The return leg after the 3:2 home win. Bürki LP Sokratis Toprak Toljan Dahoud Sahin Pulisic Götze Schürrle Batshuayi Bench: Weidenfeller, Beste, Schmelzer, Zagadou, Reus, Castro, Isak I'm ok with Reus starting on the bench because he has played much since his return. Sahin's last game was a complete disaster (useless going forward, mistake that resulted in a goal) but we'll see how a Sahin+Dahoud partnership turns out.
players look lost on the pitch. pulisic has been bad. michy worse. the rest are 50/50. götze didnt look offside to me.
Just 12 months ago, this was a team on the way to the 1/4 finals of the Champions League, with realistic hopes of semi finals. Now look at this match. A big, big decline
Tuchel and Dembele hurt and were not replaced. Maybe we get Nagelsmann and spend some money, but IDK that I trust this FO without Mislintat.
1:1 Schmelzer. Hopefully we can bring it home now. Our midfield is only Sahin now after the offensive subs.
by the skin of our teeth we made it through. the only thing the entire squad did well was waste time. thats it. Gotze looks so much better. He's so involved in the play. If only he could become a threat with his dribbling he would be back to his old self.
It is mostly down to coaching. Losing Thomas Tuchel hurt us the most. He could have done really well with this squad.
1:1 in the end. Rather lucky and not a good game. Two very good chances wasted after the equalizer. We looked better after Reus came in. Bürki had a bad clearance and a good save to keep us in the game. That ratio isn't good enough though. I thought LP looked really bad for most of the game. So many bad passes and bad decisions were surprising.
We played like a team in which half the squad is in really bad form...which is the case because the player quality for the most part is there so it has to be coaching/psyche that's preventing them to get out of the funk.
Positives The fact that Dortmund are getting the results they need despite scrappy performances is the only positive at the moment. Sunday's 1-0 win over Gladbach was similarly fortunate for the Black and Yellows but the first half of the season has shown that such torrid performances have a tendency to catch up with them eventually. Negatives BVB are building a house of cards on a foundation of luck and coincidence. Atalanta punished them early in the match for their lack of footballing ideas combined with inept defending. Under Peter Stoger, Dortmund look devoid of ideas as to how to progress the ball into the attacking third other than punting it downfield and hoping to pick up the second ball. The positional play was sub-par, the passing was easy to anticipate and their movement too lazy to evade Atalanta's simple man-marking scheme. Despite all their individual quality up front, Dortmund are overly reliant on their opponents to make a mistake. If this is the plan, it's bound to fail against better teams. Player ratings (1-10; 10 = best. Players introduced after 70 minutes get no rating) GK Roman Burki, 4 -- After a 10/10 performance at the weekend, Burki showed his European form by only punching air as he tried to clear Atalanta's first corner. Rafael Toloi pounced to score the opener after 10 minutes. The keeper somewhat redeemed himself with a vital intervention to deny Alejandro Gomez in the 82nd minute. DF Lukasz Piszczek, 3 -- Due to Dortmund's lack of ingenuity in their build-up play, they're forced to build down the wings. The 32-year-old veteran misplaced 32 of 71 passes, underscoring the sad truth that his glory days are long behind him. DF Sokratis Papastathopoulos, 4 -- Went into the book for an unnecessary tactical foul after 17 minutes. DF Omer Toprak, 4 -- Showed once again his solid build-up play but made too many defensive errors that only Burki could tidy up. DF Jeremy Toljan, 2 -- Due to a lack of build-up through the middle, it was especially harmful to Dortmund that Toljan misplaced five of nine passes in the first 11 minutes. He only managed to complete 16 out of 26 passes before his merciful half-time substitution. MF Nuri Sahin, 3 -- Bryan Cristante placed an uncontested header just wide after 26 minutes as Sahin failed to make a defensive run. Julian Weigl, who was suspended for this match, has absolutely nothing to fear for his starting spot. MF Mahmoud Dahoud, 3 -- Just like Sahin, the defensive midfielder had nearly no positive impact as BVB struggled to create chances. MF Christian Pulisic, 3 -- The slump of the 19-year-old continues. Atalanta created most of their attacks in the first half by waiting for Pulisic to run head first into a wall and lose the ball. MF Mario Gotze, 6 -- Due to his footballing intelligence, Gotze was the only player to create lethal combinations. It was not hard to be Dortmund's best player of the day. MF Andre Schurrle, 5 -- Was on the end of the visitor's only chance created from open play after 80 minutes. But Berisha had his side volley, aimed at the near post, covered. FW Michy Batshuayi, 5 -- Had to constantly drop back for his teammates to have any passing option. Unfortunately, he was then missing up front where he could have been involved in scoring chances. Substitutes DF Marcel Schmelzer, 5 -- Was a more astute passer than Toljan after making his comeback from a muscle injury in the second half. It was, however, far from adding any edge to BVB's attacking play and his goal was more dumb luck than anything else. MF Marco Reus, 5 -- Inadvertently assisted Schmelzer's goal by shooting from a desperate position. Reus invigorated BVB's attack visibly as he came on for Pulisic for the final half-hour. http://www.espn.com/soccer/club/bor...ucky-than-good-beat-atalanta-in-europa-league
There are a few things I Would disagree wtih here. Burki is a conundrum as always, he blows hot and cold. the potential is there, but we only ever see it in flashes. Schurrle was not all that great and really should have scored. Batshuayi was completely invisible, a bad game from him. Reus coming on really changed things, Gotze was superb and the only one trying to create anything. Pisczek is getting old, you can just see how exhausted he is on that pitch, in his defense he has played a few too many games for his age this season, but I suppose there is no alternative. Toljan is ... well, let's just say he doesn't inspire confidence, and that is putting it mildly. This team desperately needs a RB and DM in the destroyer mold. Also, Pulisic, I don't really see what all the hype is about, granted he is still young aNd I THink he will develop well, but I think people overestimate his potential ... but I suppose that is just my opinion at the end of the day.
Mi si juwi jamaa. Season hii, ame cheza mbaya, lakini ako kidogo. Ako na mweka mingi ku endeleza ... kama ako kwa Dortmund dani ya mweka mbili au tatu zote wasi juwi ... tuta onana tu
Quote of the year - and today's match proves exactly that. p.s. How is Sahin still a professional footballer!?