All that matters now from this point onwards is winning all eight remaining Bundesliga games if we want to clinch the Meisterschalle.
ouch! At least Witsel gets to rest, and I think we can manage without him. We can also manage without Gotze if Reus can play a full game. But Paco is a different story. Is LP back??
Paco is a big miss, but Witsel missing is a blessing in disguise. The CL results are a big wake up call to the state of the Bundesliga. For me it just confirms how weak the league is. Weigl and Dahoud need to be the 1st choice midfield with Reus ahead of them. Hopefully Pulisic has returned to some form and can start on the left. Philipp can start upfront. BVBFNM is right, we need to win every match from now until the end of the season.
Not sure about the actual formation but this seems to be the starting 11 with our injury issues: Bürki Wolf Akanji Zagadou Diallo Delaney Weigl Sancho Reus Pulisic Bruun Larsen I don't know how the front 4 will line up but the choice of the FBs and CMs looks really defensive. Bruun Larsen is apparently the striker.
The selection is too defensive and cautious for this match. We are playing Hertha not Manchester City. Hopefully Dahoud gets on, but that team should still be good enough to win.
Stupid hand penalty caused by Weigl. 2:1. I don't understand why we make so many mistakes after the winter break.
This game is almost a comedy of errors so far, especially the first 15 minutes. It's a strange game. The lineup looked defensive and it still seems like end to end stuff because of the many mistakes. Despite that, our offense is ineffective, makes too many mistakes and just can't seem to get anything right. All 4 of them are disappointing so far. They don't get much support, though.
Weigl not having a good day standing in for AW. He looks more solid in central defence than midfield this season.
Burki has had a great season and the first goal was a mistake. The 2nd goal was not a mistake. It's a mentality problem. Why is Weigl going to protect his face? In fact if he had randomly just stuck up his hand in the air, it could be dismissed, because he had a moment of madness. This is about wanting to go that extra for the win. I am a fan of Weigl and think he should have played. The attack has been disjointed, but they need more ball. We need someone to link the defence with the attack. Sancho is coming into the match more. This is a MUST win game and subs need to be made by the 60th minute.
Out of those in front, Bruun Larsen is maybe the best. Striker suits him better. But those first 10 minuttes it always takes to get into the game... Slow and losing almost all duels. Guerreiro for Pulisic
Not much to lose for Favre. I'd try Dahoud to give the midfield more offensive power. Hakimi and Guerreiro seem logical but I'd also like to see Gomez given a chance at this level. He looked good in the friendlies and is able to find the holes in a defense.
Great start so far but we missed the chances to take the lead. Still, a completely different presentation from our offense. On the other side, Berlin could have just scored as well.
As exciting as they can be, our young wingers are too egoistical in this match. I think this is the fifth time in this half alone where they go for the glory and don't care about finding their teammates.But that is only one of the reasons why we haven't taken the lead in a game where we should have buried them. Now Berlin with 10 men but only 5 more minutes to go.
A huge win, lots of guts and determination from the players. One thing that changed was Delaney and especially Weigl started making runs forward. Reus stood up and Sancho had moments of brilliance. Larsen had his best game for a long while. Pulisic did OK today, but you can see the problems of keeping a player who is leaving. He made a number of bad decisions and Reus was visibly blaming him, something he does not do with the other. Still we got lucky with the Diallo penalty decision. Every game is a MUST win and a cup final from now on.
Game ends 3:2 for us. Can't remember many games where we deserved the win more. Usually you don't win these kind of games where the best chances weren't converted. Pretty exciting game. Phases in the second half reminded me almost of the good Klopp/Tuchel years.
There is a good basis for a great team, which is why the business in January will always rankle me. Akanji/Zagadou/Hakimi/Weigl/Sancho and I believe Dahoud too are young and backbone of a world class team. They are of course very, very young and inexperienced, but everything is there. Then of course you have Reus leading them. The problem is keeping that team together. Winning the league and making last 8 and possibly last 4 would have really given us a great chance at that. Delaney had a good game, but I would just play those guys from now until the end.