I think you’re overly negative with that prediction tbh. Rose is an upgrade on Favre and should get better performances from Brandt, Dahoud and hopefully even Meunier. Defensively right back could be an issue, but other then that Kobel is an upgrade on Burki/Hitz and Hummels is still elite, as is Raphael. Akanji is also looking back on track and Zagadou if he can stay fit is an excellent young defender. Then in midfield along with Dahoud and Brandt you factor in that Bellingham will continue to improve as will Reyna, Reinier, Knauff and Moukoko in attack in support of world class players like Reus and Haaland. Of course Sancho is a loss Malen will be an interesting signing, even though I’m not 100% convinced he clearly has ability. Depth is decent too. The likes of Hazard, Delaney and Can offer good experience and versatility. I expect a top 2 BL finish and CL last 16/last 8 with a good draw if no further additions are made. This squad is stronger then everyone else in the BL other then Bayern, especially now Leipzig have lost Nagelsmann. Of course to compete for the biggest titles will be tough without a better RB and DM, but I still expect a pretty good season.
Yes Rose is better than Favre, but I was wrongly optimistic about Meunier last season. It's clear we were sold a lemon and I see no signs he is going to improve. I hope I am wrong. When LP came back to fix the right back issue, we were so much more balanced. We will have no right back this season. Bellingham will improve, but he is greatly overhyped due to his age. His actual performances have yet to be that impressive. We still have a huge hole at 6. Can might do a decent job, but he is not at the level required. Then the loss of Sancho is huge. Forgetting his unique skill set we have lost one of our top 4 best players, a world class player, one of the best players in the Bundesliga. No matter which position such a player was playing, the loss would be a significant blow. To make matters worse, Sancho was our creative dribbler, who created space by beating men. When teams parked buses he would create overloads by beating a man and contributed with creative passes. We have not replaced this at all and our attack will be predictable. We severely lack width and preseason has filled me with no confidence. The camp don't look very confident either. If I am honest we look more like a sinking ship; Haaland will be jumping off, maybe Dahoud whilst Hummels and Dahoud are declining. I will quote what Guardiola said and everyone knows. "It's not just [Erling] Haaland of course, but Jadon Sancho, Marco Reus, Mo Dahoud, and [Mats] Hummels... I'm really impressed with the quality he has. When they can run, they kill you. The quality is there." Our 5 quality players: Reus will be 33 by next season, Haaland, will be gone, Dahoud might be gone, Sanhcho is already gone. Leaving just Hummels. There's not a lot to be positive about.
Just because Guardiola only listed those 5 doesn’t mean that’s all the quality at the club. In any case he has often chatted shit about the BL in the past. Also Dahoud is looking likely to sign a new deal. So basically it will be just Sancho and Haaland gone, which everyone knew was gonna happen. Provided the team is well coached and recruitment is smart you can always make up for losing 1 or 2 star players. A lot depends on Rose getting the best out of the squad, which Favre failed to do.
It's not just Guardiola saying that. I have always felt the same. Raphael and Akanji are very good too. Brandt can go either way. It was those five that were really top players. Reus probably won't be a top player at 33, so that is 3/5. We will see if Dahoud signs a new contract. I am not convinced he will especially if City come in for him. I disagree you can't make up for losing world class players easily. It's very, very difficult to do and we certainly don't look like we are doing it thus summer. I really, really really hope I am wrong. But we have lost LP and are trusting Meunier. We have lost a world class player in Sancho and replaced him with Malen. We need to hope with everything that Brandt or Reyna can step up massively as well as Reus having another great year.
No I don't think it is anywhere near that bad. I think we will finish 2nd/3rd and struggle to get out of the CL group. Maybe we get out of the group, but no further than last 16. This year there is a big drop on quality. It's the following season 2022/23 where I can see us finishing 5th. As I said I hope I am wrong. However, you have been on the board long enough to know I don't usually complain about the quality of our squad. Maybe Bellingham, Reyna and Brandt will have sensational seasons to save us. Last couple of years we had a very strong squad and could have competed for anything.
Problem is that it is the Dutch league. Plus I am not a fan of looking at things purely statistically. Silva outscored Haaland, but Haaland clearly looks better. Anyway now is the time to get behind him. So far we have played a 4-1-4-1 most of our matches and that hasn't really worked. We switched to a 4-2-3-1 in the second half of the Bilboa match. Against Bologna on Friday, I don't expect Malen to play any part, but will be interesting to see what adjustments are made for him.
I really really hope so. I would much rather be wrong than right. Plus I have happily admitted I was wrong about Auba. I was right overall about Mkhitaryan, but the year he was wrong I cheered him and admitted I was wrong. I thought I was wrong about Alcacer, though turned out to be right in the end. I hope Malen is just like Auba.
Malen has all to be great in Dortmund, he is young, super fast, Arsenal school, only minus is Raiola in this whole story.. Raiola is cancer in football and i wish one day these kind of people will be banned from football.. When it comes to Paco, he has skills, but he is just too slow for modern football.. He is by far the slowest striker we had in the last 20 years, i dont remember someone who was slower than him and our football is based mostly on pace up front..
Listening to Zorc's interview. It's on the Dortmumd channel. My takes from the interview. 1. Malen IS the Sancho replacement, but we don't want to say that and put pressure on him. 2. Some players might still leave. 3. There will be no other big signing, unless a defensive injury forces us to bring someone in. 4. Zorc wants the club to continue being a feeder club. 5. Zorc is content with CL last 8 and being runner up to Bayern. Only losing out to Leipzig seems to have annoyed him. I am glad Reus at least has a different mentality.
I am deeply disappointed with Zorc. This man has dedicated his entire life to the club, achieving the highest of highs by winning the Champions League as a player but is totally fine with Borussia Dortmund being a feeder club that plays second fiddle to Bayern domestically and doesn't make it very far in the CL? We really need more ambitious people working behind the scenes for the club.
Yes Zorc is a legend and has done some amazing things. As you have said he climbed right up up the top of club football with Dortmund. He more than anybody should want the club to get back to where it once was, it was very disappointing to see his ambitions for the club. Atletico Madrid have things a lot harder than us, but they try and win the league. I will say this. Maybe by pessimism is seeing how far we are away from the English teams and PSG after their spending and that our team is probably quite a bit weaker than last year on paper. However, Bayern have a very difficult start to the season. They have a lot of players missing. If they have a poor start, hopefully we can take advantage.
Atletico's achievements under Simeone, snatching the league from the two behemoths that are Real Madrid and Barcelona on two occasions (2014 and 2021), twice winning the Europa League and making deep runs in the CL make me wish I could point them out to Watzke, Zorc, Crammer and co, and ask them "What's your fvcking excuse?" Despite twice winning the DFB-Pokal in recent years we have clearly stagnated since the 2013 CL final. Finally, based on Bayern's pre-season results, this is looking like it might be our second best ever shot at ending their league-winning streak, so we better hope that Rose doesn't squander it unlike that idiot Favre two years ago. The downside would be that critics would most certainly dismiss our hypothetical Bundesliga title as being down to Bayern going on a transitional season, and they would be right, so we better back it up with a deep run in the CL however difficult it may seem. All that being said, let's not shoot ourselves in the foot again.
Rumours that we might sell Delaney for as little as £9 million pounds. We have done a very bad job selling our players. Sancho going for £73 million when Lukaku and Grealish are going for 100 million plus really does show this.
His contract expires next summer and he will be 30 next month, can’t see a club paying more then that tbh. Probably worth keeping him for the year and allowing Raschl and Kamara time to develop/get integrated. Without Sancho the club would probably have missed out on top 4 last season, so the extra £20-30m lost on the Sancho fee is more then made up for by qualifying.
That's assuming we didn't buy a good replacement, but I wasn't talking about selling him last summer. I think we should have held out for more money this summer. £73 million is far too cheap. I would sell Delaney at that price. He is on big wages and some money is better than nothing. We need high quality players. I would sell Thorgan Hazard too.
We should sell our Belgian trio because they are all flat-track bullies. Unfortunately Witsel will run down his contract, and he's the one we need the least.