Matchday 19 @ Home vs. Gladbach

So, 1 win in the last 9 BL games, it has been a very poor last few months.

Time to change this and beat this Gladbach side. Of course this will not be easy, Gladbach are the surprise of the season and deservedly beat Bayern last week. But I am cautiously optimistic - I think at home, on a good day, if we play as a team, we should get these 3 points. And if we do, then maybe we can start to look upwards again. If we do not, however, we'll have to start watching out for those danger spots again.

But I am cautiously confident, even though we are coming up against an excellent side.


One extra reason for optimism, our new weapon: Vedad Ibisevic!
For the first time in quite a few seasons, we have bought a striker really worth getting excited about. And Labbadia has already confirmed that he will play tomorrow, as a starter. What this means for the others? Cacau gets to move back to his favourite position, just behind the leading striker, while Schieber will initially begin as the joker. Pogrebnyak's days are essentially numbered.

Who is missing?
In defence, Arthur Boka remains at the African Cup of Nations, whereas Boulahrouz will have to miss the game again due to his back injury.
Problems in midfield as well: Gebhart is injured again, unlucky guy, and Traore remains at the Nations Cup. Gentner, who ended on such a strong note before Xmas, is out injured.

So there are places of concern:

In defence, the biggest question is who starts at RB. With Boulahrouz out, Celozzi got the nod last week after a good xmas break. However, he really failed to convince, doing poorly in Schalke. You wonder whether his days at the club are numbered as well, if he does not get to start tomorrow they may well be. But maybe he will get the chance again. There is competition, however: our new Japanese signing, Sakai, did not make his debut last weekend, but has been bought to compete for the starting spots and could perhaps get his shot instead of Celozzi tomorrow. Personally, I would be for it. There is also the wild card option, in Antonio Ruediger, still without a competitive appearance, but he has convinced for VfBII so far this year (and is only 18). Someone to look out for in the future, although I doubt he is ready to step up yet.

At leftback, Molinaro faces little competition, and I imagine the Tasci/Maza partnership will continue. For the first time this year, however, I would call into question Maza's first 11 spot. He has played fairly well but overall but performances have decreased of late and we are on a bad run. Let's bear in mind that, for all our criticisms of Niedermeier last year, his partnership with Tasci was cemented in a very successful rueckrunde that saw us come 4th in the second half of the season. Perhaps, if Maza does not up his game, he could yet regain a starting spot. Delpierre will also be making his debut since returning from injury - albeit for VfBII. But maybe he could yet challenge in future weeks. A place to keep an eye on.



In midfield, still a lack of clarity over Kuzmanovic's future, but Gentner's injury basically guarantees he should start tomorrow nevertheless, alongside Kvist (whom I would like to see return to his early season form).

More debate on the wings. Harnik is a guaranteed starter at rightwing even though he has not played well the last couple of months, and my assumption would be that Okazaki starts on the left wing (he scored after entering as a substitute last week). Hajnal did poorly in that position, and I don't think we will play with a creator, so he will be on the bench. However, Kicker interestingly predicts that Schieber will start on the left wing. This would be a major surprise for me - that would be 4 natural attackers in the first 11, don't forget that Harnik is only an artificial winger. So I would be surprised if that happens. But I would not necessarily be against trying it out.

Then we will see Ibisevic in attack, with Cacau just behind him. I can't wait to see how they work together.


So:
--------------------------Ulreich
Celozzi/Sakai------Tasci-----Maza--------Molinaro
----------------Kvist------------Kuzmanovic
Harnik------------------------------Okazaki/Schieber
----------------------------Cacau
----------------Ibisevic


Hopefully it is the key to 3 points!

 

So, Hajnal gets the nod at left midfield over Okazaki.

And one big surprise:
Antonio Ruediger starts at RB and makes his competitive senior debut! At 18, quite some feat. Wish him good luck!

 

Down 1-0 at the break. Looks like we are missing that winning mentality once again. But a result has to come today. I expect a change in the second half.

 

Gladbach whooping us 3-0 now. I am kind of happy about it, because it makes things clearer.

My opinion: in the last two months, we have been THE worst side in the Bundesliga.


The Labbadia burn out effect is happening here too. Like in Fuerth, then Leverkusen, then Hamburg, his teams just end up playing badly after a while. I do not know why, but I can see the trend. Things must turn around very soon, or he must be fired.

 

Bobic and Labbadia seem to have a very good rapport, but the manager will have to accept that, if we cannot win one of our next two matches at least (away to Leverkusen then home to Berlin, latter of which should be manageable), then Labbadia will have to come under pressure.

I never expected anything of him, and he arrived at a time when I expected nothing of the side either. But after 12 months here, and with good acquisitions on Bobic's part imo, we really should be seeing a side that is playing significantly better than what we had when Labbadia arrived last season. And it is simply not the case at the present time, even if in between it was.

We will have no chance against Bayern in the cup at this rate. No chance at all.
We will also be fighting relegation very soon if we don't watch out. And this year I think the management got players to ensure that it does not happen. EDIT: which does not speak well for the coach...

 

1 win in the last 10 league games, that was against Augsburg at home (2-1) - even last season we never had such a bad run.

Bobic stated today that there is no trainer discussion. Which means that a trainer discussion has just begun. I give Labbadia about 1 month to start making improvements, or he is gone. But we are not being harsh anyway: we knew that we were getting a failed trainer, and the only question is whether he can surprise and not fail for once. We shall see.

As for Ruediger, I do not think he is strong enough yet. But one must put it into perspective: he is only 18 and indeed had only 8 III. Liga matches in his career before springing in here. All that considered, he did his job well. Certainly could become someone with a future.

 

Player Ratings:

Sven Ulreich: Kicker Rating: 3 (19 played, 2.58 avg.)
My Rating: 4

Antonio Ruediger: KR: 4 (1 played, 4.00 avg.)
MR: 4.5

Serdar Tasci: KR: 3.5 (19 played, 3.21 avg.)
MR: 4

Maza: KR: 4.5 (18 played, 3.53 avg.)
MR: 5

Cristian Molinaro: KR: 4 (16 played, 15 as starter, 3.80 avg.)
MR: 4.5

William Kvist: KR: 4 (19 played, 3.05 avg.)
MR: 4.5

Zdravko Kuzmanovic: KR: 5 (15 played, 13 as starter, 3.50 avg.)
MR: 5

Martin Harnik: KR: 4.5 (19 played, 3.66 avg.)
MR: 4.5

Tamas Hajnal: KR: 3.5 (18 played, 16 as starter, 3.81 avg.)
MR: 3

Vedad Ibisevic: KR: 5 (11 played (incl.Hoffenheim), 8 as starter, 3.63 avg.)
MR: 5

Cacau: KR: 5 (19 played, 17 as starter, 3.97 avg.)
MR: 4.5

SUBS:

Shinji Okazaki: KR: 4 (16 played, 11 as starter, 3.88 avg.)
MR: 4.5

Julian Schieber: KR: No Rating (5 played, 2 as starter, 5.50 avg.)
MR: 4

Raphael Holzhauser: KR: NR (2 played, 0 as starter, no avg. rating)
MR: NR

Unused Subs:
- Marc Ziegler
- Georg Niedermeier
- Stefano Celozzi
- Christian Gentner

 

Thanks for sharing the pics