That's Hannover relegated todady, they had to win this to keep a realistic chance. Nice to see them going down as well, shit club. Sadly it doesn't look like Hoffenheim will follow their example.
Bundesliga 2015/2016
- Thread starter Piratesoup
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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.
Djilobodji on loan from Chelsea did this
That was called as a freekick to Bremen, by the way.
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Wow, there's now a real chance RB Leipzig will only finish the season on the play-off spot and consequently lose the tie against the 16th of the first league.
Have Nürnberg and Freiburg already played each other?
Have Nürnberg and Freiburg already played each other?
Augsburg lead against Dortmund after 20 minutes
Tuchel got the substitution right. Castro comes in for Reus and scores. It's quite impressive how well the team works even when rotating players and even without Auba and Gündogan.
What's wrong with Gündogan by the way? Is he struggling with an injury? He rarely played in recent weeks if I'm not mistaken.
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1-3, should be game over.
What's wrong with Gündogan by the way? Is he struggling with an injury? He rarely played in recent weeks if I'm not mistaken.
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1-3, should be game over.
Dortmund is playing an amazing season and it will still not be enough to stop Bayern from winning the league again. Kinda crazy.
I can't help but think that the title race is still very much on.
Watching the Augsburg-Dortmund game made it clear to me that this Dortmund team is unlikely to drop points – they beat Augsburg without Auba, and Tuchel has been great with rotation throughout the season (and I doubt that will change)... and Dortmund is pretty much without any injuries to key players.
Bayern on the other hand is without all the first choice centre backs, Robben is out for 2-3 weeks and some of our players have been a bit inconsistent. And there is still Schalke and Gladbach to play; we love to drop points to Gladbach. A 5 points lead really isn't comfortable.
Watching the Augsburg-Dortmund game made it clear to me that this Dortmund team is unlikely to drop points – they beat Augsburg without Auba, and Tuchel has been great with rotation throughout the season (and I doubt that will change)... and Dortmund is pretty much without any injuries to key players.
Bayern on the other hand is without all the first choice centre backs, Robben is out for 2-3 weeks and some of our players have been a bit inconsistent. And there is still Schalke and Gladbach to play; we love to drop points to Gladbach. A 5 points lead really isn't comfortable.
proud of the team. great game, just like a topteam has to do. struggled in the first half, great game from augsburg, suprising subtitution with reus off and castro on, thought more of shinji or sahin. changing in tactics, and it worked. passlack and leitner also made a godd game.
ilkay is injured since one week or so.
Very late to respond but in case you haven't heard yet: Gündogan got a knock on his foot in training and according to Tuchel could have played with a special shoe if it had been necessary; Tuchel didn't deem it necessary to take any risks though because that (almost) all other players were fully fit.
Daniel Didavi has signed a pre-contract agreement with Wolfsburg, according to BILD.
Typical Wolfsburg transfer.
They signed so much dross over the years despite having a crazy budget. I really start to doubt allofs.
Nothing wrong with signing Didavi, tbf. He's been pretty good whenever I've seen him this season and his ceiling should be quite high even after all his injuries. Depends on the transfer sum, of course.
Free transfer. There's nothing negative to say about it, Didavi is class and he will be a decent upgrade over Caliguri/Schürrle etc.
Didavi on a free (though with signing fee) isn't the business which would have triggered my doubts about Allofs. Buying Schürrle for €30+m and selling de Bruyne just days before the transfer window closes so his 'successor' Draxler has no pre-season training with his new club is what I shake my head about.
Dunno. I was very critical about the whole KdB/Draxler thing, but I understand why it happened. It was a okay solution in a difficult situation.
The bigger issue is, that they have a very average squad. Three players on CL-level (Naldo, Gustavo, Rodriquez) and three decent ones(Vierinha, Kruse, Draxler). The rest of the team is somewhere between euro-league and midtable. They also don´t have any promising talents (with the exception of Draxler), so they will struggle to improve. Didavi is another okay player. 26 years old with a long injury record.
In the end it depends on their ambitions. He might improve them, but they won´t compete for the CL with players like him. They did similar transfers in the past (Jung, Träsch, Schäfer, Dante, Caligiuri). Bundesliga proven and solid, but not good enough if you want to finish top4 (or even top7)
The bigger issue is, that they have a very average squad. Three players on CL-level (Naldo, Gustavo, Rodriquez) and three decent ones(Vierinha, Kruse, Draxler). The rest of the team is somewhere between euro-league and midtable. They also don´t have any promising talents (with the exception of Draxler), so they will struggle to improve. Didavi is another okay player. 26 years old with a long injury record.
In the end it depends on their ambitions. He might improve them, but they won´t compete for the CL with players like him. They did similar transfers in the past (Jung, Träsch, Schäfer, Dante, Caligiuri). Bundesliga proven and solid, but not good enough if you want to finish top4 (or even top7)
No love for Arnold? I rate him quite highly even though he has stagnated a bit.
Nope. He is a hard-working and fighting (literally...) teamplayer. His attitude seems to be exceptional, but that is the only thing, that impresses.
@PedroMendez
I understood your post above differently where you wrote you really start to doubt Allofs: I interpreted that the emphasis was on start. There's no doubt that Allofs made a couple of mediocre or poor decisions. I brought Schürrle up because it's the worst case in terms of return of investment, and while I understand why Allofs sold de Bruyne, I found the timing incredibly poor.
I'm curious where Ricci Rodriguez will move to this summer (his exit clause is somewhere between 25m and 35m) and who will replace him.
I understood your post above differently where you wrote you really start to doubt Allofs: I interpreted that the emphasis was on start. There's no doubt that Allofs made a couple of mediocre or poor decisions. I brought Schürrle up because it's the worst case in terms of return of investment, and while I understand why Allofs sold de Bruyne, I found the timing incredibly poor.
I'm curious where Ricci Rodriguez will move to this summer (his exit clause is somewhere between 25m and 35m) and who will replace him.
Yeah. I kind of liked Allofs, but I agree that his transfer record is quite poor for a while now.
I was too young to fully understand but I liked him at his time at Werder when he signed Micoud, Diego, Özil, ...
Better here, because it goes too far off topic in the ter Stegen thread. It would be an amazing sign for Dortmund, if Mkhitaryan extends in the next days. Gündogan is definitely gone, but I can see Hummels extending his contract as well, if the club shows further improvement. Signing Götze + contract extensions for Mkhitaryan and Hummels and you're in a brilliant position going forward.
Do you think Götze might just be a back-up plan in case Mkhitaryan wants to leave? And that you won't go for him if the extension goes through?
What's your take on the midfield, by the way? Do you expect the club to sign someone as a replacement for Gündogan? Or do you think that Weigl + Sahin as first choice and Castro, Bender, Ginter as backups is enough? I guess, if Hummels stays, the decision is easier because he offers so much in the build-up that you can play a more limited defensive midfielder without problems. If Hummels wants to leave, that would be different?
götze is NO backup plan. think micki will extend, what is still the most important thing we have to do.
and i dont think we will replace gündogan by someone, think its going to be a new way with merino,sahin,gonzo,götze.
IF hummels want to leave thats a question what we will do. on the one hand we got someone like ginter, where still is open if TT plans with him as a cb.
plus getting stankovic from the youth or something.
on the other hand there were rumors that we sign süle or nordveit.
whats for sure to me is that subo will leave. probably to liverpool.
Subotic isn't a big loss at this point. Forgot about the Süle rumours, he would be a brilliant signing. I rate him highly and he's slowly finding some form after his ACL injury.
According to Kicker Süle isn't an issue but in case of a Subotic exit, Mikel Merino would be another option as CB. He hasn't played on this position yet and I read more about his skills than watched but it wouldn't surprise me one single bit if that has been part of the idea to sign Merino from the beginning, irrespective if Bender hadn't renewed his contract or Subotic would decide to leave.
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No, I view both situations independent from each other. Both players offer different things and with Mkhi being stronger wide cutting inside, there is more than enough space for both of them in the team. The one connected to Götze might actually be Gündogan. In our standart 4-1-4-1 (or offensive 4-3-3) with one DM (usually Sahin or Weigl) anchoring the midfield, the other CMs intepret their roles clearly offensive, becoming hybrids between CM and AM of sorts. IMO Götze can fill out one of these two positions. With Gündogan´s departure the thing we lose the most is his creative passing. Götze has filled this creative void for us in the past and there is no reason why should not do it again. Alternatively he could play the CAM role in front of a deeper double six. As you correctly stated, this constellation is more viable when we have Hummels as primary build up player on the field.
Not as 4th choice CB, though. He would be wasted there. The interest in Süle is more of an alternative for Hummels´ potential departure. If only Subotic leaves, I don´t see us spending money on an additional central defender. We would still have four players in the squad who can play there (not counting Merino, who from what I have seen is despite strength in the air clearly more sutied for the CM role rather as DM or even CB) and with Gorenc-Stankovic we have a talented player in our second team, who should get his chance next season.
Did anyone follow Leverkusen lately? Brandt seems to show quality. I always thought that he is an interesting talent, yet he was quite underwhelming in the beginning of the season. Did he become a starter due to injuries or did he force his way into the team?
Brandt has done amazingly well in the last couple of weeks. Looks like he is finally showing what he really is capable of.
Great game from him.. And only 19..
A lot of people always said what a great talent he is but whenever I watched Leverkusen he seemed to be rather anonymous. He also got some stick in the press because he was given a lot of playing time this season but so far hadn't shown much. That was until like 3 or 4 weeks ago where his form finally started going up and now I finally see why a lot of people rat him so highly.
That Little Pea just scored a beauty. Don't get much more accurate than that.
Very good goal.. Outside the box.. And if anyone forgot feck off LVG.
That´s the interesting question, isn´t it? Could also be:
Dortmund is already one of the 7-8 best clubs in the world right now. At this stage I´d say Gundogan is the only one with a probability of over 50% to leave this summer. Everybody else seems happy. Mkhitaryan loves Tuchel. Hummels has overcome his slump and is back to peak world class form. Pisczek has pushed back Ginter. Aubameyang seems happy enough. If he leaves it will only be for Real Madrid and you´ll get Morata in exchange there. You bring back Goetze, who is still only freaking 23, you have Passlack and Pulisic pushing into the squad at 18. Outside of goalkeeper I don´t see major ways to improve their team at the moment. Maybe a 2nd CB.
I was really impressed with Lars Bender yesterday. Maybe he could be a solution for our midfield problem for the Euro? Somehow Löw never really liked either of the Benders to give them regular playing time in the nationalteam, but out of all the possible options he might be the best fit as a defensive midfield allrounder to fill the void Schweinsteiger leaves behind. If he continues to play well for the rest of the season, maybe he'll get a chance in one of the pre-Euro friendlies.
I still like Leverkusen's midfield a lot. If they all can stay healthy and find some form, it's truely awesome. Bender, Kramer, Aranguiz as the more defensive and Arnold, Calhanoglu, Kampl as more attacking options is a wonderful variety of players. All offer something different, all are quality (not necessary elite level of course, but still at least good).
They fecked up a bit during the season and were crippled by injuries, but overall the squad really is talented. If they can make it into the top 4 and keep the team mostly together, I'd like to see what they can do next season.
I still like Leverkusen's midfield a lot. If they all can stay healthy and find some form, it's truely awesome. Bender, Kramer, Aranguiz as the more defensive and Arnold, Calhanoglu, Kampl as more attacking options is a wonderful variety of players. All offer something different, all are quality (not necessary elite level of course, but still at least good).
They fecked up a bit during the season and were crippled by injuries, but overall the squad really is talented. If they can make it into the top 4 and keep the team mostly together, I'd like to see what they can do next season.
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I don´t think this team has a defensive midfield problem, moreso that the FB and striker downgrades have hurt the attacking midfield players. Müller, Reus and Özil were real shit in the England games. Khedira and Kroos created more dangerous situations than them. I think they either need to try this 3-4-2-1 to have more overlapping from the back, or for all his lackadaisical tendencies push up Kroos and play Gundogan/Khedira behind with Reus or Goetze as the striker. My formations would be either
On defense obviously Hector and Mueller drop back deeper. Or the usual 4-2-3-1...
On defense obviously Hector and Mueller drop back deeper. Or the usual 4-2-3-1...
That looks fecking atrocious.
Müller as a wing back with more defensive work in a tournament. No. I guess that was the biggest mistake Löw made at the Euros 2012. He had a goal or an assist about every 45 minutes that season with the national team in a very free role and in the Euros Löw gave him a strict role to stay on the right as a winger. Müller in a roaming role has too often been the asset for that team.
Similar with Kroos as a no. 10 here - he is not dynamic enough when played like this. Reus as a striker in a team that is not a counter attacking team? I doubt that the most teams will let Germany play on the counter - they stopped to let us do that after 2010...
About Müller - somebody analyzed some scenes of him in the last matches especially that against Italy