Useless fact: The Cup game takes place in Schmelzer's (and my) birth city and he actually played for them. No official lineup yet but Schmelzer, Raphael and Schürrle are available. Auba has minor muscle issues and will miss the game. Yarmolenko and Schürrle are options to replace him. Götze and Pulisic will get a rest. Good news is that we should play with a defense where our CBs and FBs play on their actual positions. It's time for the team to get their confidence back with a good result. Let's hope we avoid going to penalties (especially if Weigl and Dahoud are playing) so that they don't get too tired for the next games.
In Magdeburg geboren!!! Sehr schön. I'm hoping with the LBs back, Toljan will secure a spot on the right by getting regular min on that side.
Just what I need to see. Mo with a whiplash and Castro ready to take his place. Meanwhile, Nuri getting dominated all match long so far.
Castro scored the only goal just after coming in. I hope Dahoud's problem won't last long. I would have preferred if Toljan got more minutes but I don't disagree with giving playing time to Zagadou as a CB and Isak who got the assist.
Finally enjoyed watching this team play. Burki 5: Had nothing to do really other than some decent positional play Sokratis 7: Undeserved yellow DAZ 8: Easy opposition but made it look easier Schmelzer 5: Looked uncomfortable Bartra 7: Always seems to try too hard. He may not know his weaknesses but does know his strengths. Rapahel 9: Best player on the pitch Kagawa 8: Nice goal. All round good effort. Mo 5: He needs more min. Hopefully massage and physio takes care of the whiplash. Castro 6: Lots of lost balls again. Back passes. But otherwise decent against opposition he should be playing with, not against. Sahin 3: Unbelievably static. Marked out of the game for large parts. Phillip 6: Decent positional play. His average development is somewhat slow. Isak 8: Hardly gets to play and yet gets a goal and an assist and managed to stretch the opposition defence for the most part. Showed lots of promise. Yarmolenko 5: Very frustrating. I think the weight of expectation is weighing on him. Schurrle 4: Not sure why he still plays for us. PB 5: Tough to judge since his out-dated style can hold up against 3rd league opposition. Having proactive and intelligent players like Raphael, Mo, DAZ, Gotze, Reus, Weigl, Pulisic to complement more reactive but skilled players like PEA, Bartra, Yarmolenko and Sokratis will overcome PB's deficiencies as a coach. But against top opposition, PB needs to do his homework. Saying crap like "we wont change our style" hurts everybody, not just him.
I am not as optimistic about the performance as some, but there were some high points. Zagadou made a few errors, but he was brilliant for a young player. He really looks like he has everything to become a world class centre back, he just needs experience and games. I predicted he would break into the first 11 by the end of the year and I still think he will. Dahoud though was terrible, really bad. He was sloppy in possession and needs to get sharper. Playing him so high up in the 4-3-3, highlights his worse qualities and removes his best. Dahoud is very good at picking the ball from deep, turning under pressure and playing the ball forward to more attacking players. He is very press resistant and has lots of energy to get into positions for the centre backs. He has a great touch and is very capable playing one twos in tight spaces. However, he is bad at making the final ball, he ofte gets his weight of pass wrong or goes for the conservative option.
Most of his faults can be chalked up to lack of match practice. I've seen plenty of him at BMG to know he's an excellent midfielder. World class. I hope he gets that and PB doesnt make the mistake of choosing Castro over him on a regular basis. That would be a terrible mistake.
In some ways, but worse it confirms what a lot of people including the commentators in England thought; he wasn't that badly hurt but didnt have the bottle for playing on. I really hope that wasn't the case, but if is then it's a huge blow to his character.
That is complete BS. Nobody who has ever suffered whiplash would fault him for coming off. Ignorant Brits are at it again.
No it is genuine question to ask. The problem with whiplash and back injuries is the difficulty to prove them. They are ethereal injuries that come and go even when genuine. However, due to the nature of them, it's the first type of injury players use when they are pretending to be injured. Coutinho and Sanchez both had back injuries when they were hoping for transfers. I hope Dahoud was genuine, but nothing ignorant to put the possibility out there.
If the stress and pressure of a match were to get to a player to the point that it would compel him to fake an injury to be substituted, it's strange to think that it would be during an early-round cup match against a 3rd division minnow. However it's true that Dahoud was terrible and deserved to be subbed off at the half in any case.
It's more a question of exaggerating an injury he could play on with. Footballers play injured for many games a season. It's not the stress of a 3rd division match. It's more a new signing struggling to cope with the expectation, knowing he was having a terrible game and wanting to get off the pitch. It happens a lot. We don't know if that was what Dahoud did, but it's very possible he did. Either way Castro deserves to start on the weekend.
Castro doesn't even deserve to play for BVB, let alone start. The last thing we need is for a guy like Mo go the route of Merino or Mor. It's one thing to get blocked by seasoned skilled veterans like Robben and Ronaldo. But to get blocked by Castro makes us look like a clown club.
I like Dahoud, but you have to perform at an acceptable level. He has been well below par the last two games. There is an argument he needs confidence and that Weigl/Dahoud/Gotze need to play together as much as possible though.
This is just dumb. I could even see some merit to this argument if we were playing in a CL match against Madrid or in the Klassiker against Bayern. Faking an injury against Magdeburg is laughable. If you've ever been clattered into like that on a pitch you know how scary it is. You typically become very light-headed and it's a very uneasy feeling and it becomes difficult to orient yourself.
Nothing dumb about it at all. It's actually naive to think a player is more likely to fake injury in a big game, rather than in a small stadium where he is having a nightmare. Players look forward to the big games. That's what they want to play in. Yes they may choke, but the majority love playing the best teams. Footballers do not love going to 3rd tier teams especially when they are having a terrible game. Speak to a few footballers and they will admit to either having done the same or knowing another player has done so. Or just listen to a few of their stories. I am not saying Dahoud wasn't badly hurt, I am saying injuries like whiplash are difficult to prove. Also with most top players the problem is getting them to come off for their own safety. Nearly all the time it's the players fighting to stay on whilst the manager wants them off for their safety.