Meanwhile, Chelsea looks pretty bad today. They got exactly 1 SHOT on goal, with 65% possession. Is Sarri ball the new tiki-taka? Foreplay without penetration?
That's what happens when you play your best midfielder out of position. Kante, arguably the best DM in the world, is worthless further up the pitch where he has League Two offensive ability. Sarri is a moron who does not deserve Kante.
Zero actual creativity in Chelsea squad apart from out of position Hazard. Higuain will allow them to deploy Hazard properly, and CP can feed off of that as 3rd banana.
Puli had an OK game today, he did make some things happen. Dortmund is for real this season, that's for sure. Hope they get the title. To me, Puli looked like he is getting back to it, his ability to make things happen and open up the game.
His cross-18 pass to Sancho, while simple, was exactly where it should have been. That sh/could easily have been a goal is Sancho had played it smarter. Thought he was pretty decent in his minutes helping hold the away win.
Guy's been cursed with BvB. Whenever he makes a cool play (like that ball to Paco from the ground), something weird happens and it's not a goal. Paco shot and the ball bounced off the lower part of the bar and fell outside, Alcacer couldn't believe it. That's typical.
Still can’t believe he’s going to the hot mess that is Chelsea. Will Sarri even last until then? On a positive note, he might be the best player on the roster by the time he actually joins there.
Tyler Adams and Christian Pulisic swap jerseys after Leipzig/Dortmund pic.twitter.com/ZbO2qBUtXe— USMNT Only (@usmntonly) January 20, 2019
Wow ! Completely unnecessary, and Gotze has been a shell of himself even if he has had a better year this year. He is slow and does not fit well with the style that suits BVB best.
It's a puzzle. Even the Dortmund fans recognize Götze is a shadow of the player he used to be. But they keep playing him. And winning with him on the field. Even if he does very little to help, he only got 1 goal and 3 assists (which is more than Puli but Mario has played 65 more minutes).
They start Goetze at CF instead of Alcacer because he is much better at combining with his team. They have the most GF so they don't need him to score to be successful
Probably the same reason Puli still gets minutes too: both are good at combining. Mario doesn't dribble like CP though, so he's less of an immediate threat for the rival.
He is not ahead if you add in CL minutes. Obviously there is still a player there. I think his disease is a career limiting factor. I just took exception at being called a troll for thinking Gotze most generally disappoints and BVB look much worse with him on the field. As a German boy who got the goal that won the World Cup, and then got a disease, I do understand the patience with him. To me, that appears to be based on sentimentality and sunk costs rather than merit.
Gotze has comfortably better creative/combining passing stats than Pulisic, both this season and last season... which includes him playing outside of the tradition “10” position. That’s why he plays. I’d be surprised if Favre thought they were in competition with one another, positionally.
Playing HORSE with the Globetrotters: The bank is open in Dortmund 🏦🏀@cpulisic_10 @Globies pic.twitter.com/l7CjjuGSjx— Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) January 23, 2019
That curse will be finally lifted next season.....with this guy to finish his passes/crosses. The stats speak for themselves. @G_Higuain 👌#HiguaIN— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) January 24, 2019
That is if they pick up his his option. 1088179232289841152 is not a valid tweet id He has been on the decline after his big goal season in 2015-16. Everyone is hoping reunitng with Sari helps. I am not so sure
Hope so. Although these days they're calling him Pipa* Higuain with more reason than ever. --- * "Pipa" is a nickname we school kids gave the fat kid. After those large barrels called "pipa" in Italy, that were used in Argentina until the early 20th century.
Mentally there's got to be some doubt... his 4th club in 4 years, right? That's pretty concerning. Not to mention if they don't keep Hazard, that's just another huge question mark that needs addressing, and as I said in another thread somewhere, Higuain in a new league, Pulisic in a new league, and... Willian? Not exactly the scariest front 3 in the prem. Higgy, Hazard, Pulisic/Willian would be something of a different story. That said this is a really good gamble for them overall because Chelsea have the power -- if Higgy plays well reuniting with Sarri, then they can keep him either for another year or permanently, if Hazard leaves you can pick up his option on the relatively cheap for a year and then maybe make a big splash once the transfer ban is up, or you can elect to rebuild and cut your losses if he doesn't play well. Seems like win-win-win no matter what occurs, unless I'm missing something. That said a "win" could still see them out of top 4... so maybe that's not that big a win.
Arsenal is not good enough for Top 4 this season. They gave up 32 goals already ('Pool-13, City-17, Chelsea-19) ManU, after the honeymoon weeks with Solskjaer will come back down to earth. My bet is on Chelsea remaining in the Top 4.