We play Zenith today. Hopefully we see the exact same line up as against Schalke, except Reus in for Reyna. Play that team and I am confident we will win. It's a game we have to win.
Bürki; Guerreiro, Hummels, Akanji, Meunier; Witsel, Dahoud; Reyna, Reus, Sancho; Haaland. Auf der Bank: Hitz, Morey, Delaney, Hazard, Brandt, Reinier, Bellingham, Piszcek, Passlack, Raschl.
The two good things are that we are playing Dahoud and four at the back. Why is Witsel back in the team. He is a liability. He needs to be dropped and sold. Why is Reyna starting instead of Brandt? Brandt was quality in the last game. Very stupid decisions. This is why Favre needs to go. However, we should have more than enough to win. Why is Reyna playing every match?
Such a stupid selection. Witsel does not have the legs to cover Raphael or the counter. Delaney or the ill Can do. Brandt must have been on a high after his performance and deserved to play again. I love Reus more than anyone here. However for the good of the team he needs to play off the left, which is fine because he will be able to come in field a lot. Not to mention Reyna is exhausted and needs a rest. But it should still be enough to beat Zenith.
I'm pretty sure Favre sees Reus almost exclusively as a central player (#10, or a "nine-and-a-half" as the coach likes to say) at this point. This might be fair if you are expecting the wingers to press and track back quite a bit, especially on the left side where Guerreiro is not great in defensive 1v1s. So for this game he chose Reus since Brandt started on the weekend. Then you could say - well you could still squeeze Brandt into the double pivot, but I think the preference is to play a creative CM alongside a holding type. I agree Witsel has been atrocious lately, but Zenit is his former club and Delaney needs a break. With the fixture schedule what it is, Dortmund needs Witsel to recover something resembling the form of his first season with the club and at least east some useful minutes.
Reus is not 40, he can still press and track back especially in a game like this. What exactly is Reyna doing defensively, which Reus could not?
Sancho is in a tough phase this season, many things he tries don't work. But he also initiated two of our best opportunities that could have been finished differently by passing to a player in a better position. It just needs to click for him again. I think our game got more boring towards the end besides those two 2 chances.
Takes off our best midfielder Dahoud. Brings on Hazard when we need Brandt. Favre out. This is a must win game.
A cross and Hazard I think was pulled. We need to to sack this guy. Brandts speed of passing just creates so much more space. I bet we will get another stupid formation this weekend. Now he brings on Bellingham and Delaney to defend the lead. It's so pathetic.
I don't mind Delaney but Witsel should have been taken out for him. I think at times the criticism against Witsel is too much here but he's been pretty bad the last games and too often when he gets the ball, it's as if our game takes a nap. It's getting really frustrating to see that. Also, the Hazard for Dahoud sub was idiotic as well. It's nice to have Hazard back but crippling the midfield by taking out the only creative midfielder is just braindead. Dahoud didn't have a great second half, though.
Bruges draws Lazio, both have one point more than us. We need at least 4 points from the next two games, preferably two wins because I wouldn't like to depend on getting a result in Russia in december.
Should've taken Reyna out much earlier as he was struggling the most out there. We also need to be realistic when critiquing the players and call a spade a spade. Dahoud, our "most creative" midfielder did not have a good game, especially in the 2nd half. Looking at his passing chart, 90%+ of his passes were either backwards, lateral, or had less than 8m forward depth. He was way too cautious and did not take any risks which I caught on a few occasions where he had a runner from the flank into the box and he looked their way but wouldn't pull the trigger and instead turned and played a lateral pass. If he is going to play thay way then he is no better than Witsel who at least defends and wins balls. Brandt for Reyna should have been the first sub and then Hazard for Reus.
To be honest I don't think it was the type of terrible performance where the team doesn't show up. They played hard and stayed focused but the attacking players favor the same spaces around the area and it gets hard to break through the bus. The team was much better about switching sides quickly, but there wasn't much threat of anyone creating chances from the wings, especially with Sancho mysteriously unwilling to take his defender on. This is on Favre to formulate solutions. As I wrote the above paragraph, Favre is explaining that he wanted them to utilize the flanks better, but Reyna and Sancho played too narrowly and made it easier for Zenit to defend.