Hakimi was at fault for the first goal and lost his way a bit after that. However, Toprak, Diallo and Schmelzer were poor when they came on. Sancho did very well and Tottenham specifically arranged their tactics to shut him down. Gotze was poor, Pulisic was poor, Witsel was the biggest disappointment of the night. Delaney was OK defensively, but he can't pass through the press. Dahoud was isolated, but did OK. Reus really carries this team. Without him we saw the quality. The decision not to strengthen in January was a terrible one and it would cost the club severely. No quarter finals means we won't be able to attract the top signings we need. If Reus is injured for any length of time the league is gone too.
Unless you expected us to win the Champions league, there is still a title race we are playing for. LF fcked our subs up but any supposed fan of Dortmund should know today's performance is not a reflection of the team's standard at full strength due to injuries, flu, tired players filling in for other injured players. The season is not over because we are out of the Champions League. We have no depth to play for two titles and need to focus on the Bundesliga.
Let's take stock of the situation here. Tottenham make 110M in revenue more than us and spend 40M less on players. They are the laughing stock of the PL thanks to their uber cheap MD and stadium gaffe. Yet when it matters they deliver. The main reason why they are successful is because they never have potato sacks like Toprak, Großkreutz, Castro, Wolf and Schmelzer lining up for them. All of their players contribute. We had passengers on the pitch today. Dahoud didn't know wtf he was doing. Götze is not and will not be anything other than a no. 10. Pochettino is miles ahead of Favre.
It may be getting late for that as well. Unless we start winning again soon. And maybe if Bayern goes far in CL which I'd doubt. The way I see it our lead is merely 2 points until we play Munchen...
We all need the board needed to strengthen and they gambled and that was even with Reus fit. I don't know why Pulisic started over Raphael. It was baffling. He was poor but so was virtually every other Dortmund player. It was foolish keeping Gotze on, when Tottenham were pushing up. We had no space, because Tottenham defenders knew nobody could run in behind. Gotze is too slow and it suffocated the team. The League AND this tie is still to play for. With Reus back we go for it. I ultimately think it was a mistake changing formation. Should have stuck with a 4-2-3-1 with Philipp, so the play would remain the same. Once more there was a lack of leadership.
With the players we had today, I did not expect us to beat Spurs not with the squad, but I expected us to still have a decent change of going through. A 2-1 or 1-0 loss. 3-0 is a very poor result. This summer all the deadwood needs to be cleared: Toprak, and Schmelzer especially. I am a bit worried about Diallo. He is our 4th best CB, which is really not good enough for the money spent.
I think y'all need to relax. We had an OK first half. We lacked leadership which it seems only comes from Reus on this team. (Maybe also from LP.) We've had a bad stretch which reflects our level without Reus. This can happen to any team. - Hakimi showed is real age for once with two defensive errors. Doesn't mean we forget what he usually provides on offense. - Sancho disappeared in second half.. don't know why! But probably because we weren't moving the ball forward as a team. - Pulisic has Mikhitarian syndrome, where he does everything well except for the last touch. But I thought he was better than previous games. If we're out of the CL, it's a reality check that we need reinforcements for next season, and that we can't let the chance slip to build a top team around the talents in this group. It also allows us to focus on the league!
Most people expected a loss without Reus Akanji Alcacer Weigl Piszczek. Not by three goals but a loss. So it is too late even though we have a small lead? Too late, we should have signed Brandt in January even though Leverkusen need him like a hungry beggar needs food. Too late, we should have beaten RM Tottenham and MUFC to sign Pochettino and not Favre, or was it Sarri before his losing streak? Take a walk outside and take in some fresh air. A loss is a loss and our team will be doomed if they are half as defeatist as the commenters here.
Cannot blame the players all the time. We got beat tactically: goals were on the counter and set pieces. They beat us soundly in our own game. Reus wouldn't have done anything since he's a central player and they jammed the midfield. Perhaps taken some pressure off of Sancho. Maybe with Alcacer as well there was some hope with Raph and Sancho on the flanks. Not having Akanji hurts us as well. But, LF was absolutely brutal today. Team selection, formation, tactics, substitutions or lack thereof, assessment of opposition. He got NOTHING right.
Well, we need to get back on track. 4 games without a win, now. I really hope Favre changes his approach of giving the subs a max of 10 and mostly less minutes to have an impact. We need a win against Nürnberg for the confidence. More than the result, I am kind of worried how these kind of games affect the team. It's pure speculation but I'm probably not the only one who thinks that the tough Liverpool loss might have been one of the factors for Hummel's departure. If poor results like today lead to similar thoughts for guys like Sancho, then we face yet another loss of huge talent that hit us almost every year. We cannot make progress that way.
LOL. Nobody seems to get that. What's worse is that we spend more on the deadwood each season. You know why? Because the biggest deadwood is the CEO of the club. He has balls the size of genetically retarded grapes.
Of course it effects Sancho. He will want no part of this. I expected no more than 2 years from him, but this is the sort of result which will make him strongly consider leaving this summer. We will struggle to keep him. Lots of people support players and then pretend they support the club, but will soon leave when the players leave. It's absolutely ridiculous to say Reus would not have done anything. He has done more with worse players against better teams than Tottenham. He has carried this team all season and made it look much better than it is. Yes it's the players fault and Favre;s but the set piece goals was solely on the players. It's not Favre's fault Tuchel spent so much on Toprak, who is rubbish. It's not his fault that Diallo is short and can't header. When Zagadou was on we dealt with the set pieces. It's not his fault Schmelzer can't close crosses. They pushed up, because we had no speed to run in behind, which Reus would have changed with his smart movement. We couldn't pass around their press without Akanji and we missed his physicality. Witsel and Delany is not going to cut it at the top level. Dahoud needs to get a run of games and be given a shot. Favre got a lot wrong today from his late subs to not selecting Raphael and Philipp. Dahoud has shown time and time again he can't play in a 3.
What happened to LF's 60 to 70 minute substitutions? Pulisic and Dahoud should have made way for JBL and RG. I did not want Zagadou to start but wasting a sub to bring him off late in the second half for Schmelzer is dumb, it ruins his confidence and confuses our own defenders at corners. Toprak and Schmelzer coming on late as defensive substitutes is suicidal, what happened to LF keeping them on the fringe of the squad? He needs to go back to what worked before.
I disagree with Zagadou. I thought he had an excellent game and we badly needed him. He went off, because he was exhausted and I don't see how that hurts his confidence. If anything this match, though he will be devastated with the result, will confirm to him how important he is. I don't know how Pulisic lasted so long. In truth I think the right decision was to take off Witsel for Philipp. Witsel was really poor today and Dahoud at least was trying some forward passes. To take the team to the next level we need Dahoud. It's sink or swim with him. There's not enough quality in the team otherwise.
We lost twice to Spurs last year. Reus wasn't exactly Lionel Messi. He's a lot like Hazard. Excellent player but he's not Ronaldo level.
It looked to me that Zagadou was injured. That's why he came off. Oh.. also what happened between Diallo and Toprak on the second goal? Did Diallo just change the plan on Toprak and go to cover the area where Llorente was?
I was wondering about that as well. I hope I'm wrong but it was almost as if they were arguing about who could cover the near post and who had to do the harder work in the middle were all the other players were.
If you were paying attention you would have realised Reus didn't play those games. Yes Reus is not Messi level, only Ronaldo is on the same level as Messi. However, there he is pretty much the next level below and better than Hazard. He also works hard and is a leader unlike Hazard. For some reason you are always keen to downplay our best and most loyal player of the last 20 years. If Reus had left then there is good chance Dortmund would be at the same level as Schalke.