Rather see them go after someone like Dorin Rotariu than Esswein. There's solid veteran options for the attack, and they're well set behind the front three; so any further additions, I'd like to see would be of the 'young talent on the rise' variety.
With Allan being loaned in and Duda having been signed already, I'm curious if there's some consideration to tweaking the way Hertha plays next season. Duda could just play in the front three and the young brazilian could just be cover for Darida; but if he works out, pairing Darida with Duda/Allan behind the front three could become an appealing option...at the very least in matches against teams that won't just let Berlin's other team to bunker. With 3 of Brooks, Stark, Lustenberger and Langkamp behind them at the CB & DM spots...or maybe even in a back 3...that could open the door for a much more fluid & cohesive possession game than we saw last year.
Not too familiar with this Allan, but under the right guidance he could be a hidden gem for Hertha. There's still a fair bit of competition in Hertha's midfield though. Apart from Darida, Duda, and Lustenberger, it appears that coach Dardai tends to favor Skjelbred in his lineup. I also wonder if Cigerci can rebound after a subpar season and earn his way back into a more prominent role. Not sure if Langkamp is dynamic enough to feature in a 3-man back line. If Stark can make further strides in his development, I'd like to see him with Brooks as the main CB pairing. And then Weiser and Plattenhardt to cover at both fullback spots. Mittelstädt should begin getting some more rotation minutes and share time with Plattenhardt at LB. Ideally they should also sign an additional CB for depth if they want to compete in Europe as well.
I expect Skjelbred to start at the 8 behind Darida, with little change to how they play, but the 4 I listed where 6s and CBs...as you'd need someone to sit in front of the CBs behind a Darida - Duda/Allan pair, or a back three...in case they did adopt a more fluid and creative style of play in some matches.
Don't think there will be big changes to how they play either. These moves are about depth. When Skjelbred went down last season the effect showed immediately in the results. Darida getting tired/worn down towards the end as well. If they're hoping for anything out of EL this year they can't be that dependent on individuals.
According to reports, El Kloppo called Preetz personally last week and said they will impressed by Allan if he joins Hertha on loan. Let's see what this kid has got.
Decent 1-0 result at home but ideally Hertha could have used an extra second goal to make things more comfortable before travelling for the away leg. Gotta take care of business in Denmark next week.
Allan has made a positive impression on coach Dardai. http://www.bz-berlin.de/berlin-sport/hertha-bsc/diesen-brasilianer-muss-sich-hertha-schnappen
Lots of questions to ask regarding this team next season, just wasn't good enough in this series. Deserved win for Brondby.
Lustenberger and Langkamp likely to get benched. Duda and Stark should be given a chance to start instead. While further changes to the squad are still expected before start of the season. http://m.morgenpost.de/sport/hertha...ite-in-Broendby-Mehr-als-eine-Niederlage.html
Going out of th EL could be a godsend for Hertha if it forces them to integrate Duda/Allan alongside Darida quicker.
Duda's injury seems a lot worse than previously thought.Might be a while before we see him. Esswein just signed, in the least surprising bit of news of the offseason.
Schieber with the last minute winner against Freiburg. Yeah, the diagnosis for Duda appears to be him being out until late October being the earliest. But you guys should be alright for now with the midfield core of Darida, Lustenberger, and Skjelbred. Might also be a chance for Allan to step up and get his chances gradually too.
Looks like Preetz seriously wants to keep this core group of players in tact for this season. Hertha received offers from the EPL for Brooks and Monaco for Darida in the range of 10 Mio plus, but were both rejected. http://www.90min.com/de/posts/37101...nklubs-wollten-brooks-und-darida-verpflichten
Preetz to sign a contract extension with Hertha until 2019. His current contract which would have ran until the upcoming summer of 2017 had an option for an additional 2 years. http://m.bild.de/sport/fussball/her...-fuer-manager-preetz-47719354.bildMobile.html
A tidy 2-0 win on the road against Ingolstadt. Important to start off the season on a positive note. Especially with a couple tough tests ahead with Schalke and Bayern.
This Allan kid is not doing well in training. Considering Dardai doesn't like changing his lineup anyway and Lustenberger and Stark did well last matchday the Brazilian won't get any playing time soon. Skjelbred returns from injury and is a starter, Hegeler for reasons known to the Gulasch and Rotwein connaisseur only is first option as a sub. Preetz has generally been rather good at selling players other clubs actually want. See Ramos and Raffael. Considering what players like Brooks go for these days an offer just above 10 million is an insult, he will go to the EPL eventually, but that should be a move in the 25+ million range. These crazy ********s are paying almost 50 million and more than 30 for Benteke in consecutive seasons, go figure. A 15-20 million bid for Darida would probably have been accepted though, I guess it was less generous than implied. The sale of Jerome B. was due to the situation at the club at that time, Gegenbauer, Preetz and Favre putsched out Dieter Hoeness and because of the resulting uncertainty about the future of the club and the poor treatment of academy players Jerome wanted to leave. Unfortunately the club's track record hasn't really got any better since then. The current U17 is considered to be a Golden Generation and the best youth coach at the club, Michael Hartmann, has been assigned to them ( Andreas Thom had them before and he is...not a good coach according to everything I hear out of the academy ). Arne Maier, Nikos Zagrefakis and Palko Dardai ( yes, son of Pal ) are the names most often mentioned. Grooming them for the first team will be the yardstick for the progress regarding a coherent and long term strategy. Considering Dardai relies on 14-15 first choice players and others have very little chance to get any playing time other than due to injuries/bans, I'm not very optimistic.
Third win to begin the season and a convincing display at home against Schalke. After some criticism given by the coach earlier, Weiser has worked his way back and responded with a MOTM performance today. Stark and Langkamp were solid defensively today. Unfortunate that Darida got injured, but Stocker provided a meaningful contribution.
I'm struggling with this. On one hand, it's pretty amazing to still be in second almost a fifth of the way in. On the other, I've been a Herthaner since the 80ies...
Andrej Duda is back in training http://www.herthabsc.de/de/intern/angeschnitten-101016/page/11533--17--.html#.V_veJfArLIU