I know this technically can go into the General Season Thread, but I was thinking about what should be our starting line up. I personally think there are only two guaranteed starters: Reus and Philipp. Philipp will start, because we have no other striker and I don't see any other signings coming in. It also looks like we we will play a 4-3-3. So Burki or Hitz? Hakimi or LP? Toprak or Diallo? AKanji or Zagadou? Raphael or Schmelzer or Akanji? Delaney or Weigl? Witsel or Dahoud? Gotze or Kagawa? Sancho or Pulisic? I personally would hope this is the team. -----Burki----- Hakimi--Toprak--Diallo--Akanji Reus--Gotze---Weigl--Witsel--Sancho -----------Philipp----- What team do you guys want to see?
I still think Zorc will pull some striker out of nowhere, but I would assume this as an realistic lineup: ------------------------Burki-------------------------- ---Pisz--------Akanji-------Diallo---------Guerreiro ----------------Weigl---------Witsel------------------ -----Pulisic-----------Gotze-------------Reus------- ------------------------Philipp/X------------------------
I think it will be very close to Obsidian's guess. Schmelzer might start on LB, at least the first games. I haven't seen much of Guerreiro in preseason so far and in the test game he was used in the midfield. In midfield, I hope Favre has seen enough of Sahin. But we'll have to wait how Weigl comes back after his injury.
I think you are way off.. 1, the staff loves Pulisic. 2, it would be folley to possibly wish to sell him and then hold him out of the lineup. 3, Sancho much like Pulisic could pull in a ton of money like Pulisic if sold. While I think both will end up in the EPL when Dortmund wants to make some money, if they are serious about selling CP then they will want to showcase him a lot. Sancho on the other hand has not shown the interest vocally about moving so he would be the player to hold back for a time. 4, This team will need creativity. Not sure where that will come from. I think at this stage that CP has more creativity off the dribble and one on ones. Maybe I am overvaluing CP but right now he would be the better play to begin the season.
I wouldn't disagree that Pulisic will start on the right but this isn't a computer game. You don't give players playing time only to showcase them for prospective buyers. As a coach, you put together the best team you have to achieve the best results. You don't prioritize maximizing profits because that is not your job. Similarly, you don't hold talented players back because you have time to sell them later or because they didn't voice interest to leave. If you are on the field, you deserved it. As for creativity, not sure I'd regard Pulisic, especially in the role he currently plays, as a creative force for the team. He mainly beats his opponents with speed and technique which creates space and opportunities for the team. I wouldn't call that creative though. The creativity will have to come from players like Götze, Kagawa, Dahoud or Reus. I think Sancho is a more creative type as well.
Those aren't the best reasons to start someone, except for 4. I personally think Sancho is more creative than Pulisic. Both of them tend to dribble too much and waste good chances, but Sancho has the better final ball. Pulisic has had the better preseason, but I feel Sancho offers the team more. I agree LP is likely to start, but Hakimi is the better option for me. All three centre backs have a shot. I worry that the team lacks creativity. If we play a 4-3-3 with Witsel and Delaney, then Gotze will be too deep. Our full backs will add nothing so will depend on the front 3 and I don't think there is enough creativity there.
I think if you guys end up having to depend on Mario as a ten it will be another long season. I admire his courage to fight through his ( is it metabolic?) disease, but he did not look to be up to Dortmund standards last season. I like both Sancho and Phillip, but it seems foolhardy to enter the season expecting those two to hold down two starting spots. I think they are going to be very good players and appear to be top talents, but at this point in their respective careers they would be more suited to supporting roles rather than marquee players. Man Dortmund needs a top shelf forward in the worst way. I hope I am wrong and Dortmund becomes a pleasure to watch again, but they look short handed to me and if Reus has significant injury time... it could get very ugly very fast.
Watching the likes of Liverpool, Manchester City, Tottenham and Chelsea then watching Dortmund showed just how far behind we have fallen. I think you meant Pulisic instead of Philipp. He is a decent talent, but right now he tends to just run down dead ends. There is a lack of star quality in the team and apart from Reus it's so weak attacking wise. There is still no recognised striker. Schmezler is terrible and a liability, whilst we need a lot more from LP. We have to replace these two as quick as possible to progress. Weigl and Raphael didn't even get on today and I wouldn't be surprised to see them both go to PSG. We can't afford to lose Weigl. Gotze started of preseason well, but he is doing less and less. The quality of the Bundesliga is so low, that the team might get top 4, but it's sad to see Dortmund are closer to the likes of Wolves and Everton than the top 5 Premier League teams.
Not sure what the computer game comment means but there are tons of teams that will showcase a player in hopes of being able to shop him. Im not suggesting doing that with Pulisic or with Sancho but if Dortmund hope to be able to sell Pulisic, then shelving him as a sub is stupid and would only hurt value I think. As for the team overall, they did not look good today. Had trouble getting the ball off their back line. Couldnt clear and could pass the ball accurately through the middle on their own end. Creativity really lacked today and they look like a team that will finish 3rd or 4th in whatever group they draw in the Champions league and meanwhile finish in the top in the bundesliga in what is a down bundesliga I think.
That's certainly my impression from the first 2 pre-season games (Haven't watched the later ones.) Where is Kagawa???
I am not sure. World cup winners were playing this weekend like Pogba and Loris. Semi-finalist like De Bruyne, Sterling, Kane etc were back. The Premier League having the most players in the semi-final of the world cup should put an end to this rubbish about a 38 game season being too tiring. Out of the major leagues, the Bundesliga probably had the least players in the latter stages. So much for being well rested. If Kagawa is not in the plans he should be sold. We were better. It's only 2 seasons ago we were thrashing Tottenham 3-0. Since then we have lost Weidefeller, Hummels, Mkhitaryan, Gundogan and Aubameyang. Tottenham lost Kyle Walker. We are still playing the same old full backs. We haven't even got a replacement for Mhkitaryan and Auba.
We won't, but I have been thinking it's almost worth playing a diamond. -----------Burki----------- Hakimi--Akanji---Diallo---Raphael -----------Weigl------------------- ------Witsel------Dahoud/Delaney -------------Gotze----------- ------Philipp--------Reus
I remember Dortmund outplaying the likes of Man City and Real, who couldn't match the movement, tenacity, pace and overall work ethic. It was a thrill to watch. And It was only 2 years ago under Tuchel that the club was topping a CL group above Real, and without the bomb attack could have made SF's or better. The regression, despite larger revenues, is frustrating to witness. The likes of Hummels, Gündogan, Mkhitaryan, Lewandowski, Dembele and Auba have all gradually been replaced with inferior/inexperienced players, while other players who have aged/had injury problems are still relied on to carry the team. This current team would imo get destroyed by teams like Real, PSG or Man City and also would struggle a lot in a match up v Klopp's Liverpool.
I think you can replace "would" with "will". The squad definitely lacks quality and top level experience on various positions. Burki/Hitz are no top level goalies, you full backs do suck since years and you´d need at least one top level striker (which will not come). Watzke/Zorc did miracles for this Club in terms of financial stabilization, but they f´d up big in terms of bringing the Club onto the next level on a competitive basis. BVB had all the aces to establish themselfs around Europe´s Top 8 some years ago, but they rather walked the "save" way in spending money for talents, whilst still blowing huge numbers for really average players. Really piss poor transfers to count in the last couple of years honestly. It´s a shame. But like someone mentioned earlier. The Bundesliga has become so damn weak, it won´t even matter for Dortmund and they will still finish within the CL table. The league really is a joke afterall.
I think the club tries to find a balance between investing in young talents, players further in their development (Diallo, Akanji), coupled with experienced players who are supposed to fill the leadership vacuum. In theory, that's a better approach than choosing just one of those alternatives but since Tuchel's second season, it feels like we are in transition. Transitioning would be ok but we aren't going anywhere. If Akanji, Diallo and Delaney will work out, that would help our development tremendously. But overall, it feels as if we're still following the failed logic of replacing Gündogan/Hummels level talent with two players of lesser quality but with combined equal market value. That only works if you find the next Gündogan because if you don't, you find yourself in the downward spiral we are in.
The club make foolish decisions without thinking about the long run. It all goes back to Lewandowski. Hummels and Gundogan are other examples. When you have a genuine world class player, then it is going to take a huge sum of money to replace them. Now if you are have financial restraints then you need to maximise the money you make selling them. Liverpool are the perfect example of this. In fact Liverpool are example of what Dortmund should have done. Countinho and Suarez were sold for huge profit and then the money was reinvested. They made sure they had long term contracts to get the most out of the sales. We foolishly let Hummels, Gundogan, Lewandowski (the very worst example), Mkhitaryan leave with only a year left. It meant we no longer had adequate funds to buy suitable replacements. What we should have been doing is negotiating contract extensions with 2.5 years to go. You identify the replacement and begin tapping them up. If the player signs then that's great, but if not you sell them with 2 years left on their contract and bring in the replacement. It's a German thing in general. Look at Schalke losing Meyer and Goretzka for free. Arguably 50-60 million pounds worth of talent. The incompetence is staggering. Chelsea have just eaten a 32 million loss on their goalkeeper, but they have the pockets to eat it up. They still when and spent 70 million on a replacement. As soon as Pulisic refused to extend he should have been flogged to the Premier League.
This sentence is the thing, though. You can't buy an equivalent player for a lesser price. You have to buy a lesser player and then they have to develop. So really, identifying talent and developing it is the key to your system. If it was easy to identify and sign the players that would develop and sell for 10x profit in two years, while still having two years left on their contract, everyone would do it. If you fail at any part of that then you end up where BVB is: sell good talent, bring in replacements that aren't as good and don't develop. Then next year, to make the team better, you need to sell more talent... except transfer inflation has made even medium quality players cost as much as the top talent you sold the year before. So then you can only either afford lackluster prospects or known-quantity mid-career guys. For BVB, if the talent doesn't develop (e.g. Pulisic, DAZ, DIallo, Toljan, Sancho, Philipp, Weigl etc.) then they can't keep up, no matter how close they try to stick to "the plan". BVB needs to see meaningful improvements from Philipp, Pulisic, Weigl, DAZ, and Diallo. And they need Reus and Gotze to be healthy. And they need to get more prospects across the board. There isn't a single position that either isn't thin or isn't projected to be thin in the next year with the obviously impending transfers.
Not if you sell the players at the right time for market value. If Hummels had been sold to United for £45 million, then you have a lot more money to play with to find the replacement. If Lewandowski had been sold for £25 million then we could have been competing for Higuain. It's impossible to keep identifying and developing talent. Sooner or late you get it wrong and then you collapse like Arsenal or Southampton. It's an unsustainable model as you said. They need to stop just signing prospects, which flop half the time. Pulisic has genuine capital at the moment and there are cheaper replacements to be got. The only other player that would bring in a large sum in Weigl and there is no chance at the moment to get a replacement of his class. This current squad even if the players perform well, will fall well short. Weigl will leave for PSG or Manchester City next summer. Pulisic will leave for a fraction of the price he could do now. So we will have to buy a striker, a defensive midfielder and a right winger without getting market value. Once again we will downgrade. Keep up this trend and even in this weak Bundesliga Dortmund will struggle to get top 4, well they already did last season.
It was perfect to sell Pulisic this year. Im not sure that having two young wingers was ideal out wide. Either Pulisc or Sancho could have been sold and if they value Sancho so much, then they should have sold Pulisic. I love Pulisic and he is why I follow Dortmund now, but honestly he can be replaced and I dont ever see him being the world class player his price at this age demands that he be. He will be a very good player by 25 I am sure but his price tag demands much more than very good.
Burki LP---Akanji---Diallo---Schmelzer Witsel---Dahoud Pulisic----Gotze----Reus Philipp Think this is how we are going to line up on Monday against Furth. Doubt Favre will trust Hakimi and RG to be our wingbacks for extended periods of time. It will also be important to see how Weigl will look like after the injury. One thing I would not mind seeing is Reus on the tip of the attack, acting as a false nine (something akin to his Gladbach days) with Pulisic and Philipp/Sancho on the flanks.
I think it's still too early for a place in the first 11 for Witsel. Delaney is rather going to get the start. Otherwise, that seems pretty much to be the expected lineup. I'm not sure whether Dahoud+Delaney will work because I don't know enough about Delaney's playing style.
Agreed with your post but with one very important addition: even if they would sell better, both Watzke and Zorc do not have the balls to go after an Higuain type of player. They rather buy two mediocre, overpriced players than go for one "top guy" just to brag about how it´s not possible for them to compete with the top clubs. Pathetic behaviour really.