Borussia Dortmund 2016/17

Invictus

Poster of the Year 2015 & 2018
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Piracy on the High Seas.
Bit surprised there's no seasonal thread on everyone's favorite hipster club in FF. Though maybe they are too mainstream now, hmm..

Lost a few key players in Hummels, Gündogan and Mkhitaryan. But in Dembélé they signed someone who is arguably the most exciting teen attacker in Europe for peanuts. Going by the early impressions, Raphaël Guerreiro has seemingly stepped right into Gündogan shaped void in midfield, and provides a degree of versatility to the team in defense. Aside from Mor, Bartra, Schürrle, Rode, Götze - who returns to his old stomping ground. Then there's Reus, Aubameyang, Weigl, Sokratis, Castro, Piszczek, Kagawa; and the emerging Passlack and Pulisic add to an assortment of talented youngsters.

2016/17 Fixtures
2016/17 Squad

12 goals over their last couple games:





Super interested in seeing how far Tuchel takes them - adding to his burgeoning reputation as a tactically perceptive young coach who's great at developing his players psychologically and is a proponent of some fantastic football. Especially with background support from Zorc and Watzke; and an embarrassment of riches in attacking positions. With Carlo at Bayern, they could do some title-bound damage in the league.
 
Last games were brilliant, but on the other side the opponents were weak. More important was to see, that our heavy rotation starts going and seems to work. If it turns out that Tuchel build his own 8/CM out of Raphael Guerreiro and it works like the last games it would be genius move from him. Dembele an dMor are showing some process to, in the beginning they looked like headless chickens on speed, dangerous bit without a clue. Now they are showing some clue in terms of structure and movement with and without the ball. Pulisic and Passlack are going on like the last month, a joy to watch. Before a game nobody can say what our starting formating will be, its great.


There are still questions: Will our defence be stable enough? Until now there werent big threats. Will we be better against hard pressing opponents than in the match against the Lemonades?
 
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On paper their attack is elite level IMO. Aubameyang, Reus, Schurrle, Gotze, Dembele, Mor, Pulisic is no joke. I think their midfield and defense are still prone when it comes to being pressed. Overall their defence is their weakest part I think.
 
Really hope they win the title tbh, long shot but that would be a big feck you to Hummels
 
Cassidy said:
Really hope they win the title tbh, long shot but that would be a big feck you to Hummels
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Them losing to Leipzig was worrying though. They still seem too prone to opponents who press like madmen.
 
I would do anything to have are team as fluid as Dortmunds.
 
I don't know about retooling Guerreiro for midfield. Isn't Schmelzer pretty average?
 
ADJUDICATOR said:
I don't know about retooling Guerreiro for midfield. Isn't Schmelzer pretty average?
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For me not. I sometimes wants more offensive force from Schmelzer, but i cant argue with his organisation skills in the defence and his leadership for the team. For me he is one of the best LB in the league despite he is not an Roberto Carlos when it comes to attack. But i also was expecting that Raphael is clearly for the left side, in a 4 men defence (as a great concurent for Schmelzer) or in a 3/5 men defence. Now it turns our that Tuchel got another idea for him and playing him central. Seems to work great. We are also have Durm, who is just injured. So maybe if he gets back we will see Schmelzer getting some rest.
 
VorZakone said:
On paper their attack is elite level IMO. Aubameyang, Reus, Schurrle, Gotze, Dembele, Mor, Pulisic is no joke. I think their midfield and defense are still prone when it comes to being pressed. Overall their defence is their weakest part I think.
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Aren't you a Dortmund fan?
 
RobinLFC said:
Aren't you a Dortmund fan?
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Wouldn't call myself a 'fan' but more of a Dortmund-sympathiser. I fell in love with their beautiful football and yellow/black kit around 2011-2012 and have been following the club's transfer dealings and results since.
 
ADJUDICATOR said:
I don't know about retooling Guerreiro for midfield. Isn't Schmelzer pretty average?
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Schmelzer is a very solid LB, you'd struggle to find many players in the league better than him in that position and from what I've heard and seen Guerrero is doing very well in midfield. It's a bit like with Austria and Alaba: He is undoubtedly a better LB than Fuchs, but Fuchs is still very solid and Alaba an upgrade to his colleagues in midfield.
 
Yep, a hugely impressive club. I think they are the fourth best team in Europe, ahead of Juventus and PSG, a brilliant squad assembled for a relative pittance. They were superb against us at Anfield in the Europa. The rumour mill had us trying to snatch Dembele from under their noses and we apparantly made a bid for Pusilic. Dammit!
 
Piratesoup said:
Schmelzer is a very solid LB, you'd struggle to find many players in the league better than him in that position and from what I've heard and seen Guerrero is doing very well in midfield. It's a bit like with Austria and Alaba: He is undoubtedly a better LB than Fuchs, but Fuchs is still very solid and Alaba an upgrade to his colleagues in midfield.
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Is midfield a weakness with Castro, Rode, Sahin, Kagawa and Gotze there?
 
Ruffian said:
Yep, a hugely impressive club. I think they are the fourth best team in Europe, ahead of Juventus and PSG
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oh hey, thanks, but i wouldn't go as far as to state anything like that. the matches against legia warsaw and darmstadt may have been a long-unseen source of delight to a somewhat unreal extent, but how about we see if the young'uns will go on to show some actual consistency and composure, even when the opposing team plays ambitiously, presses high up the pitch etc - those are clearly parts of dortmund's overall game that need to be worked on.
 
ADJUDICATOR said:
I don't know about retooling Guerreiro for midfield. Isn't Schmelzer pretty average?
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Tactical shift apparently. Against RB Leipzig they sat on Weigl and that stopped Dortmund being able to play and build attack. So Tuchel moved Guerrero in to act as another player who can pass but he can also carry and commit players in central areas which is key for any teams building of attacks.
 
ADJUDICATOR said:
Is midfield a weakness with Castro, Rode, Sahin, Kagawa and Gotze there?
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Hmm, only somekind in the position of a CM/8. Cause Castro has some skills you can use in a lot of games by playing him there, but he is not in the league with Gündogan when it comes to a sense for space or dribbling. He gets better, but there is still something missing. This will be solved with TTs move of Rapha i think. Rode is something else on the 6 or 8. Kagawa and Götze are clearly a 10, and not so versatile like Castro,Rode and Rapha. Sahin is currently behind all those players cause of his injury and lack of playtime the last year.
 
Ruffian said:
Yep, a hugely impressive club. I think they are the fourth best team in Europe, ahead of Juventus and PSG, a brilliant squad assembled for a relative pittance. They were superb against us at Anfield in the Europa. The rumour mill had us trying to snatch Dembele from under their noses and we apparantly made a bid for Pusilic. Dammit!
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Thanks for that. But we will have to proof if its like that, espacially in the CL. 8 new players to implement and trying to dance succesfully on 3 weddings will be tough.
 
ThierryHenry said:
How's Gotze doing?
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We have to wait until we can say something serious. Until now he has improved his fitness towards a normal form, and was showing some little steps in the right direction. He was benched the last 2 games, cause he played 4 games in a row before coming from less playtime and an injury (and we got the deep squad for cases like that, to rotate). Maybe we will see him against Wolfsburg or Freiburg.
 
Dortmund are a ridiculously admirable club. I honestly hope one day the football side of our club is run as well as theirs is. I also hope we steal Tuchel off them, who seems to be one of the best budding young managers.
 
Vito Corleone said:
Dortmund are a ridiculously admirable club. I honestly hope one day the football side of our club is run as well as theirs is. I also hope we steal Tuchel off them, who seems to be one of the best budding young managers.
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Jacky Quacky said:
When Mourinho leaves get in Tuchel at all costs.
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He has Bayern written all over him, sorry :nono:

;)
 
Tuchel seems to be as good as anyone at building cohesive attacking teams in record time, let's remember Klopp struggled to get anything out of Auba, Reus, Kagawa, Micki in 14/15, but Tuchel transformed a team with no confidence into one of Europe's most dangerous teams.
Let's see how he handles Europe though before we get too excited.
 
Vito Corleone said:
Admittedly Bayern are also run very well, however I hope Tuchel doesn't do that. He could genuinely build something great over at Dortmund.
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Tuchel doesn't strike me as one tiny bit sentimental, I'd be very surprised if he doesn't manage Bayern at one point in his career (assuming that he doesn't fall off the radar at some point).
 
Crossie said:
I think there's hardly a post displaying fundamental issues so nicely.

The key question IMHO is not how many trophies a club has won within the past but how solid and functional is the foundation of a club to reinvent and develop itself to keep up with the development of modern football - because that's all a club can influence.
If trophies and buying shiny new toys à la Fiorentino Perez are what matters most for you as a United supporter, fine, and I sincerely mean it. Fans enjoy and support clubs for different reasons, I accept that.
However, if I were a United fan, I wouldn't be content with United of the last 5-6 years because I come from an 'entertain and excite me with vibrant football' perspective. That's why I watch football, why I support my club, why Pep's Barcelona bored me to death, why SAF's United was for a long time mostly enjoyable to watch. How long ago though did United play a consecutive 5-6 matches exciting football? Watching paint to dry was more often than not more entertaining than watching United. ;)
At some point United will come back but although you've invested again in shiny names, I'm not sure how smart the investments were and pretty certain that United still lack what SAF stood for: A football identity which he bought or formed players for that suited this idea. That's where I fully agree with slig. Note that I admire Mourinho but think he and his style are not compatible with United and that the squad is not suited to him. Whether Mourinho is past his peak is a totally different debate but also not for this thread.

Sorry for the long off topic, back to Julian Weigl. :)
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Solid and functional foundation for what? What is the ultimate goal of the football club when starting with any new manager?

We are talking about trophies, not sure why you brought shiny new toys. Ofcourse ManUtd fans want success than big players. Also no United fan is content with last 3 seasons, that's why there is a constant cry for change. It's also bit ironic when you talk about entertaining and exciting football and then call Pep's Barca as boring. The skill involved in retaining the possession under pressure was a thing of beauty. I preferred Madrid's fast counter attacking game though but Barca's team was just awesome.

Btw, people really have misconception of what SAF stood for. When they see us spending money they think it's not ManUtd of old when ManUtd broke British record numerous times.

Also what is modern football?
 
roonster09 said:
Solid and functional foundation for what? What is the ultimate goal of the football club when starting with any new manager?

We are talking about trophies, not sure why you brought shiny new toys. Ofcourse ManUtd fans want success than big players. Also no United fan is content with last 3 seasons, that's why there is a constant cry for change. It's also bit ironic when you talk about entertaining and exciting football and then call Pep's Barca as boring. The skill involved in retaining the possession under pressure was a thing of beauty. I preferred Madrid's fast counter attacking game though but Barca's team was just awesome.

Btw, people really have misconception of what SAF stood for. When they see us spending money they think it's not ManUtd of old when ManUtd broke British record numerous times.

Also what is modern football?
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Sorry, nothing in your post suggests that you accept that people have different opinions and preferences. That's fine, really, just no point in discussing anything any further. :)
 
Crossie said:
Sorry, nothing in your post suggests that you accept that people have different opinions and preferences. That's fine, really, just no point in discussing anything any further. :)
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I asked simple question about modern football as Dortmund fans always use that term.
 
roonster09 said:
I asked simple question about modern football as Dortmund fans always use that term.
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I wait until 8 o'clock, maybe we will se some. In the meantime you can have a look up in this thread, some guy posted a few goals from us.
 
slig said:
I wait until 8 o'clock, maybe we will se some. In the meantime you can have a look up in this thread, some guy posted a few goals from us.
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Dortmund haven't done anything that's not already been done in the past.
 
Dortmund have added some nice players over the Summer. I'm keen to see how well Emre Mor progresses as I think he is a huge talent, They picked him up for very little to.
 
roonster09 said:
Dortmund haven't done anything that's not already been done in the past.
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You're right.

Our task this season is to implement the new players, and develop our possession play further, while keeping the Pressing and ability of Counterattacks of the Klopp-era. Melting all together. But also get unpredictable and variable with all the new players and squad deepness. And whats a task for the near future for the team tactics: be in control even if we are under pressure. The task for on the player-side: teaching them a nose for space, structure and timing.
 
JoaquinJoaquin said:
Dortmund have added some nice players over the Summer. I'm keen to see how well Emre Mor progresses as I think he is a huge talent, They picked him up for very little to.
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They buy and groom superbly. I'm hoping with their increased financial muscle, they're able to hold on to their players. Would love to see a group finally stick together to see what they can do. Their side under klopp was brilliant to watch and tuchel is taking them to a higher level given his system is more rounded.
 
So far they have done excellent business in staying relatively competitive over the last years compared to the rest of the Bundesliga. (Bayern the exception obviously)
 
Varun said:
They buy and groom superbly. I'm hoping with their increased financial muscle, they're able to hold on to their players. Would love to see a group finally stick together to see what they can do. Their side under klopp was brilliant to watch and tuchel is taking them to a higher level given his system is more rounded.
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Yeah it would be fantastic if they can win league with young team. They have a good chance considering Bayern have Ancelotti.
 
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