Yes that's definitely going to be a problem. Maybe Dalaney can play in place of Akanji or revert to a back four with Hmmels-LP as the CBs.
First and foremost wishing Akanji a speedy recovery. However, we are short defensively. This is reason we probably should not be going with 3 at the back, we lack the numbers. We need Zagadou back quickly.
Unfortunately Zorc said this week that Zagadou might still be out for a while. https://www.kicker.de/zagadou-braucht-noch-zeit-786327/artikel
This could be a problem. Instead of getting another midfielder we should have bought a CB. Letting Ballerdi go was a strange move. I think we are going to have to switch to 4 at the back, which is a good thing anyway.
In preseason Favre was complaining about needing another center back in order to play his preferred back 4, implying that the likes of Can and Piszczek wouldn't work as center backs in that setup. It'll be pretty scary to go up against Hoffenheim again next week with a makeshift back line...
I agree with that. I don't think Can play there regularly, but he should be OK for one game. However, Can should really go back to playing in midfield. If we are playing 4 at the back, we should still be able to cope until January. Come January we should try and loan one of the Chelsea centre backs either Rudiger or Christensen for defence.
Akanji is back in Dortmund and symptom-free but still isolating at home, so it looks like he will miss out this weekend and possibly at Lazio next week. Kehl said that it'l also be tough for Hazard to play against Hoffenheim, plus Schulz picked up a muscle injury while playing for Germany. I guess BVB had it coming for being so arrogant as to rebuke Man Utd's demands.....by which I mean rejecting their loan offer for Schulz.
Missing Akanji is the big blow. We could have done with Schulz as well. Favre has a chance this weekend to be smart and rotate the team. Raphael, Witsel, Meunier, Delaney and unfortunately Haaland have just played two matches this week. Witsel and Delaney should not be starting anyway. However, it's this week Raphael, Delaney and Witsel can all do with being on the bench. Meunier has to start maybe even at CB, where we should play a back three, but a good chance to play Brandt, Passlack and Dahoud.
SportBILD claim that Borussia Dortmund are unlikely to extend Lucien Favre's contract, and Marco Rose, Julian Nagelsmann and Jesse Marsch are three names being considered to take over next season #BVBhttps://t.co/OOXXih7Fus— BVB Buzz (@BVBBuzz) October 28, 2020
It's SportBILD which are at the same tier as you Sun's and Daily Mails of the world so got to take it with a grain of salt here. Rose and Marsh would be the most "attainable" of the three but Nagelsmann would be the ideal pick.
One thing that has been pretty noticeable over the last couple of games is how the team has looked pretty secure defensively despite playing 4 at the back, not allowing any shots on target in 180+ minutes. I realise that is in part due to the relatively weak opposition but for me it also highlights how being able to deploy 2 proper CB's (now Akanji is back) really helps. I am not a major fan of Can or in particular Delaney at CB, for me it is a specialised position not one that can easily be filled by a midfielder. Imo it was a mistake to run with only 3 CB's in the squad, the club should have kept Balerdi or signed an alternative. One player who I would like the club to consider bringing in, ideally this winter or at least next summer is Amos Pieper, who has been excellent for this weekends opponents Bielefeld and is of course a BVB youth product. Would be a very useful signing imo.
As an Englishman who hasn’t seen any non arsenal and England games this year, how is Jude Bellingham playing? I’ve been told he’s been employed as a six but he played box to box for Birmingham
He has been good for a 17 year old. He has played mostly as a box to box midfielder in a 2 man midfield infront of three defenders. Yesterday was his first start in 4-2-3-1. He has a lot of talent. He is aggressive and has a good passing range, but needs to improve his touch. Against Lazio he was well out of his depth
Yeah he’s so young it’s to be expected. But tbh, Dortmund are the best club for player development I can think of so I am very happy he’s with you
I think Jude has impressed everyone beyond expectations. He won a starting spot on the back of a terrific preseason and scored in the team's first competitive fixture of the season, in the cup. Since then he's dropped a bit in the pecking order after some mistake-prone matches and the emergence of Mo Dahoud (who had been injured going into the season), but he's definitely part of the rotation. What stands out about Jude is that he can already do pretty much everything you might expect out of a central midfielder, at an above-average level in the Bundesliga - receive the ball, pass, dribble, score, tackle, cover ground. Arguably Dortmund's Achilles heel in the last few seasons has been a static and conservative midfield which is reluctant to quickly progress the ball forward, so he has been a breath of fresh air along with Dahoud.
Thanks, I’ve always admired Dortmund even going back to the Rosicky and jan koller days and remember that cl final against juve Your gonna make obscene bank of haaland and sancho edit : he’s from my hometown too, him and Graelish so I have some preference towards them doing well
According to AS, Real Madrid is not happy with the amount of playing time Reinier is getting at Dortmund and, if things do not improve, they may recall him in January. I'm not sure what Madrid was expecting to happen when he came to a team that has high-level competition at every position he plays at. Granted, he had not been getting large chunks of minutes but in all appearances he has featured in he hasn't shown much at all. With Moukoko getting promoted at the end of the month, the back-up striker spot gets more crowded too.
Schulz, Brandt, and Dahoud are in the Germany squad again. Good to have Nico get some match practice, but it'll be annoying if Mo only plays in the friendly again.
I would love to see Muokoko this weekend just to see what he can against the big boys. As much favre loves to play the young ones, I cant imagine we dont see him by the 80th minute.
Lol so good, we will give up a set piece goal in the 20th minute and they will park the bus the rest of the match..
That is a description of LF’s fotball. Don’t think that’s so big problem with fast transition, but with “patience” we couldn’t expect anything else but parked bus