They had a three-day break between matches after being off for two months because of a pandemic. Kohfeldt sucks, but rotating players for this game is the obvious decision.
The interesting thing is that, after 7 points in their last three matches, they don't need to grasp at straws. I think this is just squad rotation. OK for Josh to get a little rest, although I expect him to be back in the first 11 next match.
It's definitely Josh. They have 7 strikers - that's right, seven - on the books. By age ascending, they are Woltenade (an 18 year-old academy graduate), Josh, Selke, Fullkrug, Osako, Bartels and Pizzaro. Woltenade: 0 goals Sargent: last goal scored on March 7th Davie Selke: last goal scored on November 9th Fullkrug: last goal scored September 14th (ACL rupture finished his season immediately) Osako: last goal scored on November 23rd Bartels: 0 goals (missed 18 games with injuries) Pizzaro: 0 goals
That is common when the scoring is way down and is a major negative comment about the attacking play by the midfielders, IMHO. They are unable or unwilling to keep the ball well enough to create opportunity.
Not that obvious ... may I refer you to Bruce Arena in Couva. Worked out great. Early yellow for Bartels. Yank him now.
Bremen near lucky goal - Osako turnover at the top of the box but it falls to Klaasen, whose 20' blast is deflected toward the corner - great fingertap push wide by Trapp. Would have been against the run of play, but WB balancing it out a little better now than in the first 10'.
Bremen would-be PK canceled out because of a very tight preceding offside call. Still scoreless at 41'.
uh-huh. (never thought I would compliment silly stats but touche, that's why Sarge has been good for Bremen ) . Pressing is part of it. He is playing a complete game which is why, I believe, Bremen has had a good reputation for developing players.He had 2 excellent clearances in a recent game out of Bremen's box. Sargent has a hitch in his game which is decreasing with each rep. The three things Sarge needed were reps, reps and reps.
79': Bittencourt is such a bad teammate. Gets a ball laid off to him at the edge of the 18, towards the corner of the box, and takes a wild, first-time, off-balance shot that misses the target by a mile. Meanwhile, Rashica is wide open at the top of the 18 with either 1) a much better angle to shoot or 2) an opening for a simple diagonal pass to a streaking Klassen who would have had a great opportunity from 10ish yards. The body language from Rashica and Klassen spoke volumes.
2-0 Ilsanker scores off of a corner uncovered. Sargent has hustled forechecking, has gotten little of the ball as Bremen has been lacking in quality possession.
Smart corner by Frankfurt: Send a red herring under Sargent's nose to pull him (first man at post) out of heading range, nobody from Bremen moves in to fill the space Josh vacates, ball sails thru space where Josh would have otherwise headed it.
Total implosion by Bremen. Not surprising. That’s a performance that will get a coach fired. If I’m a scout, I can see Sargent’s talent and I can see him getting better / doing better with an improved side. He will draw some interest. He needs out.
Josh played well for the 20 minutes before the team sort of gave up after the second goal. However, Frankfurt started looking very confident with the lead, controlled the game, and Bremen's chances going forward were few. Sargent was actively shadowed and really didn't receive any dangerous service. They still have a shot at staying up, but will need a better game than today.
Hate to say it but coach went and changed bloody well everything. Out goes that 4-3-1-2 where Bittencourt and Rashica can pretty much go wide or narrow and combine off Sargent. In comes the 4-3-3 where the attack is not concentrated as much. And it worked for the most part until minute 60 when the wheels came off. Then the subs came on. Then the goals went in.
It looked like the ball did not just sail into that space but was flicked on by the red herring that pulled Josh out away from goal. Josh tried to get to flick on first but didn’t. Not saying Josh had a bad play, just saying he wasn’t sucked out the post area to chase a red herring, he was trying win the first ball. Well executed set piece, agreed.
Yeah, I wasn't sure about that but it seemed if Josh had stayed on the near post (should he have? dunno) he would have had his head on the ball?
It worked but the defense was tired. Just before Frankfurt scored, Bremen was trying to clear a ball out of the box and foot just wasn't meeting ball right as the ball dinked around weakly. When I saw that I thought uh-oh, this ball gonna score soon. Frankfurt plays wide (reason they use Chandler at wb) and Bremen's rb was just too tuckered out to play his usual strong game. He was missing to start the season, too, which was a big reason they were faltering. b.t.w. this was a make up game. Both teams had one less game played than rest of the league. Kornfeldt decided to go with weaker front three, hope they would keep the score 0-0 at least and bring guys who beat Schalke on late. Problem was their defense got tired.
I know other folks think differently, but I just don't see much good going on with Bremen when I watch. B2 might be a good place for Sarge if he gets a lot of games. But staying in the B1 with these guys without them getting reinforcements is not helping him a whole lot, I don't think.
Meh. he took out his entire front court. I think you pick one player on each line and switch if at all. This is not international play where you have to fly 500 miles and play on two days rest in the heat against Spain. It was bloody well Eintracht Frankfurt. These are pros.
They lost one player from 2018-19 and have plummeted from almost making the Europa League to probably being relegated. There are 3 explanations for that: 1) Max Kruse is secretly Messi. 2) They overachieved last season and are reverting to the mean this season. 3) They have enough talent to push for Europe, but the manager has lost his edge. Or some combination of those. For me, they're clearly a better collection of players than their results show, but they're hamstrung by an out-of-his-depth manager. They really shouldn't be fighting relegation, so it's hard for me to judge the players, individually or collectively, in the context of Kohfeldt being in charge. But the fact that Kohfeldt is still bumbling around speaks to a deeper rot at the club that means they'll be relegated sooner rather than later, even if they survive this season, and I wouldn't make them favorites to bounce back when that relegation happens.
it's a good point, but it's lost points. If my team is tired and I know it's tired especially in defense, I probably would have gone banks of 2 in a 4-4-2 and switched out my 5 subs as my runners up top. It's not pretty but Bremen need every point.