This was made worse since we were missing Zagadou and Akanji, our two best defenders at passing through the lines and playing Toprak/Diallo our two worst. Dahoud must play now. Delaney is not going to cut it against teams that sit deep and we need Dahoud on top form. Hopefully Saturday is the beginning of his return to prominence in the team.
Favre ... I really don't understand his hesitation to rotate. Reus has missed 3 seasons prior to this, and is now being played EVERY game ?? Why wasn't Dahoud given a chance and one of Witsel or Delaney rested. Pushing Guerriero into LB would have allowed Phillip onto the field, and allowed Diallo a more natural position. Poor decision making again, and if the Reus injury proves serious, I think we can all wave the Bundesliga goodbye, as well as the Champions League tie with Tottenham. Favre confuses the daylights out of me ...
The fact that we sold pulisic for so much and were unable to land any attacking help speaks volumes. I'm very concerned if reus is out any considerable time.. The league and the champions could be in huge jeopardy if he misses any significant time. He seems to be our glue
I just wonder if people are going to start to click into the other issue with pulisic he isn't really a winger, notice where he was when that goal all started. he is good working combinations with guys and people get overly excited about him in open space and miscast him as a winger or that he is naturally a winger and should be out on an island.
Well we've played around 28 matches this season and Lucien Favre's true colours are coming out. Doesn't rotate, doesn't make key in-game changes consistently and cannot put together a B Plan or a lineup in action. In that sense he's a lot similar to Sarri and why Laurentiis had no issues letting him leave for Chelsea. You cannot implement a strategy of using width to stretch the opposition and then swap the players around. Diallo is not a bad defender but he should not be playing anywhere other than CB. Toprak shouldn't even be at the club. He's awful. Has no balls. Passes back when under no pressure. Why is Alcacer not getting 90min like Hakimi, Witsel and Reus on a regular basis? Admittedly he's more on a level with LP and Delaney but even these guys are getting 90 min. Why was he signed prematurely when there was no need for it? He's missing goals, isn't shooting as much, isn't as involved and even bombed a penalty. Bremen are one of the most predictable clubs this season which is why they started tanking hard. We should have beaten them. Individual errors abundant, tactical flaws and player selection problems. This loss is on Lucien Favre. If he doesn't fix this and I doubt he will, we won't win the BL. Either Ragnick or even Kovac will figure us out.
I can sign under most of this. I didn't like the idea of Favre from the start, there must have been better options. His exit from both Hertha and MGB is questionable, and merits in Nice so and so. There has been rumors of extending his contract, I'd prefer to end it after this season. As you say, he doesn't have any plan B (substitusions too late), doesn't give people a chance (Phillip, Dahoud, Gomez) and I doubt we would see anything to DAZ if there were no injuries. There's no room for experiments and no room for adapting play to players. F.ex with 3 at the back, and Hakimi and Guerreiro as WBs one could create extreme firepower, and most of all - speed. The latter might be diffucult lately, as most our CBs often are out of play. One doesn't have to jump at the sideline like a clown (Klopp, Simeone), but maybe a little more body language than holding his chin, pretend thinking heavily, sometimes waving his arm and saying something, without anybody hearing. Yes, he seems slow. What he achieved until now is far from his merit only. He did profit from: 1. Reus mostly healthy and in his life form 2. Sancho developing to world class 3. New class players; Witsel, Alcacer, Hakimi, Delaney and Diallo 4. Alcacer's fantastic goal appetite (until December) 5. Gurreiro and Pisczek in good form Despite all above, there were some extremely tight fixtures that could easily go both ways (Hannover, Hoffenheim, Leverkusen, Augsburg, Hertha, Wolfsburg, Bayern, Mainz, Freiburg, Bremen (ruckrunde) Leipzig, Frankfurt (hinrunde). Here we easily could drop 10 points I don't beleive Rangnick's Leipzig will pass us at the end, they are 12 points behind, but Bay€rn most probably, and maybe MGB too If I could choose among coaches, and I admit that I don't watch any other leagues, I'd go for: 1. Rose - for what he has achieved in Salzburg, and seeing the 2 EL games agains us last spring. 2. Rangnick - for what he does with Leipzig, even if he's there only temporary. And he will be available after this season 3. Hütter - plays straight forward nice football, won the league with Young Boys They all are German speaking (unlike Favre - he doesn't understand every second question at the PKs)
Last summer you were complaining about the club management not signing Sarri. IHas your opinion of him cooled? As for Toprak, remember it was your buddy Tuchel who pretty much forced the club to sign him.
Favre is not perfect, but he is doing a phenomenal job at the moment The squad he has is not that strong. The only player, who I think can feel hard done by is Philipp. I think he deserved a shot on the wing and I feel for him. I like Dahoud, I feel we need Dahoud and believe Dahoud can become a top player, but he has blown his chances with poor performances. Repeatedly giving away the ball in dangerous areas and not learning from it. He will probably get his chance on Saturday, but he needs to take it. Reus has been overused, more so than any top player in Europe, but he is our only world class player and the team needs him. The only hope of winning the league is if he stays fit. We are going to have to cross our fingers and pray he does. The board didn't strengthen in January and now Favre has a squad not really good enough. Alcacer has been lacklustre when starting full games more often than not, so no surprise he gets dropped for Gotze. Our two first choice CBs are injured. Favre has a lot of credit in the bag for me. He has not been stubborn and has changed things when they aren't working such as moving Reus's position, dropping Schmelzer, playing Sancho and dropping Pulisic or bring Raphael into the team.
I agree with some of the criticism (the late subs seem strange unless he doesn't want to disrupt the team flow with changes). The lack of rotation for key players is an issue. Without Witsel and Reus we'd have a serious problem. But I read that Reus actually wants this much playing time. On the other side, although there was luck involved in some results, it seems a bit too early to hyperventilate considering where we are right now in the league and how the team functions overall. Even in good seasons you have disappointing results. I do agree that Bremen's gameplan couldn't be more obvious and simple. My main criticism for that game would be that despite the two best CBs missing, he uses the third best CB out of position to repeat the failed experiment of Diallo at LB which also crippled the left side instead of trying out the player who won the Euro on that position. My hope is that he learns from these lessons though just as he was relatively quick to abondon formations (4-3-3) and players that didn't work out. And to counter some of his negatives, he did put Reus in the middle in contrast to all former managers because he knew where Reus worked best. This is a factor where you cannot say it's only down to Reus' form. It's also debatable how much credit the coach deserves in the development of young players. Even when talent is a major factor at that age, the coach is still playing a part in creating the environment for young players to grow. In comparison, the clowns at Chelsea rather spend 60 million instead of persuading the probably bigger talent in their own youth that he has a future there.
Lucien has brought about numerous positives to our club. Tactically, he's improved Reus, Götze, Witsel and Hakimi. He's recharged Raphael, Akanji, LP. Sancho has been excellent. On the flip side we've made it clear that Toprak and Schmelzer can leave anytime they want. We've gotten dead off the wage bill. But our margin of error is very slim. Delaney shouldn't be playing against Bremen unless we are getting run over in midfield. Philipp and Paco should be getting regular min, especially in the domestic cup games. Also we shouldn't have to have an injury crisis to figure out how good Weigl is. We lost this match because of our goalkeeper crisis. I hope we don't lose the thin 7 point gap because of an injury to Reus/Witsel. Frankly, I'm concerned what would happen we lost Witsel. On the bright side let's see what the Gotze/Paco partnership brings us.
We played Leipzig twice already so that is not a concern. Bayern away will be difficult but not impossible to get a draw at least. We have to play away to Berlin, Augsburg, Bremen and Gladbach and those games will not be a walk over. Reus is out for two weeks. Crap. This will be a big test of LF's abilities.
I meant Hecking actually. At least they have injury issues of their own but pound for pound they have a better attack. Kane, Alli, Eriksen, Son and Moura are better than Alcacer, Reus, Sancho, Raphael and Gotze. Our midfield is better and if we can have DAZ back then so is our defence. But if we don't have Burki back then it's all pointless.
He will miss Hoffenheim at least. Disinfect the stadium, training facilities and install hand sanitizer dispensers everywhere. Our title bid is under threat due to a virus for christsakes.