PEA left out of the squad due to disciplinary reasons. Sancho and Isak are in the starting 11. None of our LBs are available so it might be Toljan on the left. Also we have both of our no. 10s starting. Dahoud is on the bench. I guess Reus isn't ready yet. BVB: Bürki, Sancho, Yarmolenko, Götze, Isak, Toljan, Kagawa, Sokratis, Piszczek, Weigl, Toprak #bvbwob pic.twitter.com/LdeRUylH5V— Borussia Dortmund (@BVB) January 14, 2018
Yarmolenko has been awful. So many good setups and he flubs them all. Götze is a lot better playing higher up. Setup Isak really well towards the end of this half. Very little control in the middle of the pitch. We need a Dahoud desperately.
Goetze and Yarmalenko resumed where they left off before the break . Very disjointed poor performance . Yarmalenko is a ham
Wouldn't say Gotze was poor, in fact he was the only BVB player that was capable of giving key passes. Yarmolenko has been abysmal and really hasn't set the world on fire since we bought him. More worryingly, Dahoud isn't showing any signs of improvement...
Awfully poor display by Yarmolenko. He could have easily won us this match. The defence has been improved tremendously based on the last few league matches.
Yarmolenko, so much false hope. What did you guys think of the youngsters? Sancho looks to be a player and really did the work tracking back. Isak needs to get some work going forward.
The youngsters were good overall with Sancho being one of our better players tonight. Isak did all he could, but after Gotze was subbed there wasn't really anybody with the vision to pick a decisive pass. Yarmolenko cost us the victory here and is shaping up to be an Ukrainian Schurrle. The worst news for me is that Dahoud hasn't improved at all and is continuing where he left off before the winter break - being a shadow of his Gladbach self.
I don't think Mo was that bad. He moved the ball forward and was somewhat press resistant. His decision making and pass accuracy was quite poor. But he had less than half an hour. I think he really should be played deeper.
Toprak was a rock today. Maybe a coach like Stoger knows how to get the most out of a player like him.
I don't think Yarmo was bad. I think he was very good other than his finishing. He obviously didn't finish his chances, but those shouldn't have been his chances. Those are PEA's chances. He is very good with the ball at his feet finding a surprising pass forward (either surprising target or surprising timing for the pass) which opens up opportunities. But he isn't the right target for a breakaway (the commentator said something about "with Yarmo's speed' and he meant fast.... I was confused), he shouldn't be standing in the middle of goal mouth and he isn't great at finishing. I thought that Gotze was flat footed once the ball approached the touchline on the right side (which was 90% of the attacks). He parked in the middle and never seemed to find the ball. Someone needs to be target for Yarmo's redirect. And given the way BVB doesn't have a killer finisher I think it needs to be a "Yarmo to (Gotze or Kagawa) one-touch to the (Sancho/Schurrle) on the left". If you can't cut through you have to quickly change line of the attack. Let the defense shape up and crowd the right and then you need to suddenly be on the left. But it has to be one touch because two-touch is the same speed the defense can shift. The players are mostly in the right positions for this, they just each take too long to find each other. There is no understanding and anticipation of each other's position.
It was pretty unfortunate that Pulisic's injury coincided with whatever is going on with Auba. Isak, Yarmo, and Sancho tried their best - actually probably did better than I would have expected - but the attack really stagnated from around the point Götze went off. Too bad because the midfield was controlling the match and the back line actually looked confident and organized. The attack lacked initiative and mutual understanding to break down Wolfsburg with combinations and off-ball movement. Now the club has to sort out the PEA situation ASAP including a suitable replacement. Intrigued but apprehensive to see how Stöger organizes the attack in the Rückrunde.
The problem with PEA is that he is getting special treatment and ignoring basic etiquette. He invited his entire family over to stay in a hotel during their training in Marbella. To keep him happy because his transfer in the summer did not go through, he got a significant raise at the club as well. This pissed off some of the players, particular Marcel Schmelzer (not sure why because he is one of the last players to get a starting berth, let alone deserve a raise). I think other actions like coming to training late is also a regular occurrence and flying off to Milan, Paris etc. He is the only player to have been suspended under 3 different coaches at the club. Michael Zorc said yesterday that he doesn't even recognise PEA anymore. Peter Stöger expects him to be back in training today. The meeting they had yesterday with him was rather uncomfortable. My view is that the player is disappointed and just does not care anymore. Underneath that happy go lucky guy is somebody who thinks he can do better even though evidence shows otherwise. It's not BVB's fault that PSG don't think he's worth the money or Real Madrid do not think he is unto their standards, or even that Milan do not think he fits into their plans. His performances over the past few seasons have a lot to do with coaching and the midfield behind him, not just his own individual contribution. He a good finisher, fast and plays well with the ball in front of him but outside of that he is severely limited. His passing is dirt poor and he can barely move the ball forward without losing it. He rarely wins headers and does not compete physically for lose balls. In the right atmosphere, Ciro Immobile is a better striker than PEA. Yes, we need to sell him, and it likely will not be a big chunk of money anymore, not just for his sake but for ours as well.
true.. but on the other hand, the club fell short of providing a better squad for matching his and OUR ambitions! so can't blame him if he starts getting disappointed. A club has many years to get things right, a player only has about 10-15 of a pro playing career
This is why I refrained from saying from PEA should do or how he should conduct himself. The club is also (mostly?) at fault here. They thought they could do the same as they did with Lewandowski and everything would be fine. Except that the Pole's situation was very different. He had an expiring contract so no negotiation with the next club and the next club was rather well-known. Yeah, a player has a shelf-life of around 12-15 years max. If completely neutrally regarded, it is unfair to expect him to play at one club.
He was in Dortmund scored probably 3 goals, Went to Sevilla flopped unless you plan to take Dortmund to Serie A
No my point is that Ciro is more versatile. Just because he didn't work out in the BL doesn't mean he's crap. He's played for two different clubs in Serie A with midfields inferior to BVB and he's done extremely well.
I know. Maybe he doesn't play well with good midfielders supporting him. PEA didn't make it in Milan either.
I am not sure PEA is all that. He is a perfect fit for BVB, but I would bet we find out post transfer he was a beneficiary of Dortmund's style. Make no mistake he is clearly above average but I think it his speed that is elite, moreso than his football skills.