Well then he ended up with no chance against Llorente, which BTW Pochetino sent him in as soon as Zagadou was subbed. Kind of a killer move.
Witsel had a poor game and was losing the ball as much as Dahoud. He wasn't getting back into defensive position either. So no taking him off might have helped. The key was to have a threat to run in behind. The midfield was suffocated, because the Tottenham CBs could push up so high. With Rashford United rightly punished them when they tried this. Philipp even having a poor game would have forced them to drop back a bit giving us more time, With that change we might lose 2-0, maybe 2-1 or maybe even 3-1. Certainly a lot better than the 3-0 we had.
Yes I mentioned this to a friend. It was great management from Poch. Zagadou playing was vital even if he could only last 70 so minutes. This was Favre's best decision.
How often do you see Kante Keane Gattuso De Rossi Busquets taken off when they have a poor game without another central midfielder coming on to help the defence ? Maybe I do not rate Philipp as highly as you. He was invisible playing worse teams.
He's neither the most loyal, that credit goes to Zorc, nor the best, that goes to Lewandowski. Yes, you're right. He was injured. Point is that if Messi alone can't win titles then neither can Reus.
The last 7 goals Dortmund conceded were from crosses and set-pieces. #thfcbvb— Stefan Buczko (@StefanBuczko) February 13, 2019 The problem that must be solved immediately.
I would take Reus over Lewandowski any day of the week, especially considering the importance of the position each players plays. Lewandowski is dependent on service where Reus is the all-around utility knife who impacts the game far greater than Lewandowski. It's laughable to pick anyone but Reus as the best Dortmund player over the last 6+ years. Only one whou would've rivaled him would be Dembele if he stayed on for a few more years. This team lacked goal scores today plain and simple. In the second half we had no threat on the pitch that was capable of getting behind the defense to through balls in order tot stretch them out other than Sancho. But Pochettino adjusted and isolated Sancho out of the game by doubling him and always forcing him into the center of the pitch thus clogging up all the space for him. This is where Reus would've made a huge difference. More importantly, this took away pressure from Verthongen who had to defend Sancho in the first half and allowed him the space and freedom to essentially play as a WF the whole second half.
Hi BVB fans, I have made a YouTube video documenting the brilliant BVB fans who went to the game tonight vs Tottenham and I wanted to share it with all of you to enjoy. It kicked off between the Spurs and BVB fans a bit, and even though you lost 3-0, you still sang your heart out. Please tell me what you think and if you'd like me to go make a vlog at Signal Iduna Park sometime, please subscribe and like the video. Thank you, Thogden. Video Link:
He is the most loyal and he is the best. Zorc never had the offers that Reus had. I can't be bothered to argue this point. The stats speak for themselves. Witsel is not that level and when a player is having a terrible game, then it's right to take him off no matter who he is. Witsel is no where near the names you mentioned. I don't rate Philipp highly either, but it's not his level, but what he can do. As podrinje said he can run in behind and that itself gives space to other players. Even playing poorly, which he probably would do, he would have opened up space for other players. When Sancho was forced inside, he could make an inside to out run and use the space. Philipp is not brilliant and this is why I really wanted the club to sign a quality left winger, but maybe they couldn't, but it would have made a difference. It would also allow our players to play a familiar style. At worst the safe option would have been to take Dahoud off for Philipp, but we needed creativity to get back into the game.
Hi BVB fans, I have made a YouTube video documenting the brilliant BVB fans who went to the game tonight vs Tottenham and I wanted to share it with all of you to enjoy. It kicked off between the Spurs and BVB fans a bit, and even though you lost 3-0, you still sang your heart out. Please tell me what you think and if you'd like me to go make a vlog at Signal Iduna Park sometime, please subscribe and like the video. Thank you, Thogden. Video Link:
Welp, not a great way for my first live CL / BVB match to transpire. Turns out that going up against Spurs away with a makeshift lineup is asking to be exploited, although Dortmund did well in the first half regardless. Big reality check contrasting with the Bundesliga, where BVB can often skate by on talent without a ton of tactical range.
Nothing to do with his level. Level of the competition maybe. But Champions League or Regionalliga the only thing worse than a bad midfield is having no midfield. Adding a winger in place of a midfielder will not help when the defence has too much to handle because the weak midfield is getting over run. The attacking players will be more isolated because taking one midfielder off when you have problems playing the ball out of your own half makes the problem worse not better. The defence has one less man to pass to and when they cannot find a pass option they will have to kick long to Gotze Sancho Pulisic. Players who are not targetmen. If we are conceding corners left and right and all our players are getting shoved around once they get the ball, why remove a physical defensive mid who is a strong header of the ball after Zagadou went off? It will demoralize the whole team because of how much other players look to him to lead. Philipp will get shoved off the ball like Pulisic RG Sancho Gotze, come on.
There would be a midfield. Dahoud and Delaney. You are not reading what I wrote. By adding pace to run in behind you force their back line deeper. It means they can't push up and press as much so our midfield would have more time on the ball and more space. One way to to stop being attacked is to give a team something else to look. You remove Witsel, because he was adding nothing. He was getting pushed around, losing the ball and not tracking runners. In the second half we needed to react. Gotze came deed and we already had 3 in midfield. It mean there was no space there and it was easy to press. By stretching the game it would have been easier for us to defend. We conceded another 2 goals. Things could not have gotten any worse.
@eaglespark reread my edited post. I did think your suggestion was a joke, sorry if I did not consider it seriously. In a crisis a team needs more leaders and fewer headless chickens, no matter how poor Witsel is he is more of a leader and less invisible than Philipp in important moments. His main job is defending and hes scored more than Philipp this season and his goals decided more games, simple as that.
Witsel didn't have a poor game. He was mobbed the entire match. Go watch a replay and see how often he's got time on the ball. Mo was ineffective while Delaney doesn't do much in possession. It's not about one player or the other being present and having a good game. It's about the collective showing up. And a big part of that is the coach. Reus is a terrific player. Best German attacker. Best BVB attacker. But he's not better than Lewandowski. The stats speak for themselves. Even in terms of pure skill Dembele is better. As a leader Hummels was better and if he wasn't all of a sudden pu$$y whipped by Fischer he'd still be BVB Captain. And you wouldn't want to pick Reus any day of the weak since in many of those days he's injured.
Would say that we had a decent first half. Should have scored at least one of those chances. But the second half started abysmally and from therein came the sinking of the ship. If anything, this game confirms my opinion that the club got an excellent deal for a decent player like Pulisic, who was invisible today. RG should have started ahead of him. In defense the only one who was good was Zagadou, the rest were rubbish. For Toprak we know that he is useless and all he can do is back passes, but I would not be too harsh on Hakimi and Diallo. It is obvious that Witsel - Delaney is not CL material. Normally, Witsel is a rather consistent performer and delivers, however, he had a blunder. Delaney is good defensively and useless in offense. Dahoud at least tried doing something and I think he should be starting over Delaney any day of the week. The whole waiting until the 80th minute to make a substitution is weird. I don't know how a player could make a significant impact for 10 minutes. Even more so when that player is LP. Favre is to blame here - RG and Philipp should have started the second half. I get that we had a lot of missing players - Reus, Paco, Weigl, Akanji, but if you have to act and make a change you should do it ASAP, not wait until the last 10 minutes to try and change things. The decision not to bring in fresh blood in January could come back to bite us in the behind. Without Reus this team looks lost and without a leader (and LP could only be the leader of some reserve team for us, utterly shit player). Favre needs to get his act together because we are out of the Pokal, almost out of the CL and only 5 points ahead of Bayern in the Bundesliga. And as of late things are falling apart bit by bit.
I've watched the extended highlights and I agree with everything that I said, but a few extra thoughts. 1. Hakimi had a terrible match and he was the main reason we lost. He gave the ball away countless times in dangerous areas and failed to track Vertonghen. That being said he is a great prospect and now is the time to tell him we still have faith in him and try to sign him. The first two goals are nearly completely his fault. 2 Dahoud must start against top teams. Witsel/Delaney is not good enough to cut it against top teams and maybe not even the smaller ones. Both are too slow, too static and not good enough in their passing or creative enough. Against Bayern and Atletico, the difference in the match was when Dahoud played. Let's stop wasting time and give Dahoud more experience. He must start. 3. Pulisic is a really average player at the moment.No point playing him at all, because he is off to Chelsea. I would give Larsen game time over him, but Raphael should be starting every game he is fit. 4. Gotze is average too. He can be a mascot and play against the weaker teams, but he is no where near good enough. We need a top striker in the summer. 5. Diallo is our 4th best CB and a poor LB. He can't play there and there's no point playing him them. I understand the problem, because apart from Schmelzer's last game he too is bad.
Maybe it doesn't belong here, but a reflection on last 3 Hakimi's games. vs Tottenham - was involved in 2 of their goals vs Hoffenheim - also there in 2 goals vs Bremen - had the main part at their 3. goal (standing alone with Harnik) That's a lot, poor bügger. He's a fantastic young player, but maybe, like Gurreiro, he shouldn't play FB. WB would be better or a regular winger. Others (Wolf and JBL) might be retrained and go the other way. If not regular FBs so squad players. I don't think they have a bright future as wingers. Ideally, both Hakimi and Guerreiro would be best as WBs. But that's too much for LF... As it stands now, we only have Pisczek as reliable FB