Back to 10th, Frankfurt won 2-1 Christian Pulisic pulled of this nice bit of skill friday vine.co/v/O2DEdFHxHBX
Do you guys think there really is a decent chance we could end up in 4th? I was looking at the Bundesliga table for the 3 prior seasons and the 4th place team ended up 61, 55, 60 points. 27/33 available points would be needed to get 55, which isn't a guarantee still. We also still have Bayern, Wolfsburg, and Gladbach to play. I think it will be dependent on how Leverkusen and Schalke play out the remainder of their games.
The only thing we can take away from the current standings is that we aren't out of CL contention just yet.
I don't think Augsburg can't stay in the top6 till the end, they are in a crisis right now. Leverkusen had a bad start of the new year and if they stay in the CL, that should effect their BL performance even more. Schalke is currently 3 games without a win and GLadbach wasn't convincing in the league as well lately. I don't think Hoffenheim, Frankurt and Werder are a real threat... Dortmund picked up form in the perfect time, when teams above are struggling. We will see how things will look in a couple of weeks. Next 3 games are: HSV away, Koln home and Hannover away with the cups in between. After that comes Bayern at home and Gladbach away. Dresden is the next stop. I hope Klopp will rest our key players.
Against Dresden, I don't care what formation we go with as long as we give Dudziak, Ciro, Ramos, Ginter and Jojic minutes.
I wondered myself as there have been no recent reports on it. Probably working on minor details of his extension, he's staying.
They said they will start the negotiations after the Juventus game, it has only been a couple of days...
Your next 3 games are winable. 7-9 points from those might shoot you up to 6th and from there anything can happen
I think the CL spots are a big stretch - albeit still technically possible. The only thing we have going for us is that BMG, Leverkusen, and Schalke are all struggling to some extent. I still stand by the fact that I think we'll hit 6th or potentially 5th and end up in the Europa League.
The BVB vs FCB game is late in the season right? If so then by that time, assuming bayern remain comfortably at the top. Wouldn't it be a nothing game for bayern and most likely field a B side? So that's 3 points automatically right there. I wouldn't think that far ahead, just focus on the next 3. All winnable and 9 pts there.
Last season they fielded a good side and still lost 3-0, but yes at that point they should be comfortable, assuming Wolfsburg go cold on the chase. But Bayern in our own back yard? I'm confident of beating any side they put out, call me mad but we have a good history against Bayern as of late, especially at this end of the season, but I am Hoping they do field a poor side
If bayern are winning the league comfortably by then or if not have already sealed it. It wont matter what side we put out if theres nothing to play for.. Where as BVB will be fighting for CL spot. So this game is all one way traffic and I can see a blowout game. There really isn't much incentive from our end.
I think what he's saying is that it doesn't matter whether you guys have anything on the line or not. The odds of us beating you guys are good. Maybe better than 50-50. He isn't wrong since the referee helped you beat us in the Pokal final last year and if not for JK's love affair with KG, we'd have beaten you in Munich a few months back too. I personally think it's 50-50.
12 games left, maximum 36 points. 28+36=64. If it's possible to qualify with 60 points or so, then the team needs to win at least 10 games and draw 2, without any losses. It's a tall order to fill, but who knows?
Ok, so looking at everyone we would have to beat to get 4th, here are my predictions- Bremen will most likely fall of, not concerned with them too much- But they do have a rather easy schedule only playing bayern (two matchdays), BMG (2nd to last matchday), and us (last matchday) as far as strong opponents. Provided they lose those three and drop points elsewhere which i expect, they should fade. In their next 4 matchdays theyll drop at lest 3 points to bayern, and i think mainz can definitely trouble them, so they should drop 2 points or maybe even three then. I see them getting 20 points or so which would put them at 50 points Frankfurt have 4 relatively easy matchups with the likes of koln paderborn stuttgart and hannover coming up, but after that they have a brutal stretch which should have them finish the season poorly. They end the season playing Bayern, BMG, us, bremen, hoffenheim, hertha, and bayer. I see them taking 16 points or so s they'll drop and end with 45-50 points Hoffenheim plays schalke next week, that will be big for our aspirations. If they can win that they should come out of the season with 15-20 points ( They still have to play bayern, us, bmg, and bayer.) but i see them tying next week, which would put them at 53. Augsburg is falling, and i see that continuing. Their next 4 are wolfsburg, mainz, freiburg, and schalke so they're sure to drop some points in between. I see them losing to wolfsburg and mainz, and maybe fighting for a tie against schalke, regardless, i only see them taking 20 points at most for the rest of the season, which puts them at 55 (thats higher than i expect, i see them collapsing these next 4 matches and sort of withering off. Schalke plays hoffenheim hertha bayer and augsburg. I see them only coming out of that with 4-7 points. they'll beat hertha, but i see them tying augsburg and hoffenheim potentially, and losing to bayer. They should come out of the rest of the seaosn with anywhere from 18-24 points. i see them falling apart and continuing to drop points and tie weak opposition due to di matteos defensive approach, and all their injuries. As great as we looked yesterday they looked terrible. THey could figure things out, but di matteo is unimpressive and seems poised to drop important points. I dont think they'll top 60 points, probably somewhere between 55-60. lastly comes bayer. the only fixtures that i would expect them to drop points are schalke (potentially), BMG, Bayern, and maybe mainz other than that they play pretty weak teams. They'll be fine for the next few matches and unless they drop unexpected points along the way they should take take around 25 points. under if they screw up a game or two against bottom table teams, over if they beat everyone they should and only drop points to bayern and BMG (which i dont see happening, they'll drop points in more than two games). That means they should be around 60 points, maybe a few over, maybe a few under. So- if all of that were to happen and we won out (doubtful but hey, never know) we would come in 4th with 61. I see us getting at least 24 points points, which would put us at 52. The only fixtures that really concern me are bayern bmg and wolfsburg. i can realistically see us taking 27-33 points of the 3 teams we need to worry about i see us winning at least one of those and tying another and thats a conservative estimate. If we can win two and tie another, that could give us 31 points, which would put as at 59. So in conclusion- It isn't too far fetched to think we can get 4th. it is mathematically possible, and given how crazy the league has been this year teams could easily drop more than i expect. if we are able to go on a tear and take 28-33 points, we will make the EL. If we can take over 30 points it will be really close between us and bayer and schalke for the 4th spot. We need to make up 8 points on leverkusen, which will be difficult without actually playing them as they would need to either drop 3 matches while we remain perfect, or record a few ties and two losses. Sadly i think we'll miss out on 4th to bayer by a less than 4 points, and we'll be left knowing we dropped 5 points to bayer. I think if we had managed to beat them to open the second half it would be vastly more realistic as we would only be 5 points off from them, but that didn't happen. But i wont rule it out. Bayer has as many ties as wins (9), so they clearly are bound to drop some points, i just dont know if we can make up the 8 points. It will definitely come down to the wire. IF, and thats a big if, we can take 30+ points i think 4th is realistic. Regardless, we're definitely in a good position to climb up the table and at least challenge for 4th if we play to our capability
Right now is a bit premature to think of the the 4th place. Need to win the Pokal game, road games against Hamburg and Hannover, the home games against Köln and Juve. We need to get 9 points from 3 games before playing Bayern and Gladbach.
Yeah CL next year is a must. Otherwise looking at our financials two years from now is going to be painful.