Bundesliga 2018/19

Dusseldorf's defending has been absolutely superb tonight.
 
Knew that Dortmund were gonna lose today. It was the perfect day to do it after such a long unbeaten run. Let's see if they can recover quickly or are gonna lose their heads now.
 
Dortmund would be very happy, if Chelsea would spend big money for Pulisic.
 
Think I'll have a cheeky punt on Bayern to win the league.
 
Classical Mechanic said:
Think Pulisic left Dortmund in his head already so he has low motivation and is stinking the place out.
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He's been like this for a year now and he never was as influental as Sancho is at the moment or as Dembele was before him. With Reus being played centrally wide positions have turned out to be a weakness for Dortmund. Guerreiro has had a couple of good games lately, but he hasn't really been consistent in the past.
 
Truly phenomenal result from Fortuna last night making it 2 victories in a row.

Thoroughly delighted for Funkel as I hope they stay up.
 
Watching Schalke vs Leverkusen right now.

Is this an anomaly or are Bundesliga games more often than not such open, attacking, end to end and high paced affairs?
 
:lol: Why is Deniz Aytekin always such a cnut? Every little complaint from a player is met with an extremely dirty look from him like he’s sizing him up about to fight him on the streets. It’s funny to watch.
 
Good tempo in the first half of Leipzig-Bayern but, not many chances for either side. Dayot is having a fantastic match.
 
Idiotic from the RB player to try to clear the ball flat into the middle of the box. Just put it wide for a corner ffs.
 
Nice to see Ribery talking to Dayot after the match. Dayot's made a big mistake that lead to Ribery's goal and he was having a great match until that.
 
Gulasci should've just held onto it or shouted to the defender not to clear as he could've just stretched and collected it.

Bayern cut the gap down to 6.
 
Already had mentioned Upamecano a few months ago, still think he has everything to be one of the best in the world on his position. Only 20.
 
Zehner said:
That's just us being absolutely shit.
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You have quite a few young talents and some more than decent senior players, Jedvaj, Brandt, Bailey, Havertz, Tah just to name a few. Only seen you a handful of times this season mind you but i haven't been impressed any game really. Is it on the manager or is it something else would you say?
 
Going to be an interesting Dortmund-Gladbach today. Image if Gladbach beat Dortmund. We would have a 3-horse race for some time.
 
Gordon S said:
You have quite a few young talents and some more than decent senior players, Jedvaj, Brandt, Bailey, Havertz, Tah just to name a few. Only seen you a handful of times this season mind you but i haven't been impressed any game really. Is it on the manager or is it something else would you say?
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Completely the manager IMO. Volland, Brandt and even Hradecky have already hinted in interviews that Herrlich has no real tactical concept. You know that something is wrong when even the goal keeper says that he was surprisedof how few tactical instructions the players have at Leverkusen - and Hradecky previously played under Kovac who isn't known to be the most conceptual coach in his own right.

The insane amount of class we have rescued Herrlich time and time again (especially Bailey last season) but now almost all of our amazing talents are in the worst form I've seen. They mess up the easiest passes and touches and even someone like Tah who was solid as a rock even aged 19 plays completely chaotic. This has reached a level which I can only explain with bad training that fails to even maintain basic technical consistency through exercises, game forms etc. In games our potential occasionally flares up in form of brillant combinations but for the most time you see no triangles, no coordinated movements, no patterns, nothing. Nobody knows where the other player is running and hasn't even an idea where he should position himself on the pitch. The only thing that works occasionally quite well is our pressing but I consider this a remainder of the Schmidt years during which we played the riskiest and most intense pressing seen in the Bundesliga.

Some also blame the players but while it is true that a few of them have difficult personalities, like Brandt, Wendell or Bailey, but after all man managing is also part of a manager's job and they are no divas or misfits, simply young people who could use a little more leadership at times. Especially Brandt is a very quiet, considerate and self-critical person in interviews, yet he is still far too lethargic for large parts of the game. I think a Klopp would get him on the right track in no time at all. IMO Herrlich relies far too heavily on hollow phrases as a coach and completely fails to provide a tactical concept that allows players to consistently perform. The total opposite of what I hoped for when he arrived as a no name.

He also uses many of our most gifted players completely wrong. Brandt is a defensively weak but incredibly creative winger that needs to cut in yet Herrlich always plays him on the right and lets him put dumb crosses in. He even played as a RB at times which is ridiculous. The same goals for Bailey on the other side. The minute we changed that and played in a 3-4-2-1 again, we absolutely destroyed Gladbach and Bremen with Brandt and Havertz playing centrally. Herrlich didn't even realize that and we are back to playing his stupid 4-4-2 again in which he look absolutely toothless.

Give this team a Favre, Tuchel or Klopp and we challenge Dortmund this season. Although their squad realistically is still comfortably better than ours we are (theoretically) the third best team in the league by quite a margin.
 
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Leverkusen is also my biggest disappointment this season. Such a talented squad should play way better football. Herrlich seems pretty conservative and more of an administrator that an innovator.

I think a coach like Bosz, Rose or Kohfeldt would do much better with this squad.
 
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Dortmund-Gladbach could be a fun game. Very important for Gladbach to get closer to the first position
 
Feels like Reus scores every time he faces Gladbach. No mercy with his old club.

edit: 6 goals 5 assists in 9 matches before tonight's game
 
Thanks @Zehner much appreciated! Hope you guys will improve next half of the season, you have to much quality in your squad not to!
 
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