I am sure a lot of us had a smile when they saw the photo and then as they scanned the rows that smile disappeared when they saw KG.
The difference is in second row on the right. I see him surpassing Klopp in every achievement in the next few years.
You know me too well edit.. What did Klopp bring to the squad that made it successful? A new/upgraded concept in gegenpressing, and a whole lot of motivation following the toughest crisis in club history. That, plus smart signing of Lewa and sheer luck of having Götze in youth ranks. What is Tuchel bringing that Klopp lacked? Tactical flexibility, better organization, total discipline, extreme attention to detail, and a very big footballing brain that was missing all these years. With one of the most disappointing seasons behind them and hurt pride, I see the team getting their shit together and meeting great success in the coming years under Tuchel, whose coaching talents have been begging for a more expensive/experienced squad to shine. The only thing that is missing is ONE more world class player.
That would mean winning the CL. While that is optimistic I don't think we should be aiming any lower.
True, but could also be more BL titles in as many years. Our CL success had a lot of luck in it, aided by twists of fate (Malaga) and Mou's arrogance (Real).
Every team needs luck to go deep in the CL. Don't forget Malaga scored an offside goal. And JM is always arrogant. But a few BL titles in a row would be a welcome reprieve after last year.
With recent developments, I see us with more chances of winning the BL (not ncessarily this season) than the UCL under Tuchel. Do expect a pokal win at least.
I don't really care about the Pokal. It's just a nice to have because the financial payoff is not that great. The BL is what matters and as for the CL I just want us to make the SF on an annual basis. Winning it would be fantastic of course but making it to the QF and SF should be an expectation at least.
I get it f you from a financial perspective don't care bout the pokal but sporitvely wise you should. Marco Reus and the other players won't stay even if we get second every season in the BL and reach QF at CL, they want to lift some trophy, have that in their resume and who wouldn't? Had we won the pokal last season then at least there would have been a positive there, in spite of finishing seventh (or sixth?) for us to look back.
A Pokal is nice in the kind of year we had last year so I agree with you. But when there is a legitimate shot at the league title the only clubs that steadfastly aim only for the domestic cup are Arsenal and Napoli. Every other contender sees the Pokal as a way to wrap up a double or treble.
I agree, but i meant we should go to win the pokal+reaching top spots in the BL. I hate when the "big" english teams lose cups stupidly because they don't consider them important, as a fan i would be really upset. What can i say, I just wan us to win trophies from time to time and if there is a chance of winning the pokal we should take it. Actually, if we only focus on the league we would be just like arsenal who until last year had won nothing in many years and lost their best players as a result. I don't think we always have a chance at the BL, like this season is going to be really hard because of having some important changes but I do think we always have a chance of winning the cup since every team is beatable and we should be able to beat anyone in a single match, no excuses.
Last year we only lost Lewandowski but most of the squad apart from Reus and Hummels were healthy. We got a cracker of a year from PEA and still ended out of the CL. All United changed was a coach a few years ago and they became a mid table club. Sometimes no changes can be bad. With us not playing in the CL we skip out on a lot of mid week matches and top it up by travelling only inside our country. That means more rest, more tactical practice, more time to assess the opposition and gel with team mates. I see this as a way to be really well prepared for each successive weekend under a tactically astute coach. Now what do you think about our chances of winning the BuLi?
I'd put my money on winning the BL rather than the EL. That's a tough competition and very unpredictable. We face squads and coaches we haven't ever played against.
What about the EL? As I've said many times, i firmly believe it's important we reach its later stages, like semifinals. If teams like Sevilla and benfica have been to its final, then we surely can as well. I think winning Buli will be hard for us this year. I predict bayern to win it, wolfsburg to be second and us third with kusen/gladbach as 4th, probably gladbach. My reasons for this are: bayern has the best team and could still get some interesting transfers. Wolfsburg have, appatently, kept their core players from last season so I expect to perform similarly. Us, well, Gladbach may suffer from CL exposure and Kusen has lost some players so they may be weaker. Now, I do believe we'll b ready to charge for the title on 2016-17, once tuchel has a better understanding of the players. I think change is positive but you have to be smart about the players that leave and the ones that come, plus, changing the coach is big, probably the biggest change a team can have. Having said that, coaches should be given some time to build their own team and given some margin.
Has anyone watched the EL this year? The level of play isnt exactly Champions League, but in the later stages especially the level is pretty high, keep in mind Tuchel never coached at even that level. While its partly luck of the draw, but the teams have disciplined defences and the likes of a motivated Sevilla, Napoli, hell even dynamo made a run to the final can all put our teams back against the wall. We struggled against the likes of gladbach and Wolfsburg, yet they were both knocked out pretty convincingly before the semis.
I know the level is pretty high in the later stages, but I can't accept motivation as a differential factor between us and other teams. It might not be the UCL but it's still an international trophy. Also, if we can't win against the likes of Sevilla, Napoli, etc, what can we do against the TOP teams? I believe we can be there with the best (obviously not at the moment) so why not actually go for the EL. Isn't that the best way to tell the world "we're back and better than ever!"? About TT, I believe in him to be actually good enough to take us to the next level, if he's not that kind of coach then we should've stick with kloppo. He will definitely keep learning with us, but that's ok. I don't expect him tomake us finish first or second at the Buli this season since it's a competition that demans consistency and that should be hard for a new coach with new players but I'll be dissapointed if we don't make a long run in the pokal & EL.
As fans we need to ensure we don't go into the season being overly naive. I have high expectations for this club as most of you know from my previous posts..... but we also need to give TT some time. I would like to challenge for the EL title (quarter finals or higher) and a Top 3 spot in the Buli, but I have no expectation that either of these are a basic achievements. TT may be a great coach, but we also need to understand that this is a completely new level for him as well. Say what you want about Klopp, but he was able to substantially overachieve with the talent he had at his disposal, and we need TT to do the same. That's not an easy task, especially given some of the personnel issues (roster holes) we have. Had we gone out and splashed some serious off-season cash on a great FB and perhaps a solid striker or attacking midfielder, then my expectations would be higher. We have talent, but let's not over-hype our existing players either, there is no doubt TT is working with a somewhat limited squad. I'm giving him this season to get his bearings, achieve "good" results, and get a proper assessment of the assets at his disposal. My expectation from that is still a CL spot (which would be a solid result), however it's the season after this that will be the real test of his ability imho. At that point the club is truly "his", and he will have had an opportunity to make some transfers to improve the squad in relation to his tactical approach.