I don't know what impact choking the title race on the very last matchday of the season will have on the team going forward, but there's no sugarcoating it: we very publically embarrassed ourselves last season. Marco Reus is sealing his place in history as the face of one of football's greatest inferiority complexes, never having won a league title and always missing out on major international events through injury or otherwise. He can complain all he wants whenever the team's mentality is called into question, but after last season's fiasco these mental frailty criticisms are now stronger than ever. It wasn't just the Mainz game, we also dropped points against a 10-man Stuttgart, a relegation-threatened Bochum, a relegated Schalke, shat ourselves at the Arroganz Arena vs Bayern and were knocked out of the CL by a piss-poor Chelsea who have no European tournaments this season, which IMO only adds insult to injury. Given that age is catching up Reus can no longer be counted on to be the full-time captain of the team, and the same could be said for Hummels who nevertheless seems happy in the role of being the old-timer mentoring younger players from the bench. As usual our most realistic target in terms of trophies is the DFB-Pokal, which we must strive to win no matter what. In terms of the league I just don't trust these players to use last season's disappointment as fuel to fire themselves up and relentlessly pursue the Meisterschale until it can finally be yanked from Bayern's grasp, and considering Bayern sacked Kahn and Salihamidzic for barely winning the BL I very much doubt Bayern will be as weak as last season, or ever again for that matter. We essentially have to be perfect if we are to stand any chance of winning the league, no room for errors and no fvck-ups, which this team has proven time and time again totally incapable of doing. The only real silver lining we might have is Tuchel's customary falling out with the clubs he's worked with. We also need to stop shitting ourselves whenever we visit the Arroganz Arena and show some actual steel there. In terms of Europe, this will be the last CL campaign with a 32-team format, as the tournament will be expanded come the 2024-25 season, so as unlikely as it may be, it would be our last shot at realistically winning the CL, but I also wonder if instead we should go for the Europa League, becuase considering the gulf in terms of team quality and budget between us and the bigshots of European football, I'd much rather we fight for trophies we can realistically win than be a showpiece that will get knocked out in either the round of last 16 or the quarter-finals of the CL. Besides, the EL and the UEFA Supercup are the last two trophies remaining for us to complete the international trophy set. If it were up to me I'd ban celebrating scoring goals or winning games for both fans and players. The only celebrations allowed would be securing trophies. Everything else is meaningless.
They listed Cryna... good riddance. Decent player, I think he can be a really good player but his attitude is just sh!t. Enough said... https://www.getfootballnewsgermany....prove-to-be-a-masterstroke-for-bayern-munich/ The club need a LB or RB, seeing as Ryerson is versatile. A new CB as 4th choice, as they are a little light. Now your midfield is Brandt, Ozcan (not impressed), Can who apparently could be up for sale. You can purpose Reus if you switch to a 4-2-3-1, Alvarez coming in, but that means you are stil short another. I don't see Jadon Sancho coming in, not interested, would be cool, but then you are hampering that Duranville guy and he looks like a damn player alright. They need to re-sign Kobel for ********s sake! So; Kobel (Meyer) Wolf (Fresneda?) - Sule (?) - Schlotterbeck (Hummels) - Bensabainni (Ryerson) Can? (Ozcan) ? (?) - Brandt (Reus?) Malen? (Duranville) - Adeyemi (Gittens) Haller (Greedykoko) I think wolf is good enough to be first choice. He has been playing out of his skin. Malen on the chopping block, ah mistake me thinks, but I'm on the borderline wit that. Guerreiro was definately a mistake, he could have occupied a spot in midfield and would have been a staple. He had the highest amount of assists (12/13?) in the Bundesliga, and these b!tches let him go. Nuts I tell you !!
Reus is no longer captain, and I support the decision. IMO the only reason Reus was made captain was due to his loyalty, but during the time he was captain he proved he's no leader. The captaincy should not be a reward, but a responsibility given to those with the strength of character to wear the armband. Whenever Hummels or Bellingham were deputizing as captains the team performed a lot better. Obviously Hummels won't take the captaincy again as he's now the old-timer mentoring younger players from the bench. Wouldn't mind Kobel as captain even though he's a GK.
To me the interesting question is what kind of year Malen and Adeyemi are planning to have. Malen, to the extent that he was a replacement for Sancho, was a huge disappointment, and I had kind of given up on him. But then... he sort of came alive. Adeyemi too had a pretty disappointing first year, but it's not hard to imagine him breaking out as well Bottom line, if Malen, Adeyemi, and I guess Reyna don't play to their potential, it's going to be a long season.
I understand Reus feels he needs to give the captaincy away but the issue here is that we have no clear runner up for the job... Maybe that was one of the issue all year long, lack of leadership in the team? Kobel had a few bad games in the most important moments, I'm far from convince he's suited for the position...
At least it will get him to dam. sign. But these idiots are so stupid, they have not even given him a new contract??? Like what in God's name are they doing in the back office? Like give the player a dam. contract before he goes to Bayern on a free... hint hint !
Anyone watch first pre season game? I know it's against 6 Liga, but standouts for me were Duranville, Aining, and Morey (surprise). I wonder if maybe the team do not need to sign a LB/RB with these 2 at the club. could save some cash. Coulibaly fell through too, 17 mil euros would have been nice, but maybe he can be 4th choice?
Contract dissolved with Schulz. Must be nice getting 2.5 million just to ******** off but at least we save some money, too. This must have been one of the worst transfers ever.
I'd say he's a solid player. 4 year deal for a 29 year old could backfire though. I would have preferred Goretzka but that wasn't realistic for too many reasons.
Where is the creativity going to come from? Brandt is the only creative player we have atm. Though I'm not familiar with Ramy's and Nmecha's creativity. We have some (unreliable) creativity on the wings, but none really in the center besides Brandt.
We'll see a lot of Can as the captain I assume. Sabitzer seems to be a similar type. If I had to guess, if Terzic continues the 4-3-3, Nmecha and Brandt will both play and should offer decent creativity.
Replacing Bellingham, Guerreiro and Dahoud with Nmecha and Sabitzer weakens the midfield overall on paper, although I suppose given how injury prone 2 of those 3 are it might work out.
Perhaps Terzic's idea is to have midfielders with a good engine and ability for defensive duties. Neither Bellingham, nor Guerreiro were defensively sound. Sabitzer strikes me as a player who is a jack of all trades in midfield. For Nmecha I have no observations. But if what I suspect is true, this would mean more freedom in attack for Brandt and Reus.
Ramy and Sabitzer didn't look that bad against Chelsea. Not perfect defensively for Ramy, but love the strength and that he is very intent on finding good crosses. I was not too excited by the Sabitzer signing honestly, but he showed some good vision and distribution capability, and overall quality on the ball. I hope that was a good representation of his level.
Been on holiday and missed most of the preseason, but I am extremely disappointed with the signings. We have got rid of technically gifted players and replaced them with physical players because we didn't know how to coach them properly. Sad to see and I have low expectations for this season.
We finish our pre-season with six wins and one draw. We only kept two clean sheets against the lowliest of oppositions.
3:1 test game win against Ajax. Just like for most of the other preseason games, offensively nice to watch but defensively too many concerning situations. That's how we lost the league. Should Sabitzer play next to Can, I think he'll turn out to be a clear upgrade over Özcan in every category who didn't look bad today as well. But Sabitzer seems faster, technically better and is more interested and capable to accelerate the game. Nmecha with two goals and it looks like he can become a real threat from outside the box as well. He might easily offset some of the offensive output we lost with Bellingham. I thought Reus, Malen and Brandt looked good and ready for the season. Hummels looked like someone who wanted too much and I guess he'll see less and less minutes this season. Bensebaini looks awkward at times when he cannot position himself properly to the ball. Of all the new guys, I think he might be the one who will will frustrate us the most. Quite the contrast to someone like Guerreiro. Bueno from the second team, who replaced him, looked more like the smaller and agile type and didn't look that far away from getting minutes for the first team in games that matter.
It's not going to matter any... bayern aparently in for 120 mil Euros bid on Harry Kane. We ain't winning sh!t bruvs!!!
One thing I noticed from the newcomers, especially Sabitzer and Nmecha, is that they are willing to distribute with vertical / creative / incisive / high-risk passes. It felt almost foreign to this team. I think it's a remnant of the Favre years that we still need to get rid of + Jude wasn't actually a good and consistent distributor of the ball. I agree with the above assessment but I'm not too big on Bueno. He reminded me of Bruun-Larsen in that I was asking myself what did they see in him. Hope I'm wrong.
We've been sorted in group F with Paris Saint-Germain, AC Milan and Newcastle United F.C. Looks doable if you ask me, but I still think we should go instead for the EL. I want us to fight for trophies that can be won realistically.