all his faults Brandt is the man for me and I think they would be tempted especially if we try and sweeten the deal with Kagawa. However, it was an incredible performance and showed great mentality. Our players can go to the international break with a 4 point lead at the top and 7 points clear of Bayern.