That's why it's an advantage that we get them at home first. That way it will lay down the path for the rest of the games until we meet them over there.. I am a little worried were missing alaba, I don't know how bads will do in the CL as a LB..
David Alaba's injury is obviously a mild blow for the quality of our Starting XI but I don't expect it to be a major problem as Badstuber did pretty well offensively as well as defensively against Harnik who isn't a bad player (17 goals last season). However I expect another solution. With Martinez in the picture it is likely that Bads will return to the left CB position, Gustavo being switched to the LB position and our German-Spanish premium duo taking over command down the center. After all they've a lot of time to train together at Säbener Straße while the rest of the team is away with their respective national teams.
What did Badstuber do offensively that was so good? He made 2 runs the entire match.. and then passed back. Seriously he is a Bundesliga II level player esp offensively in such a position. I prefer Gusti as he has pace to play LB like you say though.
Well to put it into perspective. He did very well for being a CB. Had some nice overlapping runs with Ribéry which we hadn't seen him do before and that combination play with the outside of the left food was fine as well. So nothing extraordinary but it was better than before.
So what though? He made the runs and the second he got the ball he passed back to Ribery again. Making a run and not crossing the ball makes it seem rather useless. Also we've seen him play quite bad vs pacey winger which didn't happen in this case. Like you say, hope Gustavo plays there (or Contento) until Alaba gets back. Can't wait to see the full team with Alaba, Javi and Gomez in 3 weeks.
The effect badstuber will have is tremendous on our attacking foundation, not so much defensive. He can defend because he's just superb at predicting balls and intercepting passes, but horrible at making decisive runs to help with play. Our only hope is that Ribery gets into amazing form.
Can't wait to see Alaba mature this season, as well as martinez who is really going to give us an extra dimension.