I still think Farke is a good option. He has a very poor Norwich team playing excellent football. With a Dortmund team he could do something.
On a bright note, Guerreiro’s season was incredible. Sancho liked this tweet haha Raphael Guerriero, Borussia Dortmund 2019-20.Elite attacking fullback. pic.twitter.com/dkyZSjwMRF— StatsBomb (@StatsBomb) June 19, 2020
But they are tactically very naive. Far too easy to score against.They also have minimal expectations, so the pressure is completely different. Farke needs to go to a better resourced club first to prove whether he can handle a job like Dortmund. At least with Marsch and Ten Hag they are used to the pressure of needing/expecting to win every game. They also have both coached in the CL and produced some pretty good performances, Ten Hag especially.
Re coaches: I would only get a coach if it's a clear upgrade.. I don't consider Farke and Marsch to be that. Ten Hag barely so. But yes to Nagelsmann and Pochettino. I wouldn't be surprised if Barca come for him.
So it looks like the Meunier and Bellingham signings are nearly done. Meunier is a very useful signing, strong defensively, good going forward, experienced and can cover both RB and CB. He also provides more height and physicality, something the team needs more of. Bellingham is clearly a very hyped talent, however it is almost guaranteed that he will constantly be linked with moves back to the EPL before long, which is disruptive and irritating.
i mean i dont mind signings that bring in money but one day we are going to have to actually keep them. Getting a better manager is key. Get one that someone wants to play for and we can then keep some of these guys around and contend with Bayern.
I don't think he is tactically naive, he just has bad player. The way he has drilled very poor Premier League Norwich players, into outplaying many Premier League teams is impressive. The quality of football and the fearless alone would be worth it. We have a highly technical team. The likes of Hummels, Zagadou, Raphael, Brandt and Dahoud were built for a high level technical game. Sacking Favre is the most important thing.
Yes the signings look good. We are likely to sell Sancho for 100 million Euros, so we need to reinvest in a world class player. We are in a fortunate position and have a green light to go for Havertz, with little competition.
Supposedly BVB is throwing a big pay bump at Sancho in hopes of getting him to stick around a bit longer.
Well it's worth a try, but I don't see how keeping Favre is going to help with this. He does not encourage attacking football and sits back far too often. Realistically I think Sancho is going to leave. We should be looking to sell Delaney or Witsel and bring in Havertz. We also need to stop this overly defensive 3-4-3. It's a joke we play it. We should be focusing on controlling the midfield. That extra midfielder would give us greater possession and then we can actually press properly.
There are many good criticisms you can make of Favre but honestly I don’t think you can isolate the 3-4-3 as being too defensive. In the aggregate the team scored a ton of goals, and my understanding is that the system was a way to get the most out of two wingbacks with incredible offensive quality, but poor at defending in the final third. Plus with Delaney out it was often Brandt as half of the double six, with Rapha slicing into the left sided #8 space. Of course, the squad was loaded with attacking talent, but it was still a significant achievement to score as much as Dortmund did with Reus a peripheral figure and having only half a season of actual center forward play. Now it’s fair to say that they perhaps should aim for more numbers and technical quality in the center depending on the personnel available (e.g. Hakimi who Zorc again left the door open to retaining). The players have proven they are a cut above the rest of the league bar Bayern, and can beat top European opponents at home. Now they need to reach another level of consistency, and I can’t really articulate what that missing element is aside from the old “winning mentality” bit. Who is the manager to apply that finishing touch?
https://cartilagefreecaptain.sbnati...r-news-rumors-thomas-meunier-dortmund-signing Meunier news Bellinghm too https://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation...-for-birmingham-citys-jude-bellingham-reports
Yes the 3/4/3 got the best out of Hakimi, but it sacrificed Brandt. It also killed our pressing game and we scored a lot of goals, because the team has quality. Most of our goals happened to come late on when we could counter attack teams. Us and Bayern also have by far the best squad in the league. As you said the squad is loaded with talent. This has not always been the case. Last season Favre actually overachieved. The team was significantly weaker and Favre did very well with the squad. However, even last season he showed he did not have what it takes to win the big games. He was too passive and set the team to get beat. This current squad is a different matter. Look at how well an inferior Leipzig squad is doing was doing in the CL. We have a squad comparable to Bayern, who are favourites to win the CL. Favre is good at getting midtable or even Europa League teams to overachieve, but that's his limit. It's not just winning mentality, it's the way he sets up. Bayern looked much better under Flick, because of the coaching and style of play. Bayern might win the CL, not because they suddenly had a change of mentality, but because of the way they play. The PSG game was shocking. Favre just set up the team to lose and it inevitably happened. He hasn't got a clue how to set a team up to win. There is nothing to gain from keeping Favre. The football is NOT especially entertaining, he does not play many youngsters, he hasn't really developed players like other top coaches, he does poorly in big games. Any decent manager would come top 3 with this squad and go out early in the cup. It's just not good enough. Next season sadly Bayern are going to be much better with Sane.
We should break the 10 million barrier for Sancho, no argument against it. It's money well spent if he can replicate another season with being involved in 30+ league goals. Ideally, he'd also extend for at least another year. But it's also understandable if he wants to return to England. Regarding the formation, I'm conflicted about it. The team seemed to have favored that change back then. It saved Favre's job so he'll stick to it as long as it works. We reduced the amount of allowed goals in the second half series and also after the Paderborn game. In fact, the number of goals conceded in the first 12 games until the Paderborn game is almost equal to the 21 games that followed. I won't put that only on the formation change, but we apparently did something better in the second half. But there are of course issues with it: Too often, we looked impotent if there isn't enough movement or if no striker is available. The offensive power of Guerreiro+Hakimi should have been enough to offset sacrificing one offensive position. Further, Brandt simply has to play with the offense in front of him, it's obvious. That single change almost saved the PSG game. The downside is that he is very soft defensively and almost useless in stopping runs through the midfield. We probably need a mixture of traditional formations.
A player who would be a really good fit, a really good asset to this squad: Canadian international...Jonathan David...of Gent and it has been said that Dortmund have shown interest in this kid
The team will finish, at best, 6 points short of last seasons total. That is despite adding Hummels, Hazard, Brandt and Schulz last summer as well as Haaland and Can in January, with no real key departures. And despite that Zorc today confirmed that the club are happy with Favre and will continue with him next season, whilst also not ruling out a new contract beyond that.
I agree with all you say about Favre. I don't agree that 3-4-3 was boring or that it sacrificed Brandt. Brandt was amazing in the midfield role pulling the strings. And after the return, he somehow managed to replicate that from the "winger" position, which wasn't really a winger because he came to the middle so often. From what I saw, against weaker teams the plan was keep possession, and tire them as they press (because before that we actually were bad under heavy pressing) and then pounce in the second half. The problem happened I guess if either we or the opponents scored early. If we score, then we get lax and concede. If they score they collapse defensively, and we get too tense to find clever solutions. Favre then doesn't have a plan B.
The club announced the signing of Meunier. Gotta say it's bizarre to see players changing clubs without finishing their Champions League campaigns.