A thread to discuss the new season with Marco Rose at the helm. Apparently the club have stopped Reyna from playing in the gold cup and have said Moukoko is expected to be fit for the new season. I think the Moukoko news hints that he will be begin his apprenticeship to succeed Haaland. I also like it shows that we are planning on Reyna being a key member of the team.
I think the wording of the Reyna/Gold Cup news in the German media was a bit odd because the US coach Berhalter would be well within his rights to call up anyone he likes for the continental tournament. With the new Nations League tournament in play he simply chose to call up and release the Euro-based players earlier and focus on domestic-based players at the Gold Cup. Either way this is good news for Dortmund.
Yup, I was thinking to myself how Dortmund can just block players from leaving for FIFA sanctioned competitions just like that.
Considering the apathy in the pursuit of a RB, let's hope Meunier gains in confidence during the Euros and that this leads to a significant improvement for us next season.
Overall I think our players had a pretty good run in the Euro. Let's just hope they can carry that momentum into the season.
Well, sadly Zorc was quoted by RN stating that he liked what he saw from Meunier at the EUROs and would like to press the "reset" button on him which means that we will not be looking at any RBs this window but rather going with Meinier....this is depressing to say the least.
Like I said, let's hope he along with the rest of the BVB players who participated in the Euro can carry that momentum into the season.
Well the club is still being linked with St Juste, so at least there will be an alternative if Meunier fails to find better form. Morey is unlikely to be back before November at the earliest you would think, possibly longer. It seems Coulibaly and maybe Collins will get some first team chances this season, both are very young but if St Juste does sign the CB depth looks better then last season.
First friendly of the new season. When most of the first team was out we played a 4-3-3. Dahoud was the 6 and Brandt played as one of the 8s, but he swapped position with Reus a lot. Schulz at left back and Knauff on the right. Passlack started at right back. It was a good start. I am not sure we are planning to play Dahoud at 6. Our left hand side could be great with Raphael, Reus and Brandt all linking up.
Just finished watching our first preseason match. Obviously not much to judge, considering we essentially played our youth academy. The two goals were scored by Tigges and Knauff, which is to be expected as they have some experience playing professional football. Tobias Raschl made a positive impression on me during the 45 minutes he played, and I really hope Rose integrates him into the senior team as the season progresses.
Playing Bochum and it hasn't been particularly good. We played a 4-4-1 in the first half with some positional change. I seriously have to question why the management ever bought Schulz and Wolf. They maybe physical, but are seriously lacking ball skills for top players. The team was rusty, there were a number of poor touches, but what worried me was we didn't look very creative. I guess still early days. No Haaland. Raschl has looked the best Dortmund player all day.
Sorry. We played a 4-1-4-1. Passlack started at right back, whilst Schulz started at left back. Dahoud played at 6. Reyna and Brandt played in the two 8s ahead of that. Reus on the left and Wolf on the right, but all of the four rotated a lot. In fact, there was bits where Tigges rotated with the four behind, Reus went upfront and Tigges went on the left.
What are people's thoughts on Dahoud as a 6 and playing two high 8s? Personally I am not a fan, because I think it ends up being a flat 4-1-4-1, which limits the passing options rather than a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1, which gives greater passing lanes.
I want Dahoud as an 8 so he can contribute more to the attack, and I want Can as the 6 (rotating with a healthy Witsel) to provide more physical presence there.
I agree especially because Dahoud is decent, but not the greatest defensively. I like Can and he is a great rotational player. I think he may need to cover CB or RB at the start of the season, but in the biggest games it has been shown he is joy good enough. The less said about Witsel the better. I don't see the desire to stick with players that can't cut it. Miracles are unlikely unlikely happen. The last couple of years we blew the league by sticking with a poor manager. The way things are looking now we just don't have the quality required anymore.
4-3-3 would be good with Dahoud at one of the 8 spots as I feel he'd be better suited to counterpressing rather than covering the lateral space on either side of the lone 6 position. Can might be able to pull it off but he is just so error prone that I don't see it.
Yeh, but at least Can makes errors doing what he is supposed to be doing. Other players would take the easy way out and not make the 'obvious' mistake that fans criticise. However, we would never have any possession against the likes of City and be hammered 3-0, but they can pretend they had a good game and made no mistakes. Can is the best option we currently have to play 6. He understands the role, he is brave and gives everything to help the team even if he takes the blame himself. He is a true warrior for the club. With his versatility I would be very happy for Can to play 30 games a season, but we need better at 6.
Can had 2 amazing half-seasons, and when his form dipped for the last 2-3 months of last season everyone decided that he is too error prone and butchered him. I would give him a better chance to lead this team, because he's a leader. Let him own the #6 role and see if he's up for it. (Notice that I was not a big fan of Can's signing, but he's proved me wrong.) I think that's a much more efficient solution than moving him to his less preferred CB position and finding a new number 6 who has to be ready to start. We have 3 CBs other than Can that can start today (hopefully DAZ has a more healthy season.) So instead of splashing money on a 6, it seems to me more wise to spend a smaller amount on a CB that is still not polished and give him few minutes to prepare him to play a bigger role next season --especially that we still have to replace the lost creativity of Sancho and Hakimi, which we have not done so far with new players. Instead, we benched Brandt all of last season. The only new source of creativity last season has been Dahoud. And no, I don't consider Reus, Reyna and Hazard to be creative players. Giving assists is different from unlocking defenses. So the plan for new recruits should be, in order of priority: - new creative players in any position that can contribute this season, especially wingers - an offensive-minded RB (I'm happy with giving Meunier a second chance, but we should have a backup plan, even if it's a young player) - a backup striker that can take over when Haland leaves next season - a CB that can be a starter next season
I actually think Can prefers to play CB. I am not one, who is too harsh on Can, but I feel the team needs more. It's a key area of the pitch and an even better player than Can will take as on leaps and bounds. How are Reus and Reyna not creative? They are both more creative than Dahoud, they don't just give assist, but they unlock defences with key passes. Do you mean a dribbler that beats a man? Though I agree we need to replace Sancho's creativity and that's a huge hole to fill. Buying a 2nd rate player is not going to do that. We need to buy a top quality player. I see no reason to buy a CB. We have Hummels, Akanji, Zagadou, Can, Koulibali and Collins. We need to give youngsters a chance and at a push Meunier can play at the back. Buying a CB would be a complete waste of money. Our defence is fine, the problem is we didn't control games in midfield and invited lots of pressure. For most teams it was then inevitable they would concede. I don't see why we need a back up striker all. We can trust in Moukoko, who already showed last season he can score goals. This time he will be able to play from the start. As outlined we are stacked with CBs and no need for that. We could do with a RB, but this is 3rd on my priority list. We have two key areas we need to address. 1. The creative player to replace Sancho and there are only a couple of players available at this level. Both might cost up to 50 million Euros. It's pointless wasting money on a 2nd rate player. Better to just invest in a couple of relatively cheap extremely talented youngsters and hope for Dembele/Sancho rather than a Mor. However, even doing that means we are writing of competing for major trophies this season and if we are doing that why keep Haaland? 2. A 6 to help control the midfield. This will mean we don't have to defend so deep and can control the ball. It will also allow us to dominate games easier and give our attacking players more ball.