our depth really needs to improve. Not sure if that needs to come from BVB 2 or whatever but we have a very severe drop off in talent with one single injury.
Homegrown certainly, but loyalty is pretty much dead these days ... I do hope he pulls another Reus, but u'de be hard pressed to fault him otherwise. What is he originally, Nigerian ? Ghanaian ? Fingers crossed.
Moukoko was born in Cameroon and moved to Germany at age 10 or so, but his father was a German citizen so I'm not sure there is an "originally". The dad is a longtime Hamburger so who knows, maybe he'll go back to St. Pauli someday. I also think putting Reus (and other homegrown players) on a pedestal is not really helpful. If he didn't have the unfortunate chronic injuries he may well have ended up at Barça or Madrid, or (heaven forbid) Bayern. A healthy affection for your hometown heroes is a good thing IMO, but that also means wishing the best for their overall careers and lives.
I think he came to Germany as a much younger kid than 10...he played for St. Pauli youth teams for a few years before switching to Dortmund so I have to imagine that he was much younger when he came over.
Is this true we are taking only 60M from United and 60 add ons later? Thats weak.. They should ask minimum 100M +20 add ons..
I agree that he cannot be relied on moving forward but how can you call him weak mentally!? After 13(!) different injures (including a couple long-term) since 2016 it was easy for him to just say ******** it I'm done but he always persisted and fought through rehab to come back and help his team. If that's a weak mentality then I do not know what you consider to be a strong mentality!
Exactly this. I have never seen anyone question his drive or mentality. Is there something particular you are thinking about? Or are you equating injury with mentality? Mind over matter? If he'd just care more he'd not be fragile? Some players are just more fragile.
Guys, would you quit with that crazy abnormal contract? I would play with 1 leg haha. I meant about mentality in games, he is weak.. Lack of winning mentality character, he isnt a leader.. Will never be.. Bigger leaders are Lukasz and Mats
FA cup final and Dortmund boys are dominating. Auba was always world class and he is delivering as expected 4 goals in semi final and final. Pulisic though has been excellent since the lockdown. Such a shame to see him getting the injury. Pulisic has been one of the best players in the Premier League since the restart. It shows just how poor Favre is doing with the quality he has. I genuinely think at this moment with Sancho, Dortmund have a team as good as any in the world. Sancho looks set to leave and we should replace him with someone top quality. However, we need to get rid of of Favre. Al
Yes and Sancho will go. Though I will like to see Reyna given a lot of games. Pulisic' performance does show how much a poor manager like Favre is holding out players back.
I have my criticism of Favre, but Pulisic's bad form during his last season at Dortmund is only down to himself. I remember watching him and thinking this dude completely forgot what football is, given his play in previous seasons.
Auba's second goal today was top class! I only wish him good luck. I really think Liverpool should go for him --he'd be perfect there.
Maybe, but it's the managers job to get players to perform. Too many of our attacking players are not fulfilling their potential and he is to blame. This squad is as probably only slightly behind Bayern, but better than any other in the world. A top manager would get the best. Look at the difference at Bayern after they got Flick. I expect Bayern will go and win the CL.
I will go against everyone in the world and say that Bayern will NOT win the CL! My problem with Favre is that he sucks for the 90 minutes of the game, but does a great job setting up the team and preparing it. (Although he was too stubborn to switch over to 3-4-3 for a long time, costing us points.) But I still think in the case of Pulisic it was not on Favre.
I agree with astrophyz regarding Pulisic. I don't know whether it was Zorc or someone else who argued that it was this contract issue that was a distraction for Pulisic in the first half of the 2018/19 season. A common theme of players talking about training under Favre is his meticulous work on details and guiding players. That is something that should favor young players. But it's hard to get through to someone if the head isn't clear. Pulisic just didn't perform well enough and was better once the deal to Chelsea was finalized. Sancho deservedly took his spot when he was given the opportunity. And generally, Pulisic showed the occasional high ceilings and potential for game deciding performances but I never saw him as being a consistent performer throughout a full season although I see the young age as a mitigating factor. But that is an aspect he still has to prove in England as well.
Bayern winning the CL would be awful. The financial gap between Bayern and the rest of the Bundesliga is already much too wide.
This would be fair, but too many talented players especially the attacking ones have stagnated. The likes of Brandt, Dahoud, Pulisic and to an extent even Larsen should be better. I am sure his mind being on the move didn't help him. If Reus was fit, then I would actually be confident going into the season with Reyna and Hazard fighting for the other place on the wing. I actually disagree. Maybe Bayern are finally realising, but they actually win the CL when the Bundesliga is strong. A strong Bundesliga is good for Dortmund in the long run. It's very short sighted to want Bayern to fall. We should be aiming to be better than Bayern. A good manager could have won the CL with Dortmund this year.
And even the second half of that season, when I thought that the contract stuff would be behind him, he was still playing very bad. His head was already in London.
Perhaps you're saying that a strong BL leads to a better Bayern which helps the win the UCL. I agree with that. But the converse is not true: a UCL-winning Bayern doesn't magically make the other BL teams better. I'd think the opposite is true since Bayern get a big chunk of cash and become much more attractive to talent.
Yes and great players want to play against great players. Any top player would want to play for against the likes of Messi. Nobody wants to play in a weak league. So players are more likely to want to stay or join the Bundesliga. It also means fans around the world, will tune into the Bundesliga to watch Bayern and then become fans of the league. The truth is Bayern have deliberately destroyed the competitiveness of the league several times, but a large portion of the blame has to go to the likes of Hamburg, Stuttgart, Schalke and Werden Bremen which are terrible run. Playing against a strong Bayern, gives the German players a real test and greater aspirations. I don't agree with the German fans that hate Hoffenheim and Leipzig. The big clubs should be run better and not as a joke. in 2011 Schalke were the 10th richest club in the world, with one of the best youth academies in the world. They had the likes of Neuer, Sane, Matip, Howedes, Draxler, Meyer and Kolasinac. They should have become a force, but instead they squandered it all and are a mess.
Just listening to the review of the season from the Yellow Wall Podcast and it really drives home how much Favre underachieved with this team. Terrible cup exit, terrible CL performance and exit. A poor league performance. It's a joke he has his job. The other thing that struck me is just how technical the team is. We have a team full of incredibly technical players: Zagadou, Hummels, Raphael, Meunier, Brandt, Sancho, Reyna and Dahoud are all players that thrive playing attacking football, but Favre holds them back.
Whether people want Bayern to fail or not is irrelevant, they won't as they generate huge revenues and are constantly recruiting. I expect them to get stronger next season. Instead of bitching and moaning about them and hoping they fail, other BL clubs need to get their shit together, run themselves properly and start growing their revenues. Dortmund has done well in that respect, but the target should always be to get to and surpass Bayern's level, not hope that their level diminishes.