Good comparison because of the way he gets around his opponents but on 2-3 occasions, he also shared his selfishness. But in Robben's case, that often turned into a plus because of his fantastic shot. Pulisic is definately more confident this year.
Good point. With that said, I think he's been told to be more aggresive this year. He has to take over some goal production.
1st Place and the most encouraging thing so far has been our defense. 2 clean sheets to start off the season and none of those crazy moments we had last season
I think you have to take a few aggressive ones, it forces the defenders to assume you might. If you always play the pass the defenders cheat for it. Of course you have to hit at a decent rate too.
Pulisic's shot technique will get better. I can't say Hertha put in a good performance so once again it is hard to rate how good we are but like Wolfsburg they could not handle our pressing for most of the game.
39 matches unbeaten at home in the BL. My ratings: Sahin 9: Terrific performance given his recent history. Goal and an assist. Dictated play from deep. Slowed down a bit in the end. Pulisic 8: Very mature performance. PEA 7: Still adjusting to his new role. Not bad. Götze 4: Improved in the 2nd half. Was useless in the first. Max 7: Improving steadily. Lots of energy and fight. I'm curious to see his attacking ceiling. Castro 3: Invisible. Tons of back passes. Lack of ambition. Was slightly better in the 2nd half. Bartra 6: Could have been better. Showed up when he needed to. Sokratis 6: Rock in defence. But one can tell he too is adjusting to his new role. Lukasz 6: Can no longer hit accurate passes in the box. Once he slows down, he's really going to struggle. Got lucky because Hertha is weak down the left. Zagadou 8: We can permanently bench Schmelzer and then figure out how to fit him and Raphael in the first 11. Bürki 8: Always there when needed. Two straight clean sheets under a new coach is commendable. Kagawa 6: looked lively and should start ahead of Castro Dahoud 5: Needs more min. No matter how little he plays, his talent is always on display. Toprak 7: Was a pretty good substitute for Sokratis. Peter Bosz 8: Too early to judge but he's certainly got a good grasp of how to get a good defensive performance out of the team. He's very down to earth as a coach. Affable. While we have a lot of intelligent players on the squad, they had trouble grasping TTs methods. PBs ideas are easier to implement.
This is what I was thinking as well. Until we have 8-9 games under our belt, it'll be difficult to judge how good this squad is. All 4 new comers are getting min. Too many injuries. Also Hertha are awfully weak on the road. Being in the group of death is as usual going to be a big test for us.
I like the ratings but would give Götze and Castro slighly higher grades, mainly for how they fit into the tactical ideas of the coach though. Götze is important for the little triangles that make defending the wings so hard. A Berlin defender mentioned the troubles they had because of that. Castro was indeed invisible and at best stabilizing but his presence created room for Sahin. I'd give Toprak maybe a grade lower because of that misunderstanding with LP that could have led to a goal. But that was probably more on LP. In the first half, I thought that LP had everything under control. That was good to see but maybe Berlin today was just too weak on his side.
You're right. I was too caught up in Götze's physical display to observe his movements. He's an intelligent player and likely compensates for his current physical limitations by his skills and intelligence. So when against VfL he was more sprightly, he looked pretty impressive. As for Castro, he still has his legs but that's all he's got. I don't see any intelligent movement, just running up and down and in circles. Kagawa and Mo would be much better than him. I find it unfathomable that he takes one of the central midfield spots ahead of Sahin, Mo and Weigl.
Overall good impression. We're playing a slower style than last season, and players are not completely in sync, but I feel they are getting there. I liked our midfield of Castro, Gotze and Sahin. They were good for this opposition. They controlled the midfield, and did provide some vision, and good passes -- including everyone's favorite Castro. Bosz gives an impression that he is wise. The team relaxed towards the end with a 2-goal lead, which may not have been the case in a Tuchel-led game, where players were pressing for 90 minutes. He seems like he's OK taking it step by step, and getting the team to gradually gel. I also like that we're relying more on the middle of the field, vs starting everything from the wings -- it's matter of taste really.
With Weigl fit, the midfield will probably be Sahin, MG and Weigl. I don't see Sahin being dropped if he continues like this.
I quite like this style! I would often get very impatient with how we played under TT. Early days but Bosz looks to be an ideal replacement. And Mario needs more time too, he hasnt played in 8 months. He'll come good
I'm not sure that midfield has enough mobility and dynamism. Both Sahin and Weigl like to occupy the same portions of the field and stay back, spraying passes to more mobile players around them. Sort of a "too many chefs, not enough fry cooks" situation.
Weigl is extremely mobile. He was actually groomed as a central AM at 1860. Let's not forget that the only Weigl we know is the one that played under TT. I'd have Weigl and Dahoud as my CM any day and a Kagawa/Gotze up front.
Only taking into account the position and player types: If we see Dahoud as Weigl's or Sahin's partner and not in a more advanced position, then the obvious choice of who would lose the starting spot is Castro.
I went to this game on a visit to the Rhine region from London. Was an absolute corker - I took a few photos and jotted down a few observations if anyone's interested... https://thegrassrootstourist.wordpress.com/2017/08/27/a-trip-to-westphalia/