PBP: Bundesliga MD 25: BVB vs. Hertha Berlin

Could be a 3 man midfield agaun which I'd prefer just to see how it would work but I guess Brandt is rarely used in such a formation. He better uses his chance well though.

Berlin is a team that is severely underperforming this season given their ambition and recent influx of money. I consider them more dangerous than their current rank suggests.

 

I hope Brandt plays centrally whether as a 10 or as an 8. Glad to see him given a start.

 

Good. I hope so too. Realy pleased to see this line up.

 

We have played OK. We could have been slightly more progressive with our passing. Dominating the ball and territory. Missed a few chances, but need to be slightly more adventurous with our passing and the result will come.

 

They somehow need to get Haaland into the game who has barely seen the ball. Maybe a dynamic Moukoko would do well in this game.

I also don't like the ref, allows too much from Berlin.

 

Brandt somehow scores. I thought why he'd shoot from there and then it's suddenly a goal. Goalie mistake but still a good goal.

 

Yeah happy to see Brandt contributing (...). Can we close this out though?

 

With 20 + minutes to go can we take a chance resting Haaland and give some minutes to Moukoko?

 

Red for Berlin. Probably not intentional but that was such an ugly tackle on Reus. Hopefully nothing that lasts. Hummels apparently had problems as well when he left the field.

As usual, we became too passive after scoring but in comparison to other games, we still seemed comfortable and could maintain control of the game by passing the ball away from Berlin. With Berlin down to 10 men, we shouldn't get into problems.

 

Moukoko 2:0 from a very bad angle through the goalie's legs I think. Maybe a bit too selfish in the few scenes he had in attack but he got rewarded.

 

Yeah I feel bad for Marco... Why always im too. Hope he's ok

 

After a very hard and tiring week. It's a very good result. An important 3 points and everyone had a decent game.

The big worries are Hummels and Reus going off with injuries. Hopefully they can be fit for next week.

The big positive was Brandt putting a shift in and getting a goal, which should increase his confidence.

Moukoko with another goal. He is so talented.

A controversial topic, but with the exception of Raphael Guerreiro, I would like to prepare for next season with the players that started or played that match. Passlack too if he is prepared to stay.

That means selling:

Burki
Akanji
Delaney
Witsel
Sancho (very very sadl, but only if he wants out)

Then signing a keeper, CB, CM and winger.

Good result and let's hope Leipzig do us a favour.

 

Yes and he was our best player and regaining form. I really hope it was just precautionary. Maybe even resting him next week, so he can have 3 weeks off until our next match.

 

Nice to win a game where Haalan doesn't score and a clean sheet. I completely agree with the long post of eaglespark, was exactly what I was thinking. If we can't get anything for Burki, keeping as second... Imagine Moukoko Sancho, Haaland if they were still together in 3 years and we had a plan and a defense...

 

yeah agreed re Passlack. Not Dortmund level.

I'd like us to keep Delaney and Akanji, unless we get a much better CB for the latter.

I'm also very disappointed in Meunier at this point. He's really clueless in attack, and it's not just the change in scenery affecting his play. I don't know how he was playing for PSG. Was it Tuchel doing his "this is the player who I will discover, and everyone will call me a genius" thing again?

 

Speaking of Meunier, today I noticed that he has restricted Twitter replies to his account. I can only imagine the things disgruntled fans have tweeted to him.

 

The thing with Delaney is that he is not on cheap wages. He actually is on quite a big contract close to 100K a week, so all the source say. Finally his contract expires next year. We need to sell him now or offer him a new contract.

The same applies to Akanji. He will be entering the last year of his contract, so we need to either give him a new contract or sell.

The other bit of business is giving Dahoud and Zagadou new contracts.

In an ideal world we try to convince Sancho to stay, but that is not realisitc.

We will need to replace Sancho with real quality, we need to sign a good keeper, we need to sign a new CB and a new midfielder. Hence we need to raise funds.

Meunier has been awful, but he is on big wages and would be hard to remove, the same for Witsel. In an ideal situation I would get rid of them both, but it's just not possible.

 

Akanji and Delaney would be good targets for English clubs, especially given their athleticism and excellent English language ability. Their contracts might not bring big revenue with 1 year remaining but it would help.

Meunier might be convinced to move if Morey is firmly entrenched ahead of him. Maybe an EL entrant, or a CL club in a 2nd-tier league would find him useful. On the other hand no one is buying Witsel in the midst of an Achilles rehab.

Bürki is another obvious candidate for a move, and he is good enough to field interest from across Europe. Passlack might be best off stepping down to a lower-ranked league for consistent playing time. It would also be nice to salvage some value from Schulz, but then you need to pick up someone (a reasonably priced veteran or a multi-positional player) to deputize at left back.

So we need a CL-level GK, a young CB with high upside (Lacroix would have been nice...), a solid squad fullback (preferably able to play both sides), and a real winger who can isolate against opposing defenders (see: Bayern).

 

I agree with a lot of this.

If we can get 30 million for Akanji/Delaney combined then that would be some good business. Anything close to 40 million will be excellent.

I agree sadly with Witsel, he will return and run his contract down.

Burki hopefully we can get 10 million or so.

Passlack is good for the dressing room and a local boy. If he is happy to stay for relatively low wages and keep his role, then I am prepared to extent his contract.

I don't see Meunier leaving with the big contract he is on. We can try, but he is likely to stay.

I would keep Schulz too since Raphael gets injured a lot and Schulz can at least cover the role adequately.

So if we make the CL, we at best would have about 40 million to spend.

1. Top class keeper taking us to about 20 million Euros
2. Young promising CB, who is quick. Someone in his late teens. Maybe another 20 million Euros.
3. The midfielder to replace Delaney. Ideally I would want someone like Dahoud, Thomas Partey.

Then the big one if Sancho goes, we need a skillfull talented winger to replace him. We would have the best part of 80 million so money would not be an issue. I would still be tempted to look at Havertz and get a cheaper winger.

 

For the sake of keeping track of the info/rumors, this discussion should be in the transfer thread but anyways...

Meunier is a bit disappointing. Sometimes you see some good stuff from him and in the next scene he looks totally inept with the ball and you don't get how he was a PSG player. We've been unlucky with recent FB signings and missed the trend of those kind of players who are both fast and with good technical skills.

I thought Schulz had one of his best games for us yesterday but I suppose he needs regular playing time and won't be happy with the minutes he gets behind Guerreiro.

Delaney has his strengths and has been useful for us particularly since Witsel's injury. Similar to the Meunier case, we need depth and top class players won't come to us and stay with us to be the second option.

Bürki has shown some insane reflexes and secured us many wins but he also had too many unexplainable mistakes. Interestingly, there are now rumors going around that Bayern could be interested in him as the number 2 should Nübel get a loan. Reportedly, Gulacsi is on the list of candidates we are after who I'd consider to be an upgrade.

 

After the draw between Frankfurt and Leipzig we now control our own destiny to reach CL next year. We just need to Win against them on April 3rd and match their results. And of course do equal or better then Leverkusen and Berlin too.