If Stöger fields Toprak, Castro and Schürrle on Thursday and BVB gets eliminated by Salzburg, then he should be left behind in Austria. This team is crying out for a better coach. There is quality in the squad, which an elite coach could properly utilise. It is hugely frustrating to see the talented players BVB have being held back by poor coaching and team selection.
It will suck and it will be shameful but getting eliminated from the EL might be a blessing in disguise. The CL qualification is the priority and we still have many games against top teams and direct competitors in the coming weeks. I can understand the need for the rotation for the Frankfurt match but the league has to be the priority. I feel there is some truth behind the rumours that Reus was assured a more competetive squad and playing in the CL is probably one of the key factors to achieve that goal.
If we need to rotate then why in the blue hell does Schurrle, Toprak and Castro get 90 min in successive matches? To me Julian Weigl is symptomatic of this squad's coaching. Under Thomas Tuchel he was a world beater. Real, City were after him. Now, nobody takes a 2nd glance.
For starters, he was Tuchel's idea of a world class CB and first choice replacement after Hummels decided to jump ship and the club chose to go after Toprak to appease Tuchel, so take it up with him if it pisses you off so much. Then we have people like Lars Pollmann who considers him the second coming of Jürgen Kohler for reasons that escape my comprehension, I even got into a lengthy argument with him on Twitter over why I thought signing him was mistake, there were also quite a few local BVB fans who were excited about his signing. I'm also willing to bet these are the same fans who rejoiced at Watzke's contract extension, idiots.
It's people like you who prop up Pollmann. Stop paying attention to a half wit journalist and unfollow him. I saw that exchange about Toprak and his argument was laughable. I didn't expect TT to be perfect. In fact, to cover his weak areas we had his boss Zorc lead acquisitions. TT was perfect in nearly every other aspect. Give it a rest, this occasional TT attack is getting annoying.
Bosz and to a (slightly) lesser extent Stöger aren't fit to lace TT's boots. Firing him was a big risk, and it needed to be followed up with an appropriate replacement. The management have failed spectacularly to deliver on that count.
The idiotic gamble with Bosz was such a bad idea, that in his desperation, Watzke took to Stoger, who isn't really much of an upgrade. A sideways move at best. Yes, Tuchel wasn't perfect, but the two clowns that have led BVB in this campaign truly aren't even fit to be his assistants. And the leading clown, Watzke, should pack his bags and reflect on his failures to progress this club beyond the ''elite feeder club'' phase. As for rotation - I am with Slash on this one. Why the hell are the likes of Castro, Toprak, Schurrle, Schmelzer, LP getting 90 minutes in consecutive games, when they aren't even good enough to start for HSV? Moreover, not only Weigl, but also Pulisic is symptomatic with the amateur level of coaching this team has had during the campaign. And given this amateur level, I won't be surprised to our resident ''mediocre all-stars'' lineup on Thursday.
When you're going up against a scumbag club like Bayern the slightest mistake is simply unforgivable, and Tuchel did something worse: he refused to challenge Bayern all because of Guardiola in his first season. The way he handled himself in press conference prior to the first BL match vs. Pep's Bayern rubbed me the wrong way, heaping all the praise on Guardiola for being the greatest thing to ever happen to football instead of saying something about looking forward to making this a competitive title race. Then came the Europa League QF tie against Liverpool which was the point where I lost all respect for Tuchel, first by allowing the point gap with Bayern grow even bigger in the draw against Schalke. I remember him saying after the match that he was OK with BVB erasing any chance of keeping the title race alive because he didn't want his players to be burdened with two title races at the same time. The end result? He choked big time against one of the worst Liverpool sides in the return leg. After Gündogan's departure he made Gonzalo Castro an undisputed starter instead of nurturing Merino, a crime for which he deserves a beating. Tuchel seemed genuinely convinced that we could build a competitive team with that poor excuse of a footballer, and with the squad weakened after the departures of Gündogan, Mkhitaryan and Hummels the situation meant he should have been more pragmatic, but no, he simply couldn't resist the urge to prove how smart he was by changing formations and tactics which more often than not backfired on us. Looking back the only time we won a big match under Tuchel was the DFB-Pokal semifinal against Bayern, apart from that one time he always choked during big matches. Had Tuchel shown a win at all costs attitude from the start, not caring about that arrogant Catalan's reputation in his first season and nurtured Merino over Castro whilst being far more pragmatic in his second season I would've been far more supportive of him and agree with you all that sacking him was a mistake, but I have zero tolerance for spinelessness which is what Tuchel displayed.
Saw that press conference. He handled himself quite well. He praised Pep but did not go overboard. Everything he said was factual in nature. I don't like Pep but I give him credit for the way he has changed football. He mostly talked about being a fan of Barcelona. He doesn't exactly remote control the players. And unlike Mourinho who would have dumped all the blame on the players, he took it upon himself to find an explanation. To me thats a coach trying to protect his players and finding the light at the end of the tunnel. Hummels played did he not? So did Miki, Sokratis etc. Why not impart some of the blame on them? Frankly, he setup the squad exactly how he wanted to. He felt he had the same skill level in his squad as Liverpool which is why he was not as defensive. He was here for 2 seasons and is to this date the coach with the highest points per game for the club. Nobody is going to argue his preferred purchases of Castro, Schurrle and Rode, not to mention Toprak. That is a clear weak spot in his otherwise fantastic skillset. I don't know why Merino did not bloom during his time here. Maybe it was the culture, the club, the language. There can be a lot of reasons. By that same argument Jurgen Klopp sucked because of the way he handled Ivan Perisis and picked.....cant believe I have to name this guy again.....Kevin Großkreutz ahead of him. And lets not forget the club and JK could not get the best out of Ciro Immobile either.
I'd add that Kampl was also handled badly. He was a nothing player here, yet went on to be a starter at both Leverkusen and Leipzig currently - two teams that are direct rivals for the top spots.