Bundesliga 2018/19

Till this match you were the leader of the Rückrunde(ntabelle). Think Bosz fits excellent to your squad. And its working from the beginning, therfor i expect you to reach the Top 4.

It was an exciting game. Akanji and Zagadou helping so much. Reus will be back soon.
Glad that we fight back Bayerns game the day before. They play still mediocre, but somehow getting some points in playing with unfair and undignified actions in the pitch. Newest thing in Lewandowskis provocation, Kovacs confession of time wasting play in the CL. Compare that and all the actions this year alone to Hoeness declaration of human rights...Disgusting Club. Fortunately, their making public in their interest in CHO and all the others turn out to nothing, hope they continue to making theirselfs ridiculous and being unprofessional.
 
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To be honest the latest results have had me frustrated quite a bit and I was not really looking forward to yesterdays match. On the other hand I was quite sure that Peter Bosz's Leverkusen could well be the ideal opponent for our current situation.

Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of Bosz's take on attacking football and have thoroughly enjoyed it in his early days at Dortmund. Running at the opponent and just overwhelming them with fast paced football, what's not to love? In Leverkusen he has a squad that is ideal for that style of play, pacey players and not a lot of focus on defense to begin with. In Dortmund last season we could also see where these tactics falls short: against teams that defend well and can beat Bosz's teams on the counter. And that is actually a style of play that suits Dortmund really well and I was sure Favre was going to be able to exploit just that.

The match did play out mostly the way I had hoped (I actually got the final score correct as well) but there was of course a lot more luck involved than I would have liked. At times (especially the first 30 minutes) Dortmund were way too defensive and were merely holding on but this is exactly what you need to do in these kinds of games. Let the opposition attack and eventually put one past them. That first one was admittedly after a corner and not from a counter but still nice. Overall I think we had the necessary luck when we needed it but I am not too surprised about the result in combination with the match statistics (33:67% possession, 75:88% pass accuracy, 3:8 corners, 55:45% tackles won for BVB:B04). It was a much needed win.

It was also very good to have Zagadou and especially Akanji back in the team and I hope they will be able to regain their form as quickly as possible. Reus will probably be back for the match against Augsburg next weekend and I hope we can rebuild some momentum. We could see in the match against Nürnberg, that the missing players were taking a toll on the team. The next matches against Augsburg and Stuttgart have to be won without a doubt, we will see where we stand after that.

Fun fact: Zagadou was actually the 18th player in the Dortmund squad to score in the Bundesliga, not sure how often that has been the case for a team before.
 
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I don't see this as a huge tactical victory, Dortmund had some clinical finishing on the day and Leverkusen made some terrible defensive errors. But leaving Zagadou free for a tap-in on a corner or Jedvaj leaving Sancho blank in the box so he can score with an excellent volley, Götze scoring his first goal from outside the box in what must be years is not Bosz's or Favre's tactics, it's individual mistakes, quality and luck. What is a question of tactics though is Leverkusen utterly dominating the first half hour and finishing the game with almost 70% possession in Dortmund and 13:9 shots on goal.
 
do.ob said:
I don't see this as a huge tactical victory, Dortmund had some clinical finishing on the day and Leverkusen made some terrible defensive errors. But leaving Zagadou free for a tap-in on a corner or Jedvaj leaving Sancho blank in the box so he can score with an excellent volley, Götze scoring his first goal from outside the box in what must be years is not Bosz's or Favre's tactics, it's individual mistakes, quality and luck. What is a question of tactics though is Leverkusen utterly dominating the first half hour and finishing the game with almost 70% possession in Dortmund and 13:9 shots on goal.
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I was afraid I did not elaborate enough in my post, I just did not want it to get unnecessarily long. I am not claiming that Favre outcoached Bosz in any way and I hope I made clear that I also feel a substatial amount of luck was necessary for Dortmund to leave the pitch as victors. What I do stand by is what gave me hope before the match and that is that Leverkusen's approach would generally be one that our team should be able to overcome.

I think Leverkusen have been prone to conceding a goal here and there for a long time and I expected Favre choose to a more defensive counter attacking approach. I am sure he did not want to get pinned down in his own half the way they did and that was definitely neither the match I had hoped for nor wanted to see (that was pretty stressful to watch). So what did indeed happen was Leverkusen just not scoring as much as they conceded which is of course kind of trivial but to me that is Bosz's main weakness, his focus on brilliant attacking football but at times neglecting the defense. And again, I know that was not really what happened yesterday with some individual errors on Leverkusens side but that may also generally be down to their squad. Their strongest players are defnitely in the offense while I do rate Tah and will always have a soft spot for Sven Bender.

The possession stat is another one that is eerily familiar if you are looking back at last season once things went south for Bosz with Dortmund. A quick check says there were two games in the league that Dortmund did not have more possession than the opposition - 50:50 vs. Bayern and 48:52 vs Schalke in that spectacular 4:4 draw where they completely collapsed in the second half. Aside from those two matches possession was mostly upwards of 60% for Dortmund and they could hardly get a win. Especially against defensive teams Dortmund often failed to score and were eventually exposed on the counter.

That still does not mean I think Bosz is a bad coach, I actually like him a lot and the Dortmund squad last season had a lot of flaws. I actually think Leverkusen's squad should suit him a lot more. I just thought Dortmund might be his kryptonite as a combination of rather solid defense and some fast countering potential. Turns out that is not really what happened but I take the win either way :)
 
.mica said:
Glad that we fight back Bayerns game the day before. They play still mediocre, but somehow getting some points in playing with unfair and undignified actions in the pitch. Newest thing in Lewandowskis provocation, Kovacs confession of time wasting play in the CL. Compare that and all the actions this year alone to Hoeness declaration of human rights...Disgusting Club. Fortunately, their making public in their interest in CHO and all the others turn out to nothing, hope they continue to making theirselfs ridiculous and being unprofessional.
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:lol::lol::lol:
 
Swarm said:
I was afraid I did not elaborate enough in my post, I just did not want it to get unnecessarily long. I am not claiming that Favre outcoached Bosz in any way and I hope I made clear that I also feel a substatial amount of luck was necessary for Dortmund to leave the pitch as victors. What I do stand by is what gave me hope before the match and that is that Leverkusen's approach would generally be one that our team should be able to overcome.

I think Leverkusen have been prone to conceding a goal here and there for a long time and I expected Favre choose to a more defensive counter attacking approach. I am sure he did not want to get pinned down in his own half the way they did and that was definitely neither the match I had hoped for nor wanted to see (that was pretty stressful to watch). So what did indeed happen was Leverkusen just not scoring as much as they conceded which is of course kind of trivial but to me that is Bosz's main weakness, his focus on brilliant attacking football but at times neglecting the defense. And again, I know that was not really what happened yesterday with some individual errors on Leverkusens side but that may also generally be down to their squad. Their strongest players are defnitely in the offense while I do rate Tah and will always have a soft spot for Sven Bender.

The possession stat is another one that is eerily familiar if you are looking back at last season once things went south for Bosz with Dortmund. A quick check says there were two games in the league that Dortmund did not have more possession than the opposition - 50:50 vs. Bayern and 48:52 vs Schalke in that spectacular 4:4 draw where they completely collapsed in the second half. Aside from those two matches possession was mostly upwards of 60% for Dortmund and they could hardly get a win. Especially against defensive teams Dortmund often failed to score and were eventually exposed on the counter.

That still does not mean I think Bosz is a bad coach, I actually like him a lot and the Dortmund squad last season had a lot of flaws. I actually think Leverkusen's squad should suit him a lot more. I just thought Dortmund might be his kryptonite as a combination of rather solid defense and some fast countering potential. Turns out that is not really what happened but I take the win either way :)
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Don't know, but you bring in surprisingly many tactical arguments for someone who don't want to clqim Favre outcoached Bosz ;) Personally I think we lost because of bad luck and a certain lack of defensive qualities. The first two goals were extreme mistakes, especially the second. The third was very very lucky since the cross was deflected two times before it ended up directly at Götze's feet. The situation also emerged after a wrong decision to give Dortmund a throw-in. Jedvaj also made his second or arguably even third mistake that lead to a goal because he let Dortmund cross completely without any pressure.

Those things aren't related to tactics. It's been said many times that Bosz' system has so many weaknesses but so far we created more chances than our opponents in every match IMO. In contrast to what people expected we aren't overly vulnerable against counter attacks.
 
Zehner said:
Don't know, but you bring in surprisingly many tactical arguments for someone who don't want to clqim Favre outcoached Bosz ;) Personally I think we lost because of bad luck and a certain lack of defensive qualities.
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Funny, this is exactly what I was trying to say.

Zehner said:
The first two goals were extreme mistakes, especially the second. The third was very very lucky since the cross was deflected two times before it ended up directly at Götze's feet. The situation also emerged after a wrong decision to give Dortmund a throw-in. Jedvaj also made his second or arguably even third mistake that lead to a goal because he let Dortmund cross completely without any pressure.
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Jedvaj had an awful game huh? Again not arguing the point of individual mistakes leading to the goals. I think the squad depth in defense is one of the weaker elements in this Leverkusen team. Why was Jedvaj playing over Wendell anyway? I think Bosz still had two substitutions left by the end of the game?

Zehner said:
Those things aren't related to tactics. It's been said many times that Bosz' system has so many weaknesses but so far we created more chances than our opponents in every match IMO. In contrast to what people expected we aren't overly vulnerable against counter attacks.
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As I wrote before, I do quite like Bosz and the football he wants to play and I also think that the Leverkusen squad he has at his disposal right now is probably quite a bit more suited to it than last year's Dortmund were. On the other hand you have to forgive me that Bosz's stint at Dortmund did not exactly leave an impression of tactical flexibility. Because of this I had expectations going into yesterday's game and those I tried to explain. Turns out what I expected did not happen except for maybe some defensive weaknesses that pretty much can't be attributed to tactics.

In the end I find it really interesting to see how Leverkusen is going to fare in the rest of the season. I really hope Bosz can redeem himself to a certain extent and I expect him to do quite well with Leverkusen and to play some attractive attacking football. What I do not expect is him to deliver football consistent enough to challenge the very top (not only in this season with the handycap he inherited) but this is just my impression and that is also not what is expected of him in the short to medium run I think.
 
Swarm said:
I was afraid I did not elaborate enough in my post, I just did not want it to get unnecessarily long. I am not claiming that Favre outcoached Bosz in any way and I hope I made clear that I also feel a substatial amount of luck was necessary for Dortmund to leave the pitch as victors. What I do stand by is what gave me hope before the match and that is that Leverkusen's approach would generally be one that our team should be able to overcome.

I think Leverkusen have been prone to conceding a goal here and there for a long time and I expected Favre choose to a more defensive counter attacking approach. I am sure he did not want to get pinned down in his own half the way they did and that was definitely neither the match I had hoped for nor wanted to see (that was pretty stressful to watch). So what did indeed happen was Leverkusen just not scoring as much as they conceded which is of course kind of trivial but to me that is Bosz's main weakness, his focus on brilliant attacking football but at times neglecting the defense. And again, I know that was not really what happened yesterday with some individual errors on Leverkusens side but that may also generally be down to their squad. Their strongest players are defnitely in the offense while I do rate Tah and will always have a soft spot for Sven Bender.

The possession stat is another one that is eerily familiar if you are looking back at last season once things went south for Bosz with Dortmund. A quick check says there were two games in the league that Dortmund did not have more possession than the opposition - 50:50 vs. Bayern and 48:52 vs Schalke in that spectacular 4:4 draw where they completely collapsed in the second half. Aside from those two matches possession was mostly upwards of 60% for Dortmund and they could hardly get a win. Especially against defensive teams Dortmund often failed to score and were eventually exposed on the counter.

That still does not mean I think Bosz is a bad coach, I actually like him a lot and the Dortmund squad last season had a lot of flaws. I actually think Leverkusen's squad should suit him a lot more. I just thought Dortmund might be his kryptonite as a combination of rather solid defense and some fast countering potential. Turns out that is not really what happened but I take the win either way :)
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I mean the only obvious tactical change was fielding Weigl for Delaney and if anything I'd say that Weigl is a possession player and Delaney is a ball winner. For the first half hour I saw little calculation in Dortmund's play, Leverkusen was all over them and Dortmund barely managed a clean build up, let a lone a counter attacking threat. Whatever Favre's approach was it clearly failed until Dortmund's goals changed the momentum of the game. So I don't see how this was about overcoming Leverkusen's approach or how Dortmund won, because Bosz neglected his defense, because if we're being honest Dortmund scored three goals from three half chances and had little more opportunities..
I'd say Bosz's main weakness at Dortmund was that his football forced the covering players to defend counter attacks 1 on 1, which put some defenders (Sokratis and Toprak) under more pressure than they could handle. But yesterday it didn't get to that at all, Dortmund basically didn't get past Leverkusen's pressing, they didn't exploit Bosz's high line. They got pinned back and dominated until Leverkusen defended a corner like Clowns.
 
do.ob said:
I mean the only obvious tactical change was fielding Weigl for Delaney and if anything I'd say that Weigl is a possession player and Delaney is a ball winner. For the first half hour I saw little calculation in Dortmund's play, Leverkusen was all over them and Dortmund barely managed a clean build up, let a lone a counter attacking threat. Whatever Favre's approach was it clearly failed until Dortmund's goals changed the momentum of the game. So I don't see how this was about overcoming Leverkusen's approach or how Dortmund won, because Bosz neglected his defense, because if we're being honest Dortmund scored three goals from three half chances and had little more opportunities..
I'd say Bosz's main weakness at Dortmund was that his football forced the covering players to defend counter attacks 1 on 1, which put some defenders (Sokratis and Toprak) under more pressure than they could handle. But yesterday it didn't get to that at all, Dortmund basically didn't get past Leverkusen's pressing, they didn't exploit Bosz's high line. They got pinned back and dominated until Leverkusen defended a corner like Clowns.
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You might not have read my last post so I will keep this short as I don't want to unnecessarily repeat myself. Just see my post as a hypothetical. My thoughts of how Dortmund could have overcome Leverkusen had the former been better and the latter been worse on the day. All in all I stand by my opinions about strengths and weaknesses of Bosz's approach and yesterday it would have worked had they been a little luckier and more clinical.

And you may have noticed I have so far been only writing about Bosz and precious little about Favre which is probably down to the fact that I am not sure what his plan was for the game yesterday. That is of course to a large part down to my limited grasp of football tactics. Concerning fielding Weigl over Delaney I believe Delaney was slightly injured or something of the sort but I am not sure. Otherwise he would have definitely been the better choice in midfield and might have given us more control over the game.
 
Just seen Forsberg is on bench for Leipzig. Has his stock fallen that much, haven't really read that much about him this year when before he was promising talent to me.
 
FootballHQ said:
Just seen Forsberg is on bench for Leipzig. Has his stock fallen that much, haven't really read that much about him this year when before he was promising talent to me.
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He had injury problems in the last months, barely played.
 
Dortmund chasing the game and they had 3 players in the box when Sancho had the ball on the left running into the box. Got to commit more players.
 
This is a game Dortmund should be winning but they bottled it

Hakimi is a horrible defender. everytime I watch Dortmund he is always culpable for at least a goal

Alcacer pulls one back
 
Dortmund are bottlers just like Spurs

Only that they managed to bottle it in the CL as well, against Spurs.
 
Dortmund. Sigh. Think they're run out of gas personally.
 
2-0 up in one of their toughest remaining fixtures.:rolleyes:

Just end Bundesliga now and give them the shield. Dortmund have really choked.
 
GhastlyHun said:
Well. An away win for us against Gladbach is far from granted.
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Blackwidow said:
Bayern will not win tomorrow... Not against Gladbach who played terrible the last matches but will not against Bayern tomorrow.
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Dear Café, if you ever wanted to know what it's like to sit next to random fellow Bayern fans in the Arena... :)
 
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