2022-23 Borussia Dortmund Season General Discussion Thread

I have said this for a while. Jude has no place in the team and worse I am convinced he had it in his contract to play a certain number of minutes.

Malen was a stupid signing to keep Raiola happy.

The transfers have been awful for a while.

We badly need a defensive midfielder to partner with Dahoud. I hope ozkan or Kamara can grow into the role, but we should have bought a proper DM.

We also lack width. We know Meunier is limited and Raphael is a full back who supports the midfield and helps with the build up play. To get the best out of him we need an orthodox winger.

We should have signed a winger and a DM.

Then Brandt, Bellingham, Reus and Reyna all play the same position. We can perhaps push Reus out wide to fit in one of the others, but we still do Dahoud and a DM behind them.

I don't know how we can be going into a season without one winger in the entire squad. Knauff would be a dream to have at the moment.

The mess in recruitment is unlikely to be sorted so it will be another difficult season. I suspect top 3 in the Bundesliga, a decent cup run and going out of the CL group unless we get lucky. The sad thing is the board will be more than happy with that.

 

You know, I'm okay without the DM and Winger. I thought this windows business was sound, you can tell they are actively pushing for youth to fill in those gaps. Kamara looks like he could b quite the player.

Man I just hope they get Suarez. I can just picture him trying to bite his way through that Bayern defence hahahah. Well, u can't fault him his desire : )

 

The transfers this summer haven’t been awful, Sule + Schlotterbeck for a combined €25m is very good value for money, and Ozcan is a solid get for a relatively small fee.

I agree signing Malen instead of Adeyemi last year was a mistake, not sure having both is necessary, however Adeyemi is a big talent and worth having imo. In terms of replacing Haaland, Haller is arguably the best #9 the club could have got in the current market. Obviously his health issues are a major worry right now and the main thing is he pulls through, but no blame can be attached to anyone for that and I feel like if he can recover his health he will score a good number of goals.

Of course things could have been even better but it is by no means all bad. I feel like Kehl has been a lot more proactive and ambitious so far. In an ideal world the club would sell Akanji and Schulz and use that cash to hijack Raum’s move to Leipzig.

 

With Akanji it seems that his expectations (top PL club) don't match the interest he gets from other clubs (so far only Italy and France). He would certainly still be of use if he stays another season but it would be obviously preferable if his transfer fee could finance the next player.

Regarding Raum, apparently Leipzig is only willing to pay a fee below 30 million. If Raum can repeat what he showed last season, I see no reason why Hoffenheim would accept an amount below next year's release clause.

 

Of course Haaland coming back to face Dortmund was inevitable. Second place looks achievable.

 

Yes it's a tough group for our current level, but it's definitely possible to come 2nd.

 

Somehow we have 1 points more then Bayern on top of the Bundesliga!!
Union Berlin look to be for real...

 

Bayern know how to win their games when it counts the most, something that has eluded us for a while now. Just look back at the 18/19 season and how we squandered a comfortable lead.

On the upside - we have 3 clean sheets already. Leaking goals has been a major concern since forever, but so far we have done rather well in that regard. Yes, 1-0 wins are not the most exciting and have a lot of nerves attached to them, but many champions reached their trophies with such victories. I just hope we continue winning and avoid brain farts like the one against Werder.

Five rounds into the season and we already have a mini injury crisis.... No idea who is in charge of the medical team, but Dortmund are consistently having waves of injured players. Something or someone is not doing a good enough job there. Arsenal were in a similar position and they took care of it.

 

Well....the good news is that Dortmund fired their head of fitness this offseason and hired Shad Forsythe as the new head of fitness. The bad news is that Forsythe came over from...*drum roll*...Arsenal!

 

For the sake of some perspective, Guerreiro has a cold, Dahoud, Gittens and Adeyemi all had their injuries happening during the game due to fouls or unlucky contacts. I don't think it's time to freak out about the medical team yet.

 

Speaking on injuries bad news. Dahoud and Bittens are likely to be out until after January. Sadly for Dahoud he will definitely miss the world cup. But Ozcan is looking like he could be out for months too. Such bad luck with these injuries.

 

For those, like me, who were surprised about Terzic's emotional state in those last few games, his father died the previous weekend but it was only made public last Sunday.

 

Apparently reliable reports are that Bellingham has agreed to join City. The fee is expected to be around 100 million.

The weakest part of our team is the midfield and we will definitely need to strengthen this. These are the obvious options of the players that we could get and have the right skills even if they are in poor form.


Dream
De Jong is the dream signing.

Realistic Defensive Technical Players
Locatelli
Neves

Both of them are ideal to partner Dahoud. Locatelli has the ability but has been poor the last six months. Neves will be difficult to get, but neither should cost more than 30 million.

Free player to rotate with Dahoud
Keita was really poor at Anfield and is injury prone, but he will be free.
Gundogan seems to want to go to Turkey, but for free it might be worth tempting him to finish his career.

I think we need to get a midfield from each of those categories and sell Can.

Then in January we need to try and off load Malen and buy a proper winger.

Zaha - older, declining but will be free in the summer. Excellent at beating men one on one.
Mudryk badly wanted by Arsenal will cost a lot, but is rapid and has a lot of potential.

Add in a another left back and we will would be ready to compete on all fronts.

 

I checked the match calendar and thought it's odd that we only have one home game in the next 5 BL games.

I'd take Gündogan. Still good enough to perform for ManCity and he often finds ways to get into dangerous situations.
As for Bellingham, I hope his important role and the praise he received this season doesn't go to his head. Reportedly, he didn't react well to criticism of Hummels and Schlotterbeck when he pressed too high while Özcan got treated. Instead, he saw his time to criticize when Schlotterbeck made a bad pass a few minutes later. At 19, you need to know your place in the team and a little bit of humility never hurt anyone.

 

I can't wait for him to leave. He does a lot of the things that is easy for the fans especially at a stadium to see and love, but he holds our midfield back.

 

We got Chelsea in the CL. I'm not saying they don't have quality but apart from the Portugal clubs, it might be the best draw for us due to their form issues this season.

 

I hate playing the England clubs because they seem to get more leeway in calls than most. Big money sways people.

 

Chelsea are in a mess, but still several months to go. It's probably one of the best possible ties for us, but we need to improve.

 

Schlotterbeck, Sule, Brandt, Adeyemi, and Moukoko have made Germany's WC roster.
Reus' injury is making him miss out on yet another big competition (man just cannot catch a break, tough pill to swallow)

Adeyemi is a surprising choice as his play this season has been poor for the most part. Big omission is Hummels who is playing a pretty strong season so seeing a Klosterman getting called up (who has played only 1 game since August) is a bit baffling to say the least but it must be his versatility or else I don't know what else it would be.

Happy for Moukoko to get exposed to a big tournament if nothing else. Doubt he will play much if at all as Havertz will be the starter up front and Fullkrug the main back-up.

 

What we need is Herve Renard!! Both at BvB and the German Squad...
Saudi Arabia's Crazy Half Time Speech vs Argentina - YouTube



This how I feel most of the time... lol