2018-19 UEFA Champions League Group Stage Matchday 4: Atlético Madrid vs Borussia Dortmund

Despite the fact that the Venus is in retrograde, and no team in history has ever won a game when Venus was in retrograde and then gone on to win the CL, I still want BVB to win the game. Someone needs to teach Venus a lesson about interfering in the Champion's League. Maybe a UEFA investigation is in order about influence peddling from the celestial bodies.

 

21 players make the trip to Madrid. Notably Piszczek and Götze are back in the mix.

 

Would be interesting if this ends up being the lineup. It does seem more defensive with this lineup wiht Larsen starting along with Delaney. Both seem to enjoy playing the ball back more than they do playing it forward.

 

BVB Line-UP:

Burki, Hakimi, Delaney, Sancho, Akanji, Toprak, LP, Pulisic, Witsel, Reus, Alcacer

 

That's a very offensive minded team I like it was see what they can do

 

Unrelated but Isak dropped a hat trick on Rot Weiss Essen for BVB II. Kagawa had something like 4 assists, and apparently Sebastian Rode still exists as well.

 

What a joke of a yellow for Sancho. He got fouled and had his shirt pulled and the Atleti player just throws himself to the ground.

 

Refs a joke

 

Not a good performance at all.

Akanji has been nervous all match, maybe it's the big occasion or maybe it's playing on the left hand side.

Delaney has been missing.

Alcacer has been missing.

Pulisic has been poor and not tracking back enough leaving LP badly, exposed who has been poor too. They are destroying us down the left.

Witsel has been our best outfield player, whilst Burki MOTM for us.

Toprak always looks shaky.

So many subs could be made at half time.

Gotze for Alcacer.
Dahoud for Delaney.
Wolf/Larsen for Pulisic.
Zagadou for Toprak.
Raphael for LP.

Any of those 4 subs would greatly improve our play.

 

Alcacer and Pulisic have been completely invisible in this game, between the two I don't think they've had 10 touches of the ball. All of our attacking is going through the left side.

What has worked for us last game is making sure to tightly pack the center of the field and force the to attack through the flanks but that is not happening in this game for what ever reason as we are struggling against the high press. We need to insert Dahoud in the middle to beat the press and create counters.

 

We looked lost after the 1:0 and gave away ball after ball, especially almost all of Bürki's goalkicks when he had to make long shots. We have to play more concentrated and tactically disciplined against such a side. Atletico were very patient in the first half when they needed the result and not us. The wingers need to work their ass of in defense as well when every ball they lose hurts twice as much.

 

Guerreiro in for Pulisic. I'd like to see him combine with Hakimi again.

 

Guerrio is in and I would like to see Dahoud too. Delaney is cringe worthy when we need a goal. Not exactly a fan of him when he is paired with Witsel.

Pulisic has had a hard time getting touches quite often of late.

 

well whoever begged for us to drop points may have just gotten their wish... I like to see us stay in good form and play well. Not one to wish for some fantasy world where dropping a point means we have a shot at winning the champions league.

 

Pulisic and Sancho did not work so well together as the ball always seemed to come up Sancho's side.

Alcacer is off for Goetze.. would be nice to get an equalizer... though I am not sure we will see it. Not a lot of good chances out of our side today.

 

Im afraid that may do it. 2-0 Madrid in this one. oh well. Cant win them all. We knew Madrid would be tough at their place.

 

This was a very Stoger-esque performance today. Absolutely no ideas going forward as the ball was just played around in a circle between the defenders and CMs. Very disappointing to say the least.

 

It's not a disaster in the larger context and the Bayern game was always the bigger match, but hopefully Favre learnt a few things.

Akanji, Pulisic, Toprak and Raphael all had shocking games. Out of those 4, only Akanji can be expected to play at the highest level when needed.

Delaney tried hard and did well defensively, but with the press he was out of his depth. He just isn't good enough for this level. For better or worse we need to play Dahoud in the big matches.

Reus and Sancho didn't have their best games, but they were against a very good defence and were starved of decent possession.

LP pulled off a miracle last Atletico match, but he is not good enough.

Overall we lacked our usual quality passing from the back. The loss of Zagadou was a huge blow to passing it out and Akanji was having a shocker. Delaney too was just out of his depth here so our attacking players were starved off the ball. I am actually not too worried about this, because in Dahoud, Zagadou and Akanji on his usual side we have the answers for this. With our first choice Hakimi can also revert back to the right for LP.

However, to go far in the CL we still need another attacking wide player of quality. Raphael, Wolf, Larsen and Pulisic aren't good enough for us to compete against the top teams.

 

I'd rather have taken two 2-1 victories in a row than split 6 points down the middle.

Awful performance by Toprak. 100% at fault on the second goal and partially on the first. He was literally loitering on the pitch for the final 60 min. Worst performance by any player in our kit so far this season. Makes you see how much more valuable having a ball playing CB like Diallo is. Toprak needs to go along with Rode.

Delaney sucks. What's the point of having him if he cannot deliver against a MF with Rodri in it. We really could have used Mo to move the ball forward.

Hakimi, Witsel, Reus, Sancho, Bürki and Gurreiro are the ones carrying this team. If these guys have a bad day, we cannot count on anybody else to pick up the slack. Not even Pulisic and Gotze.

Wtf is going on with Paco? Did he run out of his drugs?

 

Hope they got rid of all that amateur bs performance today, cuz if well play like this on the weekend even bayern in current form will have no problem beating us

 

It's hopefully a learning experience for the younger players. Akanji had a weak second half I think. I don't think he had to leave Griezmann for the second goal when there was no one near to take over. He also had several bad passes which isn't normal for him.

It was also a good game for our young wingers to realize how much they still need to mature and improve. Talent lifts you above the guys around you at the youth level but at the top level, you also need to work hard relentlessly to continue improving. Sancho was too careless at the beginning, Pulisic didn't show anything. The scene where he just stands around with the ball looking at two Atleti players and lets them just take the ball away from him is a fitting image how our wingers looked today. I didn't catch the full replay of Pulisic's substitution but it looked like he had another fit after getting subbed. I hope that was only him being annoyed about his performance.

I understand subbing a winger for a winger but I would have still preferred Dahoud instead of Bruun Larsen because of his passing. That was the only chance we might have had to generate more opportunities.

The more important game comes next Saturday.