Bundesliga 13/14

4-0 Müller, one more :lol: .. ffs, I really feel a bit sorry for Schalke, they looked so much improved after the bad start.
 
NoLogo said:
Well shitty Schalke is back. They are such a mixed back still. Good performance during mid week and now such a howler.
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Thought they were quite good until we scored twice within 2 minutes, after that the whole game changed.
 
Balu said:
Thought they were quite good until we scored twice within 2 minutes, after that the whole game changed.
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They conceded 4 goals that's way to much and doesn't those good chance at the start can't really hide the fact that most of their attacking attempts were hopelessly shit. Especially in the second half they were just awful.
 
Amar__ said:
Alaba was poor there, last thing you'd expect from him is to be outpaced.

edit; It was Dante, not Alaba.
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It is actually quite easy to tell them apart once you relize the one with the hairdo is Dante :D

Balu said:
Can anyone tell me what kind of formation we're playing? At times Schweinsteiger dropped back into a back 3 with both fullbacks playing crazy high. At times, it looked like a normal 4231 with Schweinsteiger and Lahm as central midfielders. At times, Alaba looked like an AM when moving forward with no one covering his flank at all.

I really have no idea, what we're doing out there, the good thing, Schalke have no clue either :lol:
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Schweini does occasionally fall back between the CBs into a sweeper role, also did it last year, most notably in the CL finale. He likes to hang to one side when doing that, mostly left. Purpose is to stabilize defense (naturally), but also freeing up one of the CBs and to allow him to recieve and distribute the ball (or so Spielverlagerung.de claims).
The fullbacks playing higher is clearly Peps idea. What is unbelievable is how they still manage to be in position every time an opponents winger attacks :D I played left back myself (at the lowest possible level, mind) and i could do one of those, but not both together :D

I only tuned in after the 2-0 and from there to min 45 Bayern were scary good, even taking into account that Schalke was shaken by the double strike. I think this was the first time they played close to 100% what Pep has in mind.
 
I love Pep's German, and how he calls the players Basti or Toni in interviews. And I already wrote about it during pre-season, but it's even more obvious now. All players look incredibly confident in possession, it looks like he's really encouraging players to try difficult stuff all the time.
 
strongwalker said:
It is actually quite easy to tell them apart once you relize the one with the hairdo is Dante :D
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Yeah, it is, but I wasn't really paying attention who it was at first, because it was on left side I thought it was Alaba.
 
Ole's_toe_poke said:
So what's with Guardiola playing Lahm as a midfielder? Has he done well there and why does Guardiola love converting everyone into a midfielder?

Honigstein said in the Guardian podcast that Guardiola absolutely loves Lahm as a midfield player and it may continue for a while.
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Lahm is doing reasonably well, not surprising, given the great football player he is. Obviously, Pep wants a small, agile player with good vision on that position, so i recon he will remain the placeholder until Thiago is fit again. Then Lahm can shift back to his default position, making Robben stronger again.
 
Also because Rafinha's doing well at RB & Pep's a keen admirer of him.

German Cup's on tonight - BVB away to 1860 Munich.
 
strongwalker said:
Lahm is doing reasonably well, not surprising, given the great football player he is. Obviously, Pep wants a small, agile player with good vision on that position, so i recon he will remain the placeholder until Thiago is fit again. Then Lahm can shift back to his default position, making Robben stronger again.
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Pretty sure it's about vision and ability and Pep doesn't care about height or other physical attributes at first. In the end Schweinsteiger or Martinez will be the players fighting for that holding midfielder position in my opinion, Thiago will play as one of the two more attacking central midfielders in that 4141 formation.
 
The second round of the German cup is played today and tomorrow:

Dortmund is playing our useless blue neighours right now, still 0-0 after 75 minutes.

Today's games: times are UK, in parentheses the league they play in (Bundesliga 1, 2, ...)

18:00
1860 München (2) - Dortmund (1) 0-2 after extra time.
Münster (3) - Augsburg (1) 0 -3
Wiedenbrück (4) - Sandhausen (2) 1- 3
Wolfsburg (1) - Aalen (2) 2-0

19:30
Bielefeld (2) - Leverkusen (1) 0-2
Hamburg (1) - Fürth (2) 1-0
Hoffenheim (1) - Cottbus (2) 3-0 after extra time.
Mainz (1) - Köln (2) 0-1

/results edited in


Wednesday 25th September

18:00
Saarbrücken (3) - Paderborn (2) 2:1
Eintracht Frankfurt (1) - Bochum (2) 2:0
FSV Frankfurt (2) - Ingolstadt (2) 0:2
Kaiserslautern (2) - Hertha BSC Berlin (1) 3:1

/results edited in

19:30
Osnabrück (3) - Union Berlin (2)
Darmstadt (3) - Schalke (1)
Bayern (1) - Hannover (1)
Freiburg (1) - Stuttgart (1)
 
Dortmund again struggling against a team sitting deep. They lack creativity without Gündogan and their new signings fit well into their pressing, transition, counterattacking style but they probably miss someone like Götze who can unlock a defense with dribblings in tight spaces.

They play a very strong team, so there's really no excuse if they feck up today (which is very unlikely, because 1860 really is useless). But it's 0-0 after 90minutes, so the game goes into extra time.
Dortmund's line-up:
Langerak - Großkreutz, Hummels, Sokratis, Durm - Bender (Hofmann 68.), Sahin - Reus, Mhiki, Kuba - Lewandowski
 
Red card against 1860 and penalty for Dortmund, Auba scores, 1-0 Dortmund now, 15 minutes to go, but I doubt that 1860 can come back with 10 men now.
 
2-0 Dortmund, Mhiki scores, brilliant pass by Hofmann.
 
2-0 by (the otherwise pretty poor) Mkhitaryan after a very well played counter. Assist came from Jonas Hofmann, the best Dortmund player since he came on. The boy is fantastic and could become the next big thing at Dortmund.
 
Surprisingly solid performance by 1860. They parked a bus or two for sure, but still a top Euro squad like BVB should be able to cope with that, especially against the prototype of a 2nd string team. They seem a bit unnerved sice Napoli.

On a sidenote, Moritz Volz of some PL fame was subbed in on 1860 side.
 
Guardiola with rotation, so Pizarro, Contento, van Buyten and Shaqiri are starting today.

Bayern's line-up against Hannover:
Neuer - Contento, Dante, van Buyten, Rafinha - Lahm, Schweinsteiger - Shaqiri, Kroos, Müller - Pizarro

Diouf is injured, so he's not playing for Hannover.

2-1 at halftime, Müller and Pizarro scored for Bayern, Ya Konan for Hannover. We played great in the beginning but lost focus after scoring that second goal. Hannover are back in the game now.

Darmstadt - Schalke 1-1 at halftime. Schalke took the lead with a penalty, Darmstadt scored the equalizer only a minute later.

Final results for the last 4 games:
Osnabrück (3) - Union Berlin (2) 0:1
Darmstadt (3) - Schalke (1) 3:1
Bayern (1) - Hannover (1) 4:1
Freiburg (1) - Stuttgart (1) 2:1
 
Balu said:
Guardiola with rotation, so Pizarro, Contento, van Buyten and Shaqiri are starting today.

Bayern's line-up against Hannover:
Neuer - Contento, Dante, van Buyten, Rafinha - Lahm, Schweinsteiger - Shaqiri, Kroos, Müller - Pizarro
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Just coming back from the stadium, brother-in-law had a VIP ticket left. Gotta say it is nice up there in the lounge, free meal, pretty hostesses all around and the waiter asks you what drink you would like to have ready at yyour table for the half-time break :p


Scene around min 60: Team in the lead and looking comfortable against one of the better BL teams, Ribery, Robben and Alaba warming up together (while Mandzukic and Boateng were still on the bench), the likes of Alcantara, Martinez, Götze, and Badstuber still recovering - a nice feeling indeed.
 
FT
Bayern - Wolfsburg 1:0

Bit of a boring game, but another 3 points. Wolfsburg did a very good job in defense but didn't even try to score, not even after we scored, and we were far from our best going forward. I'm surprised how good we look defensively with Lahm as the holding midfielder. 2 goals conceded in 7 league games is amazing, especially with our injury record. Müller seems to find some form after having a mediocre start to the season, which is really important. Would have loved to see Götze for 15-20 minutes, hopefully he gets some minutes next week. Really looking forward to the CL game at City.

Haven't seen any highlights of the other games, but here are the scorelines and what I read about the games so far.

Hoffenheim - Schalke 3:3

Schalke again part of a game with a lot of goals. I read Max Meyer had a great first half, he started as the number 10 with Draxler not available because of an injury. He's arguably an even bigger talent than Draxler, good to see him getting a lot of minutes early in the season. Schalke had no striker fit enough to start, so Boateng played upfront. Not sure what happened in the second half, but Hoffenheim looked good all season so I'm not surprised they scored 3 goals, Schalke is really awful in defense.

Dortmund - Freiburg 5:0
Reus scored twice in the first half and Freiburg had to play the second half with 10men after Diagne saw a red card after 45minutes. Lewandowski also with two goals.

Leverkusen - Hannover 2:0
Hannover are one of the worst away teams in the league, no idea why they play totally different away in comparison to their home games, so the result is what was expected.

Hertha - Mainz 3:1

Yesterday's game:
Augsburg - Gladbach 2:2

Starting at 17:30 today:
Frankfurt - Hamburg
Hamburg with a new coach, Fink was fired last 10 days ago, Bernd van Marwijk is the new manager.
 
So, the top 3 of the league all played home games today and are together marching forward. The manners of the victories were very difficult, though.

Leverkusen with a very solid win over Hanover (2-0) and Bayern Munich struggled from what I have seen vs. a very defensive Wolfsburg, not scoring until the 65th minute and only winning 1-0. Meanwhile Dortmund ripped Freiburg apart with a 5-0.

While Reus and Lewandowski had both very good performances and scored two goals each, the MotM was a player, which is often overlooked: Klopp´s swiss pocket knife Kevin Großkreutz, who is currently replacing their injured world class RB Lukasz Piszczek. He worked extremely hard on the right flank and created a lot of danger their. His counterpart and Dortmund youngster Eric Durm had also a very good game. Durm is similar to Piszczek a former striker, who is in the middle of converting to a FB. He will also probably make his debut in CL at Tuesday vs. Marseille, because their regular LB Marcel Schmelzer injured himself in training and is out for a couple of weeks. This marks the 3rd injured starter for them at the moment. IMO they showed today, that their depth as squad has definitely grown.
 
Sphaero said:
So, the top 3 of the league all played home games today and are together marching forward. The manners of the victories were very difficult, though.

Leverkusen with a very solid win over Hanover (2-0) and Bayern Munich struggled from what I have seen vs. a very defensive Wolfsburg, not scoring until the 65th minute and only winning 1-0. Meanwhile Dortmund ripped Freiburg apart with a 5-0.

While Reus and Lewandowski had both very good performances and scored two goals each, the MotM was a player, which is often overlooked: Klopp´s swiss pocket knife Kevin Großkreutz, who is currently replacing their injured world class RB Lukasz Piszczek. He worked extremely hard on the right flank and created a lot of danger their. His counterpart and Dortmund youngster Eric Durm had also a very good game. Durm is similar to Piszczek a former striker, who is in the middle of converting to a FB. He will also probably make his debut in CL at Tuesday vs. Marseille, because their regular LB Marcel Schmelzer injured himself in training and is out for a couple of weeks. This marks the 3rd injured starter for them at the moment. IMO they showed today, that their depth as squad has definitely grown.
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What kind of reception did Lewa get?
 
MoneyMay said:
Lewy scored a hat-trick, Balu.
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Really? Haven't seen the game, but kicker and bundesliga.de are saying he scored twice, Reus scored the first and the penalty and Kuba the last goal.
 
lem8sh said:
What kind of reception did Lewa get?
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Its a difficult topic and he is not helping himself with the stupid interview he gave a couple of days ago. It all comes down to his performances. When he is playing like today the fans will cheer for him and congratulate, but they have very little patience with him, when he has a bad day. He was overall pretty inconsistent this season so far and people are already demanding more play time for our striker talent Ducksch or to try Aubameyang as CF. He is viewed as a mercenary and treated differently to the rest of the team, let alone crowd favourites like Hummels, Gündogan or Reus or the new guys.
 
Oh, sorry, guys. On yahoo sport, it says he got a hat-trick. Guess they're wrong.
 
Sphaero said:
Its a difficult topic and he is not helping himself with the stupid interview he gave a couple of days ago. It all comes down to his performances. When he is playing like today the fans will cheer for him and congratulate, but they have very little patience with him, when he has a bad day. He was overall pretty inconsistent this season so far and people are already demanding more play time for our striker talent Ducksch or to try Aubameyang as CF. He is viewed as a mercenary and treated differently to the rest of the team, let alone crowd favourites like Hummels, Gündogan or Reus or the new guys.
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I see, well he is a mercenary in my opinion. Thanks for the response man.
 
Two very interesting games today in the Bundesliga.

Just started has the so called "Borussen-Duell" between Gladbach and Dortmund in Gladbach. The former are very hard to beat at home and will be a real test for latter. The atmosphere in the stadium is absolutely cracking btw.

The second game starts 18.30 CEST and is an absolute top game, namely between Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen. Leverkusen was the last team to defeat Bayern in the league. That was roughly a year ago.... so, yeah.
 
Stuttgart hopefully will push on and get the win today.
 
Tough game for Dortmund this. They look like they'll get the win and they're creating enough chances but Monchengladbach are making them work seriously hard for it. Not particularly impressed by Mhikitaryan's work on the ball when I've seen him I have to say.
 
Brwned said:
Tough game for Dortmund this. They look like they'll get the win and they're creating enough chances but Monchengladbach are making them work seriously hard for it. Not particularly impressed by Mhikitaryan's work on the ball when I've seen him I have to say.
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Mkhitaryan is still far from his maximum in terms of control and passing, but he does work a lot for them in midfield. The number of tackling he commits to and balls he wins is impressive. One of the best pressing performances of a CAM I have seen in a long time. He does a lot for the team, maybe even too much.

Dortmund is lacking cutting edge today, which is something also Klopp sees. He exchanges DM Bender with AM Hofmann.
 
When the feck is Gundogan fit to play?

Dortmund badly miss him specially in though games like this against Gladbach.
 
Penalty for Gladbach feck.

And Hummels sent off.

Weindenfelder to the rescue hopefully.
 
Same shit as in the pre-season.

Gladbach playing for the draw.

And getting the win with a late penalty.
 
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