1:1
Both are headed goals from corners
Both are headed goals from corners
Bundesliga 13/14
- Thread starter Balu
- Start date
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
2:1 Reus.
Brilliant. Literally seconds after miscontrolling an excellent through pass from that Armenian bloke Liverpool chased in the summer.
Brilliant. Literally seconds after miscontrolling an excellent through pass from that Armenian bloke Liverpool chased in the summer.
Reus with a well-taken goal there with his left foot. Dortmund are creating chances for fun and well worth their lead after 21 minutes.
Lovely football from Dortmund. Plenty of options in the box, and they are so quick whenthey go forward. How have Stuttgart been doing in the league this season?
Good game this. Anyone notice Hummels outside of the foot pass earlier on? feck it was a beauty
Really struggled in the beginning of the season, but stabilized under their new coach Schneider. Right now one of the huge pack of teams pushing for the International places behind the top three in the Bundesliga.
They invest a lot so far in this game and I kinda doubt that they can hold up the same pace the whole game.
Who's this Timo Werner kid? Looks very promising in this opening half
Very highly rated 17 year old striker talent out of Stuttgart´s own academy. He was absolutely fantastic for Germany´s U17. Scored 16 goals in his 18 games for them.
EDIT: Now that is half time a little bit more about him: His greatest strengths are IMO his ability in dribbling and pace. There was one scene in the first half, where he completely outsped Sokratis, who is among the top 3 CB´s in the league in terms of acceleration and speed.
Fun goal. Andanother one 40 seconds later!
Now this is comical defending
Lewandowski x 2 
How is Lew treated by his team mates and the fans?
Reus' development in the last 2 years is really outstanding. Seems like he added brilliant playmaking skills to his already amazing abilities this summer.
Sahin is absolute class.
What an assist by Reus for the 3:1. Stuttgart knocked out. Now please some good substitutions and a good warm up for the Arsenal game.
Yep and I keep the opinion that he had to be on the short list for the Ballon d´or. His form in this season is really, really good eventhough he was not even at his maximum today.
Of course he should, same with Gündogan. It was already a joke that Reus wasn't on the short list last year after his brilliant season for Gladbach, which was equally impressive as Bale's last season at Tottenham. Sucks for him to be German, 2 years ago the league was massively underrated, so he was ignored, now the league was that strong that he probably missed out for 'political' reasons. Both Gündogan and Reus deserved it more than Özil, imo.
Lewa hatrick
He's an unbelievable striker. If he does go to Bayern, it'll be rather disappointing. 
And Lewandowski makes his hatrick perfect. Took him 17 minutes
Pep won't want Lewandowski.
Dortmund bullied Stuttgart in the second half. Should be a great encounter v Arsenal.
31 (!) goals in eleven league games & 18 in their last four home matches. Crazy.
Dortmund bullied Stuttgart in the second half. Should be a great encounter v Arsenal.
31 (!) goals in eleven league games & 18 in their last four home matches. Crazy.
Crazy match, I'd shit myself if I were Wenger. Shame we missed on Robert in 2012, even if that means we've got RVP. It seems like we've made some enquiry about Reus by the way. ( granted Phelan wasn't talking shit about this 'big transfer', it makes some sense I guess )
Can't see us signing him myself. Not with Rooney and van Persie being at the club, and Bayern luring him in, but if we did get him I'd be ecstatic.
Where'd you hear that?
Where'd you hear that?
It looks more and more probable that Lewandowski will eventually end up somewhere else. Rumours about Bayern have cooled down recently and even his cnutish agent hasn't appeared on national TV to talk about his move to Bayern during the last month.
He won't have much problem finding a top club that will pay him €7m a year though. He'd basically fit in anywhere.
How far off are we from matching the Bundesliga and La Liga giants?
Polish commentator, he's more or less crazy about BVB and Lewandowski himself and he was spot on about our offer for him back in 2012. Gives him some credibility I guess.
I'd look at matching Stoke and WBA at this stage.
Light years away
C'mon, elaborate. What are we missing?
In a way yes, but I´m really not sure if he could reach his current level in any system. He is a very good finisher, but not world class in that matter. For that he is simply not clinical enough. This is not the worst in the world in Dortmund, because they have several offensive midfielder with the ability to easily score double digit figures in a league season.
His greatest strength and also the reason why he is so valuable for Dortmund (they did offer him a 6mil € contract afterall, which is a lot for Dortmund) is his role as target men. He is one of the best when it comes to receiving the ball, shielding and holding on to it until the fast offensive midfielder catch up. This is important because one of the most used ways to build up the play at Dortmund are precise long passes by either Hummels or Sahin. I would guess that he was targeted in that way at least a dozen times today. Such a high focus on long balls is actually not that common at top clubs.
Lewandowski would also not be the first Dortmund player, who looks extremely good because Klopp´s system is build around his greatest strengths. Sahin, Barrios and also Kagawa are all cases, which could never recapture their top form away from Dortmund. The only exception will be most likely Götze, because he has simply the most individual quality and is extremely versatile.
He is of course nonetheless a quality striker, who would still offer a lot for any club he will join. But reaching world class? I´m sceptical.
The most? Movement and pace, mostly the former. And maybe a mentality change in your manager.
Compared to Dortmund and Bayern? Basically everything.
Light years is prob a bit harsh tbf. I suppose the midfield four is where the big difference lies isn't it? We're crying out for some steel plus some technical guile in the middle of the park. In comparison with the European teams are inability to control possesion is frightening at times, even looking back to Bilbao a few years ago who are by no means superpowers and they passed us off the park. We haven't improved that position of the pitch at all since in my opinion, all thats happened is that our most important midfielder in Carrick is now a few years older. I don't think we're particularly great at winning the ball back either which is where the steel or lack of it comes into play.
I think we also have a problem on the flanks, Nani too inconsistent, Valencia struggling for form with two years and Januzaj's and Kagawa's future surely doesn't lie out wide? For me that's where the big difference between us and the superpowers is, across the midfield.
Team mates: no one knows, fans: they don't love him because of the shit his agents pulled, but afaik he never lied to them so I suppose they will accept him as long as he (looks like he) gives a feck.
I'm 100% sure Dortmund would not have sold either one for any sum that's even remotely close to fergie's good old value. No point in pondering about the past in this case.
Despite all the shit his agents did Dortmund would probably still be glad to make him their top earner.
I feel like that's a huge misconception with Klopp. He does not build his system around the players he has, he buys intelligent footballers who fit into his idea of football. What I mean is that Lewandowski plays for Dortmund/fits their system because he fits Klopp's idea of football and not the other way around.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BYBZD1bCQAAQc8U.jpg:large
A good defence at their peak. A half-decent midfield. Wide players who actually contribute. And that's before we go into general team problems, namely are our passing, movement, interplay and pressing compared to the top teams...
I fully agree and it was probably not worded well by myself. I meant that Klopp´s system highlights the strengths of Lewandowski extremely well because those strengths play a very important role in his prefered way to play football. That is why I said it was built around Lewandowski´s strengths and not Lewandowski himself. It was about his role as target man. Klopp always prefered tall strikers who could handle and shield a ball well. That is also why Alexander Frei, who was a very good striker in his own way and one of the few consistent performers at Dortmund when Klopp took over, had not much of a future at Dortmund. He simply did not fit Klopp´s style.
I would even go further than you and say that he does not only buy players who fit his idea of football, he also gets players who have potential in certain areas and then moulds them into the players he needs for his system. Just look at Lukasz Piszczek or Eric Durm for example, who were brought up as completely different player types but had certain skills, whom Klopp capitalized on. Mats Hummels is another example. He was always technically gifted, but his enourmous passing range and accuracy did not really surface until Klopp worked with him for years.
Borussia Dortmund is all about a very well executed system filled with player with certain skills, who all know what they have to do on the pitch. It is less about the pure overall individual skill, but more bringing the different skills in a well working balance. Given the level Dortmund plays on for several years now, they have a relatively low amount of genuine world class players. In my book (granted I have high standarts for that label) they only have four: Hummels, Piszczek, Reus and Lewandowski and only the first three I can see working in pretty much every system. The rest of the squad are all really good football players, some even with the potential of reaching world class who have certain skill sets needed to execute the system.
I think he will end up in Munich. The agents wanted Dortmund to raise his salary for the current season and succeeded, so with his departure from Dortmund settled and the Bayern deal negotiated, they have no more reason to cause unrest.
did anyone see the Freiburg keeper v Hamburg??? feck me! I've seen some shockers in my time but that takes it.