Bundesliga 2018/19

I think there have been only two shots on goal so far, both for Dortmund.
 
Dortmund have been terribly wasteful in possession.
 
No more than Bayern deserve
Dortmund have been shite
 
Dortmund need to get their best players out on the pitch second half.
 
So predictable. Bayern Munich always getting the better of Dortmund. It's like us always beating Arsenal even when we were shit.
 
What a performance from Dortmund! 2 times down, 2 times they equalized and then won 3-2 in the end. Deserved for all the chances they wasted in the second half.
 
It really was a game of two halves.
Dortmund were nothing in the first, and superb in the second.

How long for Kovac now?
 
Sky have hosted their sunday morning football talk as a 1on1 with Watzke and now Hoeneß is phoning in, how awesome is that? :drool:

fyi: Hoeneß is basically saying that everything is great in Munich and that he's more than happy with Bayern's performance yesterday.

and Watzke went through painful efforts to avoid saying that they want to win Bundesliga now.
 
It really was a game of two halves.
Dortmund were nothing in the first, and superb in the second.

How long for Kovac now?

Nothing is a stretch. They still had good chances first half even though Bayern dominated (which they were allowing)
 
Nothing is a stretch. They still had good chances first half even though Bayern dominated (which they were allowing)

I did wonder if that was the case. . . That is, whether Dortmund were allowing Bayern possession (playing the counter) in the first half before hitting them hard in the second as opposed to Bayern being as dominant as they were. The game seemed of a slow pace in the first half and really didn't pick up until the second.

This is a great opportunity (7 points clear of Bayern one third of the way through the season) for Dortmund to win the Bundesliga and I don't expect them to slip up.

The last time Dortmund won the Bundesliga (2011-12) they won it being 8 points clear of Bayern, who finished second.
After 11 matches of that season Bayern were five points clear of Dortmund and had a +27 goal difference as opposed to Dortmund's +13.
 
I did wonder if that was the case. . . That is, whether Dortmund were allowing Bayern possession (playing the counter) in the first half before hitting them hard in the second as opposed to Bayern being as dominant as they were. The game seemed of a slow pace in the first half and really didn't pick up until the second.
Favre basically said Bayern's dominance in the first half was not in Dortmund's plans. According to him it was down to Bayern keeping possession and pressing very well, while Dortmund was unable to gain & retain possession, and to counter effectively. He also added they were lucky to be only 0-1 down at halftime, but he sensed that Bayern were overpowering in the first 30 minutes, and wouldn't be able to keep up the intensity the whole game.
 
Favre basically said Bayern's dominance in the first half was not in Dortmund's plans. According to him it was down to Bayern keeping possession and pressing very well, while Dortmund was unable to gain & retain possession, and to counter effectively. He also added they were lucky to be only 0-1 down at halftime, but he sensed that Bayern were overpowering in the first 30 minutes, and wouldn't be able to keep up the intensity the whole game.

I don't think he necessarily meant it like that. Favre does not want possession for possession's sake, he's happy to have his teams drop deep, absorb pressure and then exploit the space that opens up. Over the entire season Dortmund average ~55% possession which, despite having one of the strongest seasons in years, is lower than last season even.
Dortmund also have had the tendency to start slow and then adjust, up the tempo/risk taking in the second halfall season long. I wouldn't be surprised at all if it was indeed Favre's match plan to begin with a cautious counter attacking(ish) approach. I think what went wrong is not that Dortmund dropped deep, or that Bayern had more of the ball in general, but the extend of it, because Dortmund wasted their possession phases before the goal and seemed shocked or out of rythm after it.

edit:
Strike that, I've just seen a statement of Witsel where he said that they wanted to play attacking in the first half and counter attacking football was not the agenda.
 
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Leverkusen have been fecking atrocious against Leipzig. Leipzig haven't been that great as well, that is why they are only 1 goal ahead.

The quality of this match compared to Dortmund Bayern yesterday, such a drop. Heiko should be removed immediately.
 
Leverkusen have been fecking atrocious against Leipzig. Leipzig haven't been that great as well, that is why they are only 1 goal ahead.
The quality of this match compared to Dortmund Bayern yesterday, such a drop. Heiko should be removed immediately.

The sad thing is that they don't even lack the quality.
Leverkuen, Leipzig and Gladbach (to a lesser extend) are all sides that can play on Bayern's/Dortmund's level one week and then get outplayed by a midtable side the nexxt.
 
The sad thing is that they don't even lack the quality.
Leverkuen, Leipzig and Gladbach (to a lesser extend) are all sides that can play on Bayern's/Dortmund's level one week and then get outplayed by a midtable side the nexxt.

Yep. Leverkusen really lack a good coach to get the best out of these players. Frankfurt are overachieving with a fantastic coach on the other hand.
 
Yep. Leverkusen really lack a good coach to get the best out of these players. Frankfurt are overachieving with a fantastic coach on the other hand.

Or maybe Frankfurt have a coach who has tapped and reached into the potential of the players that are there.

Following the departure of Kovac, Wolf, KB Boateng, Hradecky and co in the summer, many were predicting a relegation battle for Eintracht.

PS: I'll eat my hat if Herrlich is still manager of Leverkusen by the next Bundesliga match, or even by 10PM tonight.
 
Leverkusen have been fecking atrocious against Leipzig. Leipzig haven't been that great as well, that is why they are only 1 goal ahead.

The quality of this match compared to Dortmund Bayern yesterday, such a drop. Heiko should be removed immediately.

Marco Rose and Leo Jardim are 2 coaches Bundesliga teams should be looking at

Bayern has to be looking at Jardim and Leverkusen better be looking at Rose. They are 2 coaches who play good attacking football
 
3-0 Frankfurt at the moment, Schalke (some might say they should've had a penalty awarded at 0:0) have really been falling apart since the opening goal.


Marco Rose and Leo Jardim are 2 coaches Bundesliga teams should be looking at

Bayern has to be looking at Jardim and Leverkusen better be looking at Rose. They are 2 coaches who play good attacking football

Jardim is a foreigner who probably does not speak/understand a syllable of German and as far as I can tell he perfers a very fast paced counter-attacking(ish) style, something which Bayern's players probably neither can nor want to execute.

And good luck to Leverkusen when they try to buy Rose out of his contract at RB mid-season.
 
3-0 Frankfurt at the moment, Schalke (some might say they should've had a penalty awarded at 0:0) have really been falling apart since the opening goal.
Jardim is a foreigner who probably does not speak/understand a syllable of German and as far as I can tell he perfers a very fast paced counter-attacking(ish) style, something which Bayern's players probably neither can nor want to execute.

And good luck to Leverkusen when they try to buy Rose out of his contract at RB mid-season.
Guardiola and Ancelotti did not speak German too before they joined Bayern
I don't see any top coach who is readily available and waiting till season end will mean other clubs who might need coaches like Madrid, Man utd, Barcelona will be in the market

Schalke and Leverkusen wont go anywhere until they get a good coach Tedesco and Herrlich aren't cutting it, Someone in Bundesliga has to take Rose
 
Guardiola and Ancelotti did not speak German too before they joined Bayern
I don't see any top coach who is readily available and waiting till season end will mean other clubs who might need coaches like Madrid, Man utd, Barcelona will be in the market

Schalke and Leverkusen wont go anywhere until they get a good coach Tedesco and Herrlich aren't cutting it, Someone in Bundesliga has to take Rose

Guardiola and Ancelotti were both signed well in advance and both held their first presser in German and despite that part of the reported complaints from the player side were that he supposedly was favouring Spanish speakers. And the language barrier is just one issue that might pale in comparison to the issues that possible philosophical incompatibilities could cause.

At this rate Tedesco and Herrlich won't see the winter break, if Rose is on the market and interested they should look at him. But I don't see Salzburg letting him go mid-season, just so he can strengthen a competitor of their Leipzig branch and appointing a care-taker for half a season is risky business. They will prioritize a permanent solution.
 
Bild are reporting that before leaving the stadium in Dortmund Ribery insulted and slapped a French pundit (Gillou, BeIn) three times in the face and shoved his chest. Supposedly because he dared to call Ribery responsible for two of Dortmund's goals.
They even have a quote from BRAZZO who admits that Ribery reported an incident with Gillou and that they agreed to have a meeting with Gillou to find a way to clear up the situation.

Meanwhile (and not that it really matters) Ribery's wife apparently attacked Gräfe (ref) for awarding Dortmund their penalty and Gillou on Instagram.

Usually I'd expect some heavy sanctions, but since it's Ribery and Bayern he will probably come out of this unscathed and start their next match. Meanwhile James (according to media, Bayern deny this) got suspended against Dortmund for showing up a couple of minutes late.
 
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From BILD: "The €150m trio."

Eintracht Frankfurt's Sebastian Haller (€40m), Ante Rebic (€50m) & Luca Jovic (€60m).
The valuation is made by former footballer and current agent (to Süle and Werner) Karlheinz Förster, whilst referring to Eintracht's attack as the best in the Bundesliga.

Personally I think he's undervaluing those players - especially Jovic who, without doubt, and I don't say this lightly, has the capability and potential to reach the very highest level (20-30 goals per season) as a striker. For 20 years of age the guy is a phenomenal striker. He's the highest goalscorer in the Bundesliga so far despite not having started in 5 of Eintracht's Bundesliga matches this season. He's a regular now as Adi Hütter has recently realised he was sitting next to a gold mine.

On Hütter himself all of the players appear to believe in him and he's not afraid to play the "trio" - very much a believer in attack being the best form of defence whilst playing a high press.

Haller had an indifferent season last season. He played very well for the most part, as capable of some astonishing brilliance (his last minute winner v Stuttgart last season) but also had games, under Kovac, where he appeared missing.

Rebic, the DFB Pokal final hero, has also been superb since returning from injury at the end of September.

Eintracht's results since 30 September have been (including the Europa League matches):

P9, W8, D1, L0, F29, A7.

Champions League next season?
One can only dream.....

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You really are the Glastonspur of Bundesliga..

Frankfurt aren't even doing that well, they are fourth, behind Gladbach and just ahead of Hoffenheim ffs..

Their current high is largely based on playing Hannover, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, Nürnberg and Schalke (bottom 5) one after another, only interrupted by a match against Hoffenheim where their opposition was too busy hitting the woodwork and gifting away goals to win.
 
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You really are the Glastonspur of Bundesliga..

Frankfurt aren't even doing that well, they are fourth, behind Gladbach and just ahead of Hoffenheim ffs..

Their current high is largely based on playing Hannover, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, Nürnberg and Schalke (bottom 5) one after another, only interrupted by a match against Hoffenheim where their opposition was too busy hitting the woodwork and gifting away goals to win.

And we would do well not to fall in the same trap and argue into the other extreme, right? What Frankfurt is doing right now is extremely impressive, no matter the competition they had to play, especially if we take their restrictions into account.

I would not call them as the best attack of the league (and tbf neither did the poster), but in terms of form they do belong to the top group alongside Gladbach, Leipzig and Hoffenheim. The best offense is usually the one that scores the most goals and this holds true here aswell, but the comparision to a striker with a crazy goal/minute ratio, the leagues biggest talent and the leagues overall best player is an unfair one. None of these players would ever be realisable for Frankfurt.
 
And we would do well not to fall in the same trap and argue into the other extreme, right? What Frankfurt is doing right now is extremely impressive, no matter the competition they had to play, especially if we take their restrictions into account.

I would not call them as the best attack of the league (and tbf neither did the poster), but in terms of form they do belong to the top group alongside Gladbach, Leipzig and Hoffenheim. The best offense is usually the one that scores the most goals and this holds true here aswell, but the comparision to a striker with a crazy goal/minute ratio, the leagues biggest talent and the leagues overall best player is an unfair one. None of these players would ever be realisable for Frankfurt.

I'm not denying that Frankfurt have played a very good season thus far (and so have other clubs). But to elevate their attackers to world class level seems silly to me - given their recent opposition this could be the climax of their season.


Apparently Sport Bild reported a couple of days ago that Bayern didn't make an offer for Sancho (before he joined Dortmund), because they weren't fully convinced.
But now they had to retract that story, because an affidavit(!) by Brazzo from which they are quoting: "correct is that FC Bayern Munich very much wanted Jadon Sancho and therefore made him an offer, which unfortunately wasn't accepted".
 
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I mean if Lukaku is worth 90m then the others are worth far more. . .
I never rated Lukaku but he has done far more than all three mentioned. Anyway, single over expensive transfers shouldn't be the benchmark for evaluations. Jovic is a good talent but has basically played 3 months of professional football in a top league. Rebic, well, Frankfurt already whored him out to literally everyone who wanted to listen in the summer after his value was at his highest after the WC and yet the only offer they got was 25m€ from Sevilla, I'd say Frankfurt is his level. Haller is decent but I doubt he's gonna improve a lot.

Like @do.ob said, Frankfurt is on a high atm which obviously skews the evaluations of their attackers, lets see how they do when a slump hits.
 
Doesn't Zidane speak neither German nor English? He would only be able to talk to a quarter of the squad.
 
James is out injured for weeks.

Regarding manager bullshit bingo - Pep was in Munich at the Säbener Straße today! :drool: