It's strange to be 5 games into the season without conceding a goal and yet the back four isn't really convincing. I don't think Zagadou should be an LB option against strong opponents. He has obvious qualities but I fear the coming Madrid game. Toprak has been solid today and I wonder what happens when Bartra returns because I guess his ball playing abilities will be a big plus for Bosz.
Considering your previous ratings I think you were very lenient with the markings. Kagawa, Pulisic, Sokratis and Zagadou all had poor games. Kagawa and Pulisic did manage to score, which boost their ratings, but they weren't good at all. It was a nice win, because we could hit the ball long to Yarmolenko and Auba, who did pretty much everything themselves. Sokratis gave the ball away carelessly a couple of times and was wrong side of his man. Pulisic wasted many good chances, by choosing to dribble when he could have passed. Even for the 2nd goal, he got the weight of the pass wrong. Imagine bringing in Toljan for LP, Raphael for Zagadou, Bartra for ?, Weigl for Sahi, Gotze for Castro, Dahoud for Kagawa, and Reus for Pulisic. Yarmolenko is looking like he would be a bargain at 50 million and a fair price at 75 million.
Zagadou is probably our 4th choice left back behind Raphael, Schmelzer and Toljan. We have no choice in playing him, but I worry if he has to face Madrid. I imagine like with Tottenham, Toljan will come in. He does look a fantastic prospect for centre back. As things stand I would say Toprak deserves to stay in the lineup more than Sokratis, but with no goals conceded in the Bundesliga, it would be fair to make Bartra wait his turn. I think it sends a bad message to drop a centre back that has gone 5 games with no goals conceded.
Zagadou, unfortunately, is a black hole on the left side as he brings nothing offensively. He is very composed under pressure which is a plus considering his age but he definitely plays the LB position like a CB and it shows. Need Guerreiro and Toljan back healthy and playing the FB positions in order to exhibit the potential this team has. Castro, with the exception of the "highlight reel" nifty dribble past the opponent late in the second half, was invisible. Sahin was not much better which hurt our game especially in the first 10-15 mins of the second half. HSV clogged up the middle and neutralized our cogs completely which led to no link-up play but rather long balls to the front three. Weigl is sorely missed as well as Dahoud, a player who can step on the ball and move it as he is agile and much more technically gifted then Castro. Toprak has been a stud to say the least. Once Bartra comes back how do you justify dropping Toprak over Sokratis!?
I agree Zagadou had a poor game. He had several poor giveaways that Bayern or Real Madrid would punish with. I thought Sokratis was decent. He pretty well neutralized Wood. There were maybe 5 minutes of each half I didn't see, so maybe I missed some egregious blunder? Kagawa looked good to me in combination moving through the middle of the field, I hadn't marked him out as having a bad game. And Pulisic was an above average player on the field. He did miss several opportunities, he had poor weight on at least three key passes though one ended up in the net anyway. He didn't miss any sitters and he only had one real hero ball moment. I'd say Auba missed more clear chances, though I don't mean that as a criticism, that is how soccer is. I think it is underestimated how much you need to try and dribble through defenders if you have that ability. It forces them to defend you differently and opens up passes for the times you choose to pass. The one right before he scored was clearly a bad choice, but the others where he generally got the ball one the left wing and then ran toward the corner of the box were decent soccer. I don't think it can be called a bad game.
On your last part about how dribbling at defenders opens things up- I think that is exactly why Yarmolenko has been so deadly for us so far. Fullbacks want nothing to do with him when he forces the issue and dribbles at them- they just try to back off and stay in front of him a lot which gives him the time and space to send in a cross.
Toprak was great. Hope he can keep it up against stronger opposition. Yarmolenko again fantastic. Very nice
Yarmolenko has a bit of Robben in him. Powerful, direct, lightning-quick, likes to cut inside on a dynamite left foot.
I can't understand criticism of Pulisic. The kid was a constant threat and scored a good goal. Yes he is young and doesn't always make the perfect decisions and loses the ball, but overall he is a nightmare for defenders with his pace and trickery. Any flair player who looks to dribble past opponents will lose the ball from time to time, but when he gets it right he causes a lot of problems. He looks to force the issue, rather then playing it safe, which is a key attribute. Having Yarmolenko on the other flank is a major plus, fantastic player so far. With those 2 I don't see Dortmund missing Dembele too much.
Robben isn't all that strong and is injury prone. It's early but I'm extremely glad we got Yarmolenko.
When both teams full strength? I don't know about that. The attack is possibly on a par, but Neuer, Kimmich, Hummels, Boateng and Alaba is a stronger defence on paper imo. Midfield is pretty close, but Vidal is probably the best all round midfielder at either club.
That's true, however that doesn't necessarily reflect overall individual player comparisons on paper. It would be interesting to see a combined xi, how many players from each squad would feature?
Sorry he was not a constant threat, he actually wasted about 5 or 6 great chances to score by making the wrong decision or under hitting passes. It's not that he occasionally lost the ball when he went on a dribble, but that he dribbled when he should have passed, he passed when he should have carried the ball forward etc. This is to be expected from most kids and no big deal. Pulisic is a world class talent, but he is far from the finished article and not a talent on the level of Dembele. He is progressing well and far beyond virtually every other teenager in football. He is a fantastic prospect and a good squad player to have now, but Philipp will probably play ahead of him. Yarmolenko on the other hand has been out of this world.
One thing to note was that Dembele had plenty of moments where he dribbled when he should've passed, passed when he should've dribbled, etc. like you said that's part of kids learning, but I just want to point out Dembele was getting a lot of flack from us for that last year as well, especially in the beginning.
I think it was important that Pulisic didn't cause any chances against from his giveaways. Whether you are Messi, Dembele, or Pulisic, you have to try to beat them often at what they expect you to do (like when Pulisic shot up the left wing and passed two defenders to the left but got bodied out of his line and off the ball by the second). Whether you succeed or fail it sets up the "fake what they expect and do something else". The key is work on setting them up while not wasting grade A chances for your teammates and not to giving up grade A chances. I don't think he wasted any grade A chances. He did fail to create some grade A chances (the over hit pass to Auba or one where he hit Sahin (or maybe it was Dahoud) in the feet in the box with a pass from the right that was way too hard). I also don't remember a single dangerous counter started from his mistakes, though I am too lazy to re-watch the whole game to be sure.
This part of the problem. Pulisic does not belong in the same tier as Dembele and even Dembele is no where close to the same tier as Messi. Pulisic blew quite a few "grade A" chances, almost including the goal, but he will learn from it. Very quickly Dembele learnt to be clinical and pass to set up chances. At first he would constantly shoot from stupid angles and distances, but he improved. Unlike Pulisic, Dembele's biggest weakness last year was that he would lose the ball leading to dangerous counter attacks. However, his ability to create something out of absolutely nothing made him a top player for us.
I put them in that order as an "if you are awesome, great, or still up and coming" not as a "here are three things that are the same". Meaning, "regardless of your level you have to try these things." We disagree about the wasted-chance quality, but that is mostly in the eye of the beholder and I won't say you are wrong.
Ok fair enough we will disagree about the wasted chances. I misinterpreted the way you placed Pulisic, Dembele and Messi. I thought you were implying Pulisic had the potential to get even close to Messi levels. Messi is a freak. A player of his natural talent comes along maybe twice a century: Pele and Maradona in the previous one.
I do not think Dembele or Pulisic are close to Messi. I don't think it even makes sense to compare them unless you are trying to tear the youngsters down. If either of them becomes 50% of a Messi that would be awesome for them, but we don't have reason to expect even that much.
I hope he'll be 75% of a Messi. I want that so badly. He hasn't ruled that out with his development. It just isn't reasonable to expect it of anyone no matter how much they show at age 19. Like you say, we will see!