2022-23 Borussia Dortmund Season General Discussion Thread

Even with unprofessional lifestyle. Has it been the case for multiple seasons? If it's only this past season, then it doesn't make sense. For how many seasons did we give Gotze a chance? 3? 4?

 

New thought after seeing Akanji back in training: If we manage to convince Akanji to stay, we will have an amazing defense. We can line up with 3 defenders and have Sule be the central defender because his acceleration/reaction time is not great, and have Akanji and Schlotterbeck on the outside.

Akanji does seem to want to leave though, and the club sees the opportunity to bring in some cash. But if we can keep him, and generate money from selling Brandt (as much as would love him to play for us more!) we'd have an amazing defense. Brandt's position is kind of packed at the moment.

 

Terzic and the club have told Schulz that there is no future for him at the club and if he doesn't find a new club he will be excluded from the 1st team and be relegated to the stands.

 

Yikes, that's the harsh move when a club cannot get rid of a player and when the player is comfortable with not playing.
Makes only sense if they think Rothe is ready. Given that they reportedly would also like to part ways with Guerreiro, one has to believe that they are still after Raum.

 

Bit of a dick move, considering that for all his faults, being a spoiled primadonna that demands a starting spot was never one of Schulz's downsides. If anything, he did appear quite professional about his spot in the team. If they indeed cannot get rid of him, might as well use him in some games for rotation purposes. I personally am perfectly content with him being in such a role.

 

According to RN, Schulz has dismissed a number of offers from other teams that the club feels are acceptable and thus are now taking this stance. According to Terzic himself, he has spoken to the player directly and told him that he will prioritize giving Rothe and Aning opportunities behind Guerreiro and that he does not see Schulz in his plans.

This is clearly a situation where Schulz has been receiving offers with a salary vastly lower than the 6M he is getting at Dortmund and he (understandably) doesn't want to accept it. In that regard, I don't blame the player for looking out for his best self-interest in terms of life after football but, at the same time, he clearly doesn't have any footballing ambitions and is contempt with being a spectator in the stands for the season so I don't blame the club either for exerting pressure on him and taking the reported stance.

 

Watching a bit of the recent public trainings, Terzic seems to go for fast passing with as few contacts as possible. The games he chooses in these sessions, that are to a degree also chosen with the audience in mind, of course, often demand high technical abilities and quick decision making from every player regardless of the position.
The next thing that becomes obvious is that the team is full of players with high technical abilities so what I believe to be Terzic' vision of football seems to be in line with the team.

I'm expecting better football than what we saw under Rose and enough money was spent for that. It will depend on how well Bayern will be without Lewa but I'm also slightly optimistic that the gap to them is getting a bit smaller.

 

Watched the Valencia game and it was worrying. The bonus is even in preseason the pressing lanes looked good, but without peak fitness Valencia passed through us too easily.

The bad is Hummels still made mistakes, Bellingham still loses the ball repeatedly. We have no 6 and we have no wingers. Moukokok needs to work hardest on his movement.

All that money spent and wasted. Adeyemi is just a Malen clone, but at least he is younger with more potential. Why did we buy two of them? Both are better as second strikers.

 

Is it true about Haller? Wtf..

 

Jeez, Haller has a tumor, that just sucks. Hopefully it works out well for him. Obviously, there isn't much detail info released but one can only hope it was found early. On the other side, it sounds worrying they only looked for it because he didn't feel well.
So at least for the next months we'll have to plan without him.

 

This is much bigger than Haller and prays that he recovers away quickly as possible.

 

Damn this is just our usual mojo... We buy a player that may never play for us ( or again!). Or in the best case not for a few months, just before the beginning of the season! I was full of hope and now today's result (while meaningless is still not the way to start the preseason) and that tumor bring me right back down!! (I'm not blaming anyone and the human aspect is not lost on me..)

 

Damn, that is some tough news to bear. Sadly I know it first hand, since I was also diagnosed with the same thing several years ago (everything is fine and dandy now). As for looking for it earlier - there are no symptoms, no pain, no nothing. There is literally nothing that would indicate something like this. I found out after a swelling and it was luckily in a very early stage. Haller is sill young so I am hoping that it is an early stage, because if it is the prognosis is very good.

 

I came to complain about the friendly game yesterday only to find out about the Haller news Wishing him a speedy recovery!

 

Next loss in a friendly. We allowed too much, especially with a 3 man backline. It's shocking how easy they managed to get through at times.
Good chances in the first half, I liked Brandt, and not much in the second half. First half showed that Malen isn't lethal enough to replace a striker, the second half mostly showed it doesn't matter who's the striker when we cannot create chances. Adeyemi and Moukoko still need time to develop to be reliable goal threats.

Maybe no need to panic right now, the team may be very tired due to intense preparation but the first competitive game will be next week.

 

We don't look ready at all...

 

That was a disaster, we need no nut Haller ! Sorry, too early ... ? : )

I wonder if they go for Suarez or Belotti, first case scenario will mean Haller will likely be back sooner than we expect, second choice, maybe never.

The problem is you have 3 players now who are exactly the same, Moukoko, Adeyemi, and Malen, with Hazard not much different in respects to playing style. I like Bradnt too in that deeper role, but i would sell him if he can't be bothered to back track. That goal was on him sauntering. Like have some fking impetus dude. This season going to be a mess. Personally, I get one of those two, preferrably Suarez who can do the business, and promote Fink.

Who played CB #44 the last game vs Valencia, pretty impressive.

Kobel (Meyer)
Meunier (Wolf/Morey) Sule (#44) Schloterbeck (Hummels) Guerrero (Aining/Rothe)
I'm assuming Akanji and Can are gone
Bellingham/Dahoud (Brandt) Ozkan (Kamara)
Adeyemi (Bynoe) Reus (Reyna) Moukoko (Hazard)
Suarez (Malen/Fink)

With Moukoko leading line in the absence of a ST, ah good enough I guess, I feel like this club is cursed.

 

The main reason Brandt has not been able to get consistent playing time with any of the coaches while in Dortmund is the lack of effort he puts in towards his defensive assignments. He has even stated that himself in a recent interview yet it has remained a constant with him, unbelievable really. Just wasted potential.

 

Brandt is just not good defensively. In 1 vs 1 situation, he's a pylon like Kroos which is why you need at least 2 midfielders behind him. But if we are talking about the 0:2, I'm not sure why he gets picked out when several other players were involved. Brandt at least tried to go at the opposing players which made him look worse than half the team that was doing nothing but ball watching.

On the other side, there were a few scenes that showed that Adeyemi can also work well defensively due to his speed and agility. I think that will be important for us to defend the wings.

 

Well, the problem is he just couldn't be bothered to backtrack, and that speaks poorly for his mentality. I don't know, Brandt is a bit of an enigma to be honest, just because he is so talented, but his psychology is just off.

 

Brandt and Bellingham as 2 defensive defenders was just asking for trouble. Bellingham as a defensive midfielder doesn't use his full potential. We need a real DM in there, and then if you want to be fancy you can add a Brandt or a Dahoud alongside him. I still think Jude is better more up-front. His dribbling skills and his pressing would be better utilized there.

 

Personally, I just do a Keita and sell Jude whilst trying to bring through Kamara.
It will make for a much more balanced team, as Jude seems to occupy that no mans between a 6 and 9. And doesn't quite seem to fit the team dynamics unless you play 3 in mid, but then playing only 3 attackers when you have 8/9 attackers, (Moukoko, Fink, Reus, Reyna, Bynoe, Hazard, Malen, Adeyemi, Haller) doesn't really make any sense. Buying one of Adeyemi/Malen was a mistake, not that they aren't good players, but its just overkill. Well, thats what you get for doing business with a Raiola, RIP.


Dahoud (Brandt) Ozkan (Kamara)

Just makes so much more sense. And sell Brandt if he can't make an effort, to bring someone a little more defensive minded into that double pivot.

 

I agree that we have too many attackers, and many of whom are very similar. But at the end of the day you have to play your best talents. I think another problem that we have is that those players who could play the 10 like Jude and Brandt are not going to get their chance there because of Reus. It will take a coach with amazing people skills to convince Reus that maybe Jude is better than him in that position. And I'm saying maybe because Jude needs to improve on his passing and decision making with the ball.

 

In light of Haller's unfortunate news, there have been reports of us going for Belotti or Suarez. Not sure what to make of those, Belotti is nothing special and Suarez is a stop-gap solution, but he would be far more useful (if we ever end up going for another striker). I agree that in the current state, we have too many similar players in attack, hence why signing Malen last summer was a mistake.

I like Brandt and he is solid going forward, but often fails in his defensive duties. A case could be made that he doesn't put enough effort, but we can also make the case that he is not paired with a proper DM. I would honestly play one of Can or Ozcan every game to fill that role as both are good in it. It is also the reason why I thing getting rid of Brandt and Can would be the next stupid decision we could possibly take.