Bundesliga, DFB Cup, and other Bundesliga business 2014/2015

Matchday 05, 23/09/14 - 24/09/14
Match Day...

The first four (Paderborn, Mainz, Hoffenheim, Bayern) all in action today ;)

FC Bayern - Paderborn
Bremen - Schalke
Hoffenheim - Freiburg
Frankfurt - Mainz

All at 20:00 local German time (or 19:00 in England)

Tomorrow evening:
Leverkusen - Augsburg
Dortmund - Stuttgart
Gladbach - Hamburg
Hertha BSC Berlin - Wolfsburg
Hannover - Köln


#FCBayern's starting XI: Neuer - Alonso, Dante, Lewandowski, Robben, Boateng, Götze, Rode, Lahm (c), Müller, Alaba
 
Blackwidow said:
Match Day...

The first four (Paderborn, Mainz, Hoffenheim, Bayern) all in action today ;)

FC Bayern - Paderborn
Bremen - Schalke
Hoffenheim - Freiburg
Frankfurt - Mainz

All at 20:00 local German time (or 19:00 in England)

Tomorrow evening:
Leverkusen - Augsburg
Dortmund - Stuttgart
Gladbach - Hamburg
Hertha BSC Berlin - Wolfsburg
Hannover - Köln


#FCBayern's starting XI: Neuer - Alonso, Dante, Lewandowski, Robben, Boateng, Götze, Rode, Lahm (c), Müller, Alaba
Click to expand...

Assume Gaudino is on the bench?
 
RedSky said:
Assume Gaudino is on the bench?
Click to expand...

Yes. Substitutes: Reina - Shaqiri, Rafinha, Pizarro, Gaudino, Bernat, Hojbjerg

Benatia is missing - why is still open (no central defender on the bench). Bernat is not starting today.
Looks like:
Neuer
Lahm - Boateng - Dante - Alaba
Rode - Alonso
Robben ---------------Götze
Müller - Lewandowski

Cannot categorize the front 4. Can come with Müller and Lewa both forwards, Robben left/right, Müller/left right, Götze left or no. 10
 
Joga Bonito said:
Any specific reason why Bernat was dropped?
Click to expand...

Formation? Playing Rode in midfield and Alaba on his fullback position?
I do not really see him in the first team as I do not think he is a better fullback than Alaba... When Pep plays with 2 strikers or with Müller behind Lewa I can imagine that he is going for a ball winner and fighter in Rode instead of Alaba in the midfield. And as Paderborn seems to press early it could be that Bayern will try not to short pass through the midfield but sometimes trying to surpass midfield with long balls with Lewa and Müller the recipients. Than having a ball winner like Rode might be important.

The formation tonight does not look like tiki-taka...
 
PedroMendez said:
goalkeeper handled that strike from Lewandowski poorly. Should have saved that. The game is pretty much over after 15 minutes.
Click to expand...
How are we playing? How's Götze doing besides the goal? Can't watch the fecking game because of work :mad:
 
Balu said:
How are we playing? How's Götze doing besides the goal? Can't watch the fecking game because of work :mad:
Click to expand...
very concentrated performance. No nonsense. Paderborn had one chance, where the forward was shitting himself when he was running towards Neuer. Götze is playing very well and was part of a couple of good attacks. I cant see anything go wrong today. Rode is playing as rightback, while Lahm is in midfield next to Alonso.
 
PedroMendez said:
very concentrated performance. No nonsense. Paderborn had one chance, where the forward was shitting himself when he was running towards Neuer. Götze is playing very well and was part of a couple of good attacks. I cant see anything go wrong today. Rode is playing as leftback, while Lahm is in midfield next to Alonso.
Click to expand...
I hope you mean rightback and Alaba is playing leftback? If so, how is he doing? I wouldn't mind if he gets used to that position and replaces Rafinha.
 
yeah. rode as rightback. already corrected it. hard working in both directions without mistakes but also not spectacular. Could be a decent option, but its hard to say.....Paderborn has a hard time in this match.
 
What's Bayern's formation right now? Looks like Rode is playing right wingback or something :confused:

Brilliant work from Alonso just there btw.
 
Gotze makes it 3-0

Edit: 4-0. Muller the goalscorer. Here's the surprise: Robben used his right foot to cross for Muller's goal.
 
Last edited:
Winrar said:
Gotze makes it 3-0

Edit: 4-0. Muller the goalscorer. Here's the surprise: Robben used his right foot to cross for Muller's goal.
Click to expand...

Actually - was not the first time. Robben is the main assistant for Müller - he assists mainly to Müller and Ribery. And yes, then he even uses his right foot for that - he did against United last season, too. They know each other very well. Müller is the main assistant for Götze. Even the first goal - Robben to Müller to Götze...
 
The offensive fluidity in the first 25 or so minutes was fantastic to watch. That's why I'm such a big fan of Müller on the 10-spot.
Alonso has been nothing but spectacular, Robben is Robben. Once again, though, we had real trouble getting our hands on the game after half-time, but overall I'm really happy with the performance.
 
Blackwidow said:
Actually - was not the first time. Robben is the main assistant for Müller - he assists mainly to Müller and Ribery. And yes, then he even uses his right foot for that - he did against United last season, too. They know each other very well. Müller is the main assistant for Götze. Even the first goal - Robben to Müller to Götze...
Click to expand...
It's just that Robben seems to avoid using his right foot so often that when he does use it takes me by surprise sometimes.
 
2-2 in Frankfurt, deserved on the balance of play. I would have taken a draw before the game, but it's a bit annoying to lose a two goal lead. The halves were really mirrors of each other, in the first Frankfurt created a number of chances but failed to convert, then we scored a couple from our first two chances, but they got one back right before half time. In the second it was us who created the chances, but couldn't kill the game off. Conceded a really stupid equaliser and left with a point in the bag.
 
Piratesoup said:
The offensive fluidity in the first 25 or so minutes was fantastic to watch. That's why I'm such a big fan of Müller on the 10-spot.
Alonso has been nothing but spectacular, Robben is Robben. Once again, though, we had real trouble getting our hands on the game after half-time, but overall I'm really happy with the performance.
Click to expand...
I loved both the Paderborn team and supporters. They know they are not here to stay so they enjoy the party. The team kept their play nice, no one was out to hurt anybody. That being said, they played well - ran a lot, had a plan - and that wasn't even "let's hope we don't get swept out of the arena"; they actually tried and made space sparse, they tried to annoy without getting nasty. They couldn't keep up with the blistering change of pace this Bayern team is capable of, but better teams -much better teams- weren't in the past.

Alonso was dominant. Robben showed Götze AND Müller (to a lesser extent) what they still are lacking - the ability to be a game changer. Lewa took one step toward having arrived at Munich. Overall, a satisfactory Oktoberfest game without humilating Paderborn, which they didn't have deserved anyway.
 
To the Bundesliga experts: what's your take on Okazaki?

I've watched him play for the national team for the last 4 years or so, and he's never really struck me as anything more than a decent player(though tbf, he's almost exclusively played on the wing, which isn't his strongest position). But it seems like he's scoring every week in the Bundesliga! Is he actually one of the best center forwards in the league, or has he just been on a good run for Mainz? If it's the former, then I hope Japan will stop using him as a wide forward and let him play in his natural position instead. Japan sorely needs goalscorers(and CBs).
 
Mad Winger said:
To the Bundesliga experts: what's your take on Okazaki?

I've watched him play for the national team for the last 4 years or so, and he's never really struck me as anything more than a decent player(though tbf, he's almost exclusively played on the wing, which isn't his strongest position). But it seems like he's scoring every week in the Bundesliga! Is he actually one of the best center forwards in the league, or has he just been on a good run for Mainz? If it's the former, then I hope Japan will stop using him as a wide forward and let him play in his natural position instead. Japan sorely needs goalscorers(and CBs).
Click to expand...

Last season he had 15 goals and 1 assist in 33 matches. 23 matches without goal or assist of him, 10 with. Apart from 2 against Dortmund - all of his goals were against the low teams of the league last season, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Braunschweig, Nuremberg, Hoffenheim (with their great goal against statistics)...

That he scores like this season is a run. Let's see how that goes on. I do not know if that has to do with the change of tactics - they have a new coach.
 
Blackwidow said:
Last season he had 15 goals and 1 assist in 33 matches.
Click to expand...

Isn't that pretty good when you're playing for a midtable team, though? Whenever a striker for a midtable team in the PL pulls off those numbers, he's usually considered a good/great striker, and if he's fairly young, relatively big clubs will hunt him down(not the case of 28 year old Okazaki, though).

He's on a brilliant run so far this season. If we include the cups, he's on 7 goals and 1 assist in 8 games. I wonder if he's considered one of Mainz' most important players? Or is someone else stealing the spotlight?
 
Mad Winger said:
Isn't that pretty good when you're playing for a midtable team, though? Whenever a striker for a midtable team in the PL pulls off those numbers, he's usually considered a good/great striker, and if he's fairly young, relatively big clubs will hunt him down(not the case of 28 year old Okazaki, though).

He's on a brilliant run so far this season. If we include the cups, he's on 7 goals and 1 assist in 8 games. I wonder if he's considered one of Mainz' most important players? Or is someone else stealing the spotlight?
Click to expand...

With Müller gone, he's most certainly their best player. Doesn't say much though, the squad is pretty crap if you look at the names only. But Mainz never was about names.
 
fcbforever said:
With Müller gone, he's most certainly their best player. Doesn't say much though, the squad is pretty crap if you look at the names only. But Mainz never was about names.
Click to expand...
Oh, come on. Müller wasn't our best player, he wasn't even in the top five - losing Pospech and Choupo hurt us much more. And bollocks to calling our squad "pretty crap", compared to Bayern it may be true, but our squad isn't worse at all than the teams we're competing with: Hannover, Frankfurt, Augsburg, et al, even Hamburg and Stuttgart.

Can't really argue with Shinji's numbers, but I'd have Baumgartlinger slightly ahead of him so far in this season.
 
ctp said:
Oh, come on. Müller wasn't our best player, he wasn't even in the top five - losing Pospech and Choupo hurt us much more. And bollocks to calling our squad "pretty crap", compared to Bayern it may be true, but our squad isn't worse at all than the teams we're competing with: Hannover, Frankfurt, Augsburg, et al, even Hamburg and Stuttgart.

Can't really argue with Shinji's numbers, but I'd have Baumgartlinger slightly ahead of him so far in this season.
Click to expand...

In terms of ability and talent, Müller was certainly the best. And yes, you are on par with Hannover & Co, but I still miss standout players. It's a very composed squad, working brilliantly as a unit. But certainly not a very good one.
Do you rate Djuricic? So far, I'm not impressed and expected more.
 
Mad Winger said:
To the Bundesliga experts: what's your take on Okazaki?

I've watched him play for the national team for the last 4 years or so, and he's never really struck me as anything more than a decent player(though tbf, he's almost exclusively played on the wing, which isn't his strongest position). But it seems like he's scoring every week in the Bundesliga! Is he actually one of the best center forwards in the league, or has he just been on a good run for Mainz? If it's the former, then I hope Japan will stop using him as a wide forward and let him play in his natural position instead. Japan sorely needs goalscorers(and CBs).
Click to expand...
Really like our shirt this season, so I bought one for the first time in a decade - with 23 Okazaki on the back. He's a really really good striker, but you need to play him as a centre forward. Last season, we started with him on the left where he was quite ineffective; it was only after moving him to the centre, he found his form. And it's not just his goals that are so important to us, he wins a ridiculous number of long balls against centre backs a head taller than him and he has the requisite ability to find a team mate with the lay off. He's also a really hard worker, runs is heart out every game and is so important for our pressing.

Maybe there's some sentiment clouding my judgement, but I'd definitely consider him one of the best strikers in the league, and the only one I'd swap him for is Lewandowski (with a heavy heart).
 
fcbforever said:
In terms of ability and talent, Müller was certainly the best. And yes, you are on par with Hannover & Co, but I still miss standout players. It's a very composed squad, working brilliantly as a unit. But certainly not a very good one.
Do you rate Djuricic? So far, I'm not impressed and expected more.
Click to expand...
Certainly didn't show it very often. Apart from the first four games where he scored five goals and played brilliantly altogether, he had a bang average season. Like I said, not even in our top five best players last year: Geis, Pospech, Okazaki, Choupo, Noveski, Karius, at a push Park and Bell all had better seasons than him.

Standout players: disregarding the six or seven better squads in the league, who has a better striker than Okazaki? a better Doppelsechs than Geis-Baumgartlinger? a better loan from Dortmund than Hofmann? Anyway, who would you consider standout players among our competition, whose like we do not have?

Djuricic needs time. His technique and ability to find a team mate in tight spaces are outstanding, but he needs to gel with the team and improve physically.
 
So it seems like Stuttgart gets rid of Bobic now. How stupid can a club be? I don't really like Bobic and I don't think he did a particularly good job in the past years, but the timing to fire him is just awful. It looks like they are only trying to please the fans and react instantly. If you want to fire your director of football, do it before the summer transfer window started, not after 5 bad games in the league. If the club is happy with the manager he appointed, which seems to be the case, and sanctioned his transfer deals over the summer, in which the new manager already was involved, then why the feck is he the scapegoat now? It's so dumb.

I understand that getting rid of a manager can make sense, directly influence the players and the playing style. But it's the totally wrong time to fire the guy who planned the whole season and bring someone in, who can't even impact anything until next summer (well to a small degree maybe in the winter transfer window, but with the lack of money, even that is doubtful). Unbelievable. Stuttgart is just as bad as Hamburg and I really enjoy that clubs like Mainz, Augsburg, Freiburg are constantly performing better than those two 'big' clubs for a few years now.

/edit:
Also, 1860 fired Ricardo Moniz :lol:. I know it's only the 2nd Bundesliga, but it's just so hilarious how the club developed after they got their sugardaddy. They were broke, were gifted a lot of money, which saved them and gave them a chance to finally get back on track again, and they actually managed to perform even worse since then. Unbelievable.
 
Last edited:
ctp said:
Certainly didn't show it very often. Apart from the first four games where he scored five goals and played brilliantly altogether, he had a bang average season. Like I said, not even in our top five best players last year: Geis, Pospech, Okazaki, Choupo, Noveski, Karius, at a push Park and Bell all had better seasons than him.

Standout players: disregarding the six or seven better squads in the league, who has a better striker than Okazaki? a better Doppelsechs than Geis-Baumgartlinger? a better loan from Dortmund than Hofmann? Anyway, who would you consider standout players among our competition, whose like we do not have?

Djuricic needs time. His technique and ability to find a team mate in tight spaces are outstanding, but he needs to gel with the team and improve physically.
Click to expand...

Mainz will do very well this season. They've improved their squad this Summer and with Geis, Karius and Bell they have 3 very good young players who will keep improving. I'm surprised how well they've started this season, I thought they might struggle a bit with Tuchel gone. Oh and Bell is a superb CB, I really rate him as a defender.
 
Balu said:
/edit:
Also, 1860 fired Ricardo Moniz :lol:. I know it's only the 2nd Bundesliga, but it's just so hilarious how the club developed after they got their sugardaddy. They were broke, were gifted a lot of money, which saved them and gave them a chance to finally get back on track again, and they actually managed to perform even worse since then. Unbelievable.
Click to expand...

1860 is a comedy show - and that did not start with their sugardaddy...
 
Blackwidow said:
1860 is a comedy show - and that did not start with their sugardaddy...
Click to expand...
Yeah, but it got even better since then. By the way, have they finally found out who's president at the moment or are they still fighting lawsuits against each other? I stopped following the whole drama a while ago.
 
there is never a bad time to sack Bobic. I am honestly convinced that I could do a better job. I agree that the reasoning behind this is flawed and it doesnt make much sense, but he had to go. This guy is the parody of a clown of a manager. I cant believe that they employed him for such a long time. I dont really rate Veh either but I guess they have to stick with him for now.

Most my friends in munich are actually 1860 fans and so I usually have to watch 1-2 games per year in the arena.:lol::lol::lol: For years they always got their irrational hopes up, just to get disappointed. Even they are completely disenchanted. It was always great banter but I start to feel sorry for them. :nervous: Moniz was god awful during his time in Salzburg. He is a fraud who can sell himself. He convinces dumb people that he is a great manager. No reasonable club would ever employ him.....so he was perfect for 1860.

To my knowledge its still not 100% clear. Schneider still hasnt officially resigned. His former vice presidents Manget and Hauner already did this. Schneider is hiding somewhere in Mallorca and doesnt say anything. :lol: Potentially he could file a lawsuit, but thats very unlikely. He just fecks them over for no reason. I´d love to have them in the first division, but its never going to happen.
 
PedroMendez said:
there is never a bad time to sack Bobic. I am honestly convinced that I could do a better job. I agree that the reasoning behind this is flawed and it doesnt make much sense, but he had to go. This guy is the parody of a clown of a manager. I cant believe that they employed him for such a long time. I dont really rate Veh either but I guess they have to stick with him for now.
Click to expand...
Possible, still the timing is godawful and shows how incompetent the board is. I really hope, Dortmund destroy them tonight.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.