German football 2019/2020

[Savi]

Yeah that was a sick move

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

That Brandt goal was exquisite. One of the best you’ll see all season that wasn’t a long strike.

The end of that half shows the Favre inclination to turtle with a lead. Good thing Buerki’s been in such great form of late. Aside from that, that was a great half. The 3-4-3 has been working wonders for us in recent weeks.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Yeah that was a sick move

Do you think Thorgan is finally better than Eden? For me, he’s been the big surprise of the season so far for Dortmund with how well he’s played.

 

[Savi]

Do you think Thorgan is finally better than Eden?

Oh no, no no

edit: Burki

 

[Halladay]

Werner gifted another goal.

 

[Savi]

Wtf are Dortmund doing

 

[Deficient Mode]

Akanji is playing much better lately

Pretty typical for Dortmund to give up those goals though

 

[koyvoo]

Holy, this 2nd half is crazy.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

If Favre isn’t out after this game, this club has zero ambition. Same stuff as last season. Easily the worst coach of all the top clubs. This result is his fault. He hasn’t learned from last season.

Why didn’t Dortmund sub Reus in late needing a goal? Strange not to use him today.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Oh no, no no

edit: Burki

I’ll take your word for it, but Eden is getting fat in Madrid counting his money. Done nothing since arriving in Madrid. Thorgan, on the other hand, keeps improving. Maybe if he keeps improving he’ll be better in another season or two.

 

[Deficient Mode]

Not too disappointed. I thought Dortmund played pretty well, and the two biggest scapegoats (Brandt and Bürki) had otherwise very good games. Turnover avoidance isn't Brandt's strong suit but they're playing so much better offensively since moving him to central midfield that it's hard to complain about the occasional mistake like that one. They're averaging 3.2 goals per match in 5 matches since moving Brandt to the 8 after averaging 1.9 goals per match in their previous 18 competitive matches this season. Not all of that is due to Brandt but really some support for my frequent rants about how their weak play with the ball in central midfield - and how poor they were at attacking centrally with pace and control - was the primary reason for their underwhelming offensive display this year. I think their defense has generally been good in that stretch, too - the turnovers today aside.

 

[Deficient Mode]

If Favre isn’t out after this game, this club has zero ambition. Same stuff as last season. Easily the worst coach of all the top clubs. This result is his fault. He hasn’t learned from last season.

Why didn’t Dortmund sub Reus in late needing a goal? Strange not to use him today.

Reus played the whole game...

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Reus played the whole game...

Thats unfortunately the point.

I completely disagree with you about this game. It was the same thing as last season. We play our brand of football, we play well, score goals, take the lead, outplay the other team badly, and then Favre decides we need to be defensive, something that doesn't fit with this team. Immediately, we concede twice. The causes are irrelevant because this team isn't suited to defend. We finally get the third goal, and once again he decides to play defensive.

Right when he put on Piszczek for Sancho, I knew we'd concede again. This team cannot hold leads by defending. It's not our game. Why are you taking off your best attacker for a RB? And if he was going to take off a player on either side to play defensive, it should've been Guerreiro, who didn't clear the ball on the winning goal. He's the biggest defensive liability in the team. Favre finally decides to take him off when Leipzig had tied the game. Favre got his subs wrong. Nagelsmann's subs worked because he's a very good manager. Favre's subs enforced the wrong mentality in his team that we see so many times is why Dortmund under Favre will not be able to be a top team in Europe.

 

[Bure80]

If Favre isn’t out after this game, this club has zero ambition. Same stuff as last season. Easily the worst coach of all the top clubs. This result is his fault. He hasn’t learned from last season.

Why didn’t Dortmund sub Reus in late needing a goal? Strange not to use him today.

If you give away gifts like the first two RB goals its hard to win. This draw is near zero Favres fault. We can talk about subs but thats not the reason Dortmund didnt win.
This has to do with experience. In a few years, hopefully Brandt will not play such a high risk pass in the own half.

 

[Albatros]

Maybe experience is a factor, but Leipzig has a significantly younger squad and seems to suffer less of such issues.

 

[Deficient Mode]

Thats unfortunately the point.

I completely disagree with you about this game. It was the same thing as last season. We play our brand of football, we play well, score goals, take the lead, outplay the other team badly, and then Favre decides we need to be defensive, something that doesn't fit with this team. Immediately, we concede twice. The causes are irrelevant because this team isn't suited to defend. We finally get the third goal, and once again he decides to play defensive.

Right when he put on Piszczek for Sancho, I knew we'd concede again. This team cannot hold leads by defending. It's not our game. Why are you taking off your best attacker for a RB? And if he was going to take off a player on either side to play defensive, it should've been Guerreiro, who didn't clear the ball on the winning goal. He's the biggest defensive liability in the team. Favre finally decides to take him off when Leipzig had tied the game. Favre got his subs wrong. Nagelsmann's subs worked because he's a very good manager. Favre's subs enforced the wrong mentality in his team that we see so many times is why Dortmund under Favre will not be able to be a top team in Europe.

Sancho was limping off the field... think that had a lot to do with it.

Again, they've been scoring a lot more lately than they were in the season and a quarter before that. They played offensively in the second half of this game, too.

 

[Deficient Mode]

Maybe experience is a factor, but Leipzig has a significantly younger squad and seems to suffer less of such issues.

They made more than their fair share of bad mistakes and turnovers in that game as well

 

[Albatros]

Still they have managed very solid 90-minute performances through the season home and away while with Dortmund it's more of a roller coaster.

 

[Deficient Mode]

Still they have managed very solid 90-minute performances through the season home and away while with Dortmund it's more of a roller coaster.

I think the bigger and more frequent issue for Dortmund is the away games where they do nothing offensively than the games where they get a first half lead then choke it. There were tangible reasons why the offense wasn't working in those games, and while they haven't played tough road games in this stretch, they've certainly been far better at generating chances than they were before.

 

[Albatros]

In part that's what I mean, Leipzig has lost one lead all season (1:1 vs Wolfsburg) which is pretty remarkable for such a young team.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Maybe experience is a factor, but Leipzig has a significantly younger squad and seems to suffer less of such issues.

It's the managers. Nagelsmann is very good, Favre isn't a top level manager. Switch the managers, and Dortmund is leading the league by at least five points, while Leipzig would be competing for 3rd or 4th.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Sancho was limping off the field... think that had a lot to do with it.

Again, they've been scoring a lot more lately than they were in the season and a quarter before that. They played offensively in the second half of this game, too.

If Sancho's limping off, you can bring on Goetze or Alcacer. Or at least bring on Schulz and shift Guerreiro to LW because that fullback for winger sub would make a lot more sense. The sub signaled the intent to win the game by playing defensive.

Dortmund played offensively, at times, in the second half. When we needed a goal, of course we played offensively. When we didn't need a goal, Favre let up, and this team can't hold a lead. We lost two leads. One of them was a two goal lead. It's exactly like last season. We haven't had as many chances this season to lose leads because the team doesn't play as well from the start, but the same ability is there because the team hasn't improved much defensively, and Favre still has the same inclination to play defensively once the team gets a lead.

I'd like, for once, to see what we can do playing offensively the whole game. I think in this weak Bundesliga, this year, that we'd win the league pretty easily. It might not be good enough to have success in Europe, but the Bundesliga is so weak, yet we play down to the league most weeks. We finally play well offensively for one half, and throw it away with the same finish to the game. Same mistakes as last season.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

If you give away gifts like the first two RB goals its hard to win. This draw is near zero Favres fault. We can talk about subs but thats not the reason Dortmund didnt win.
This has to do with experience. In a few years, hopefully Brandt will not play such a high risk pass in the own half.

You are missing the point. I don't blame Favre for individual errors of players. I blame Favre for knowing this team has for years made individual errors by the players, yet he still thinks he's going to turn us into a team that can hold onto leads by playing defensively. Thats exactly why we didn't win the title last year. Too many games in the second half of the season where we'd drop points from a winning position. It's as if he completely hasn't learned from last year's collapse.

The experience stuff is nonsense. They signed Hummels and Schulz for experience. Our defense was supposed to become more experienced and as a byproduct, more solid. It hasn't. The team has too many offensively inclined players, too many younger players that play the majority of the minutes, it's not a very physical team. This team is not suited to play defensively.

 

[Deficient Mode]

Dortmund played offensively, at times, in the second half. When we needed a goal, of course we played offensively. When we didn't need a goal, Favre let up, and this team can't hold a lead. We lost two leads. One of them was a two goal lead. It's exactly like last season. We haven't had as many chances this season to lose leads because the team doesn't play as well from the start, but the same ability is there because the team hasn't improved much defensively, and Favre still has the same inclination to play defensively once the team gets a lead.

I'd like, for once, to see what we can do playing offensively the whole game. I think in this weak Bundesliga, this year, that we'd win the league pretty easily. It might not be good enough to have success in Europe, but the Bundesliga is so weak, yet we play down to the league most weeks. We finally play well offensively for one half, and throw it away with the same finish to the game. Same mistakes as last season.

I don't know how you can watch this game and say they stopped playing in the second half like they have sometimes. Or not see obviously positive signs that they didn't "play down to the league" against Fortuna or Mainz, or that they won both away matches they played over this stretch, giving up very few quality chances against, after getting a total of 6 points from their 6 prior away matches this year. And we have something tangible to link this to - the switch to a back 3 and introduction of Brandt in midfield - so it doesn't look like just a random hot stretch.

They aren't a perfect team suddenly but there are plenty of indications that they're playing better and at least clearly outplaying bad Bundesliga teams.

 

[Bon Esprit]

Bild reports (behind paywall, but Focus has it on their free site) Sane to Bayern this winter and Hertha are interested in Götze. Of course they are, but is Götze interested in Hertha? I doubt that.

Beim BVB ist Götze nur noch Reservist - jetzt sollen Klinsmann und Hertha BSC dran sein

Alsi Chelsea is interested in Bailey. He wasn't very good recently, so I would sell him, if the price is right.