They blamed a thin but talented squad on the dismal showing in the 2011 CL group stages and the 25 point gap in the BL in 2013. So they distributed transfer funds to acquire depth rather than talent. Lewandowski turned into Immobile and Ramos, Götze turned into Kampl and Kagawa, Gundogan turned into Dahoud and Weigl/Gurreiro, Miki to Dembele + Mor etc. Not only have they wilfully forgotten but they aren't willing to learn either. Depth is no substitute for talent. To make matters worse they want to gamble on mentally weak players like Paco, Diallo and Philipp. A worldclass striker ala Lewandowski + 2 talented central wingers ala Reus + central creator ala Gundogan + a rock solid CB ala Akanji + a wall of GK like Bürki would consume approx 60M in wages from our total of 180M a season. We can easily put together a squad full of LP, Gurreiros and Weigls for the remaining 120M. We have plenty of funds for the transfers themselves.
Comparing Dortmund's position to Leicester and even Monaco shows you aren't aware of what you are talking about. You seem more focused on Bayern collapsing than Dortmund rising. In the next post you then want the board to buy world class players. Which world class players will come? Exactly who should they have bought? They have made mistakes, not strengthening correctly after 2013 and this January are some of the biggest, but YOU are reacting on emotion. Exactly who are these players? The opportunity to strengthen in January has gone and only winning the league and even then we will need a miracle against Tottenham to turn attract the quality we need.
How are 2012 BVB different from the Monaco of 2 years ago and Leicester of 3 years ago? I can flip this around too and say you want players like Werner who doesnt want to come to BVB and Zaha who is extremely one dimensional to suggest you dont have a clue how to build the squad. Since 2012 we have had 2 good seasons, in 2013 when we came 2nd and lost in the CL finals and in 2016 when we broke a league record with Thomas Tuchel despite a mediocre squad. On the pitch the club has not progressed. Off the pitch the club has been very slow in revenue growth and has squandered vast sums on useless players. So I want the club to buy better players. How is that emotional?
If you don't know the differences then why compare? In terms of squad there is a similarity with Monaco and in the position with competing with PSG/Bayern. The difference is that Monaco don't have the stadium or the fanbase to push on. With financial fair play, they could never hope to have the income to compete. So without huge investment they are forced to sell, because this is the only viable way of progress. Monaco are not even in the top 20 richest clubs in term of income. WIthout MASSIVE, financial investment, buying and selling kids is the best they could do. As for Leicester they lacked genuine top class players, but had a perfect storm of a season. They had three players of real quality: Vardy, Kante and Mahrez. They were able to keep the team and invest. They only lost Kante, but they are at best the 7th richest team in the league and much, much smaller in terms of history. They don't have the finances to attract other top English players, they can't offer consistent European football like Dortmund, a chance to compete for trophies like Dortmund and so are where they should be. Dortmund have the fanbase, the stadium, the history, the prospect of trophies and regular CL football. You could say that, but I think it would reflect badly on you. Werner has not made up his band and I said many times it was contingent on us winning the league and making the CL semi finals. Both seem unlikely, so we can forget the signing. In January had we made those targets then we would have had an excellent chance of getting him. My first choice was Brandt and Werner, because they would fit seamlessly together. Werner could occassionaly drift to the left when Brandt moved inside. Reus could come across and Dortmund could overload the left. When Reus was injured Brandt could cover 10, Werner move to the left and Alcacer start up front, but the way things stand both are now impossible targets, when in January they were realistic. As for Zaha you probably have seen little of him. He is one dimensional, but it is an exceptional dimension he has. He is unplayable one on one and means teams need to double up on him. Tottenham instance realised our right hand side was impotent and put all their focus on the left. With Zaha you can't do this, because he will destroy his full back even if his final ball is poor. The risk is too great so you it gives space to other players. With coaching he can improve. His runs off the ball are terrible, but he still has blistering speed, which means teams cannot afford to push up and press the midfield. They will have to respect this and sit back, giving our midfield more space in the big games. That apart he is very adept at winning penalties and can settle many games like the one on Tuesday, by getting fouls in the box. Now with our current situation, where we must take gambles and cannot attract top talent, he would be the best the club can get. It's emotional, because you go over the top and want better players to be bought without naming them. You have criticised the club for not buying the likes of Xhaka.
I think it's clear that after the 2 titles + CL final, there should have been more money spent to get players (at least) at the level of our best players like Reus, Lewa, Hummels and Gotze (back then.) The fact that the club didn't do that is not just a mistake. I believe it's a policy. They are more focused on making money than winning trophies.. kind of like Arsenal. And for that they will rely on the brand name, the fan base and on playing decently attractive football. That's what the years since the CL final have shown. It is a simple consequence of not strengthening that our best players will simply leave. And I don't think it would have been difficult to find the right players to bring in with a bigger budget. And I think that we are much better placed than Monaco or Leicester to do that because of the large fan base, which had a huge potential to increase again due to the attractive football we usually play!
I think it's OK to follow the current strategy ONLY UNTIL you start winning, then you must switch gears and aim for normalizing the winning of trophies. It's a shame they chose mediocrity instead.
Kicker predicts the following lineup for the weekend: Bürki – Piszczek, Akanji, Zagadou, Hakimi – Witsel, Delaney – Sancho, Reus, Guerreiro – Götze I doubt Akanji or Reus will start. It'll be Weigl and Paco instead.
With everyone fit that would be our best line-up...with the exception of replacing Delaney with Weigl or Dahoud although Delaney has been better than Witsel as of late.
No amount of whining about January and behaving like Captain Perfect Hindsight will turn around a bad situation. Dortmund spent the most in the BL with Paco. Bayern bought a Canadian teenager. Did any other league leader or champions league club bring in worldclass players? Paredes, Almiron, Sala, Paqueta, Piatek, Haidara were the big transfers, Pulisic the biggest. You must be crazy if you think some world-class player or talents like Thorgan Hazard Brandt and Havertz will pull an Ousmane Dembele in winter to come to Dortmund. Its only an industry they have to spend their lifetime working in so why not burn bridges, leave their club high and dry and ruin their own professional reputation? Why is every bad streak of form that is down to injuries, poor player performance or coaching decisions a cue to bring up 2011 2012 2013 2014 or snipe at Watzke and Zorc? Does it resolve the current problem to recount every single past fault and mistake? People who do this in real life are toxic. Yes they really should have known Paco was weakminded and sent him back to Barcelona after seeing him score the winner in comebacks against Leverkusen Augsburg and Bayern. No need for a striker anyway.
Correction. We did quite well in 2012. Under Watzke that was perhaps the best year we had. 2011 almost as good and 2013 and 2016 are close. But for every success he has flops in those years and major flops in the years not mentioned. Our progress off the pitch hasn't been that great either. In revenue streams not named broadcasting (because we have no chance there), we have been overtaken by Juventus and Spurs. Atletico are breathing down our necks. Look where these clubs were back in 2011 and where we were and see how far we've come. You don't determine strength of character in the Hinrunde over 8 matches. Geez. Go talk to Barcelona fans who are familiar with Paco.
Normally I'd agree and many here already conceded that it would be very hard to get top class players who'd have an instant impact. Most here only argued for strenghtening the team because of the great position we were in the league while Bayern is in transition and the amount of money that was available. Bayern are already looking very dangerous and will get stronger so it will become even harder to challenge them. Of course, several factors need to come together (either the player is not crucial for the club's plans like Robben when he left Madrid or we have to overpay). Bayern were seriously toying with the idea of getting Hernandez and in my opinion we should have at least tried to take advantage of a situation we might not see again for a long time.
So you think Paco sees the bench because he lacks strength of character and not because he is not fit enough? If anything the club is betting on Paco improving his lack of fitness because they think they have a very good striker once he overcomes that. Which player did you want? Anyone with enough real life experience working knows that it is not easy to up sticks and leave in the middle of the season when you are on good terms with people at work and your boss ask that you stay for six more months because they need you. Footballers lose loyalty bonuses when they submit a transfer request. If a footballer sees his teammates and coaching staff as his friends and mentors, they would not leave the team struggling to fill a position unless they are not playing well or greedy enough to not care. Brandt is not going to abandon a club that gave him opportunities since his debut and join Dortmund in winter when Leverkusen is struggling. He would become a pariah in the industry. It would come back to haunt him when he wants to work in German football after his playing career is over.
I want the club to go after explosive and creative forwards like Sancho, Reus, Dembele and Aubameyang; steady and visionary midfielders like Witsel and Gundoga; stable and reliable defenders like DAZ and Akanji (well I dont know what their peaks are but they shows promise). And I am not even asking for a boat load of these kinds of players but a lot of players in our squad do not satisfy these attributes, particularly the forwards like Gotze and Philipp. I mean can you imagine these two turning around a deficit? Even the defenders like Toprak and lately Diallo do not instill any sense of stability and reliability. And there are plenty of players out there who satisfy that criteria. If we can spend 30M on Schurrle, we can spend 45 on Zyech instead of Hazard. My biggest issue with the club is that they tend to regularly buy players who you know will suck and they do end up sucking. Castro, Schurrle, Toprak, Philipp, Wolf.....and I am naming only the more mature expensive players. I dont care about the cheaper teenagers who are more susceptible to being moulded into shape.
Exactly this, forget hindsight, of the players mentioned here a number of fans immediately expressed doubt that they would be either good enough or value for money, and all turned out to be mediocre or worse. Why couldn't the management have seen this before wasting money? It seems to be a consistent trend to overpay for mediocrity.