I feel that won't be enough, especially if you want your full backs to push up. We could be vulnerable on the counters coming from the wings.
Well if u r going to play Meunier, then u have no need for him to bomb up. I don't think he has the stamina nor the speed for making contributions in that final 3rd, granted we have only seen a small sample size of his games, but... The other option would be to push Meunier back into CRB alongside Hummels, and play Hazard as a RWB. I am really interested in seeInG Moukoko come through, he might be a great option to have as a 2nd forward outside of Haaland, Brandt playing there is a waste of his talents, but its understandable that there were no other options, which is y selling Paco was such a strange decision. At the very least he could have easily played RW, LW assuming Haaland preoccupied the CF ... Immobile, Isaak, Paco, they were all wasted opportunities.
Favre rolled the dice with the lineup in order to rest Haaland and Raphaël (290 and 250 mins with their national teams) and got away with it against a Kramarić-less Hoffenheim. He divulged that Reus was also injured for most of the break, so I guess I can live with the lineup. Mostly though, props to the team for keeping it together with the patchwork backline - toward the end they had a number of chances to extend the lead.
I am not that worried about Meunier. I think he just needs to get used to the team. But yes, I think that's what Favre will do for Lazio: Meunier as a 3rd CB, if LP is still injured, Passlack as RWB, and Guerreiro on the other flank. But if you don't have the FB or WB helping in attack, then it will be even less width, and we already have a tendency to play through the middle sometimes. I'd much prefer FBs/WBs that push up as much as possible. I agree about Paco. I felt that he wasn't getting much love by Favre and by some people on here. But it also seems that he wanted to leave. He gave us so much creativity and good finishing and got along so well with Reus, Hakimi, Guerreiro and Sancho on the field.
Paco had a great strike rate but he was plagued with fitness/availability issues for his entire Dortmund tenure and was relegated to a backup role with Haaland's arrival. When he asked club management to return to Spain and Villarreal offered 25m it was a no-brainer to accede to his wishes. Delaney did so well filling in at LCB that I'm actually not that opposed to him reprising that role against Lazio (who are off to a very poor start in Serie A and just got pummeled 3-0 by Sampdoria). With Haaland and Guerreiro back in the lineup and Dahoud hopefully getting another start BVB should dominate possession and create loads of chances.
Meunier is not a wing back and there's no reason for him to be pushing up. He should be playing as a defensive right back. Raphael can be the more attacking left back and give us width on the left. Reus can play off the left and be allowed to come inside more due Raphael attacking a lot. Can should be playing at the six and covering Raphael when he attacks. Since Meunier as a right back won't be attacking as much, Sancho should play closer to the wing. The midfield will be Can, Dahoud and Brandt. The team should also press. Against most teams in the Bundealiga we will dominate the ball, dominate the chances created and win.
I agree Meunier is no wing back and Brandt is totally wasted at CF. No reason why Meunier can't play as a regular RB though, it's not crucial for him to bomb forward as the team has enough wide attacking threats in forward areas. Having no back up CF was a clear mistake imo, the hope is that Moukoko can provide that but it seems a bit much to expect a kid that will be barely 16 to provide a viable alternative to one of the best young CF's in Europe straight away.
Honestly how bad could the kid do at CF with what we have seen the past couple of matches. November 21st is the hard date that we will see him?
There is no realistic way to effectively replace someone like Haaland unless you have crazy money. Zorc is BSing a bit when he says Moukoko is the backup #9 but you also see that Bayern filled that spot with Choupo-Moting along with Zirkzee. You can argue this is better than BVB having Reinier plus a carousel of false 9 options, though neither team felt it was worth the investment to get anything more than a token in the role.
Speaking of Moukoko, today he scored a hat trick in the U19 derby while being pelted with profane, violent, and racial insults by Schalke fans.
Exactly! That's what I've been praying for, for the last 3-4 years. The backup striker doesn't need to be as good as the starter! It's much better to have one that none, or frickin' sad attempts at false 9. Well.. his entire tenure of 1.5 seasons.. That's what clubs usually do, they stick with players in hard times so that the players can perform in the long term. I think this deal was maybe a different one, where there was an agreement that it would be somehow temporary. Or, like you say, they really discovered that he's badly prone to injury while he was at BVB. These are the only reasons I can justify him being let go so easily, when we really needed him. I think he would have been great competition for Haland. And we would have had a striker when one of them was injured. That's definitely worth a shot. We'd still need Akanji or Zagadou back for that. I disagree about ruling Meunier out completely for wing back though. I'd love to see that midfield of Can, Dahoud, Brandt.. I think it'd be great if they were all disciplined with their defense.
Yeah signing Choupo was pretty savvy on Bayern's part I think. At the same time, from the BVB perspective you could probably debate whether he would be a superior option to say, having Hazard play false 9 given the way the team plays. The thing is that even a Mainz-level center forward costs significant cash, and you're likely to lose money on the investment. It's not like BVB ran Paco out of town - obviously the club had to pull the trigger on Haaland, and he wanted to return to Spain for family reasons and to get a chance to start consistently. Had Haaland not happened, I agree that Paco could have gotten the minutes to bring his fitness level up (he scored and played 80 minutes for Villarreal today), but they (correctly IMO) did him a solid and granted the transfer.
Imagine going to a match to shout racist abuse at a 15 y/o kid. What's wrong with some people. 3 hat tricks in 3 games is very impressive, his development over the next couple of years will be fun to watch.