Still think so
German Football 22/23 | 2. Bundesliga returns | Hamburg vs Schalke 20:30 |
- Thread starter do.ob
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) talk about the proposed new stadium, season ticket prices, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and all things INEOS after the first year of their co-ownership.
They also discuss back-to-back victories vs. Real Sociedad and Leicester City - was this the best week for Amorim so far?
Still think so
Any backline would look bad if the defenders constantly have to defend 1 vs 1 against faster attackers. Hincapie actually had a good game until his mistake, including a monster tackle in the first half.
Astonishing block from the Hertha player there when Nkunku was nailed on to score.
Cologne's win puts Dortmund in 8th place, Terzic might have to answer some questions, if Dortmund don't win today - which isn't exactly an easy task against Union.
And Union takes the early lead against Dortmund. The pressure is on.
2-0 Union
Still early days, but assuming Union win today and keep that pace they would be heading for a 78 point season in the league. Bayern won with 77 and 78 points in the last two seasons...
Union's goals are more than double their xG, they are overperforming their xGa by nearly a third. xPTS has them 5th from bottom.
Stats aren't everything and there is some substance to their success, that the models don't seem to capture, but this isn't a sustainable performance. At some point they will fall off and Bayern will catch them. Top four is looking increasingly likely though.
I don't trust them to keep that pace either. Bayern will still end up with 70 points and Freiburg and/or Union will most likely not get that many. It's increasingly disappointing that Dortmund fails to be there when Bayern finally struggles. This might very well be the best chance to win the title in the next 10 years or so and our best hopes are fecking Union und Freiburg.
On one hand I also think that these results can't be sustainable. But on the other I think we all said "that isn't sustainable, they will get into a crisis" since they got promoted to first league. And they never did, they just kept on improving. So yes it has to stop at some point, but this is not just a purple patch, this is ongoing for 2.5 seasons now.
There's a difference between Union performing on a top 6-7 level and Union performing close to Bayern's level though.
Choupo-Moting is still at Bayern and actually starting games?!
Müller, Coman and Musiala not starting so he gets a token game. He needs game time for the WC, is seemingly well liked within the dressing room and never complains. He is the perfect backup striker.
Leroy Robben
4:0 Mane
Aw man. Sané had finally found some consistency (or let's say, he did enough good stuff to firmly outweigh the bad) over the last matches, and now he's out with a muscle injury.
At the moment it looks like the difference is about a year of development.
And yes, I will quote myself from August 21. Terzic, Tedesco and Seoane...
I don't think those belong in the same list: Tedesco flat out just isn't good enough to coach in the top half of the league. I wouldn't necessarily say the same about Seoane, I don't think he's a top coach, but this season he's been Leverkusened, as is Xabi currently.
Terzic has had a positive impact on Dortmund in some ways, in others he's still lacking (control, possession - and that's of course a big one), but this is his first job as head coach and the squad is quite flawed, so I wouldn't call him the German Solkjaer just yet.
You know you Jinxed him, right?
Oh, oh noYou know you Jinxed him, right?
I don't think Seoane was "Leverkusened". His system didn't work out and he had bad luck on top of it, that's all there is to it (and that's quite much in itself).
Leverkusen's performances this season are so far just bad, there isn't much bad luck involved imho.
Having Hradecky for a leader and him handing out goals for fun isn't unlucky, it's Banter 04 Leverkusen. And some other players have been "unlucky" in a similar fashion.
The performances weren't much worse than in the beginning of the last season. Look at it this way (stats after 8 games, when Seoane was sacked, this season vs last)
| Season | Position | xPts-Position | xG (goals) | xGA (goals against) | xPts (points) |
| 21/22 | 3 | 10 | 12.07 (20) | 12.33 (12) | 11.31 (16) |
| 22/23 | 15 | 10 | 14.92 (13) | 15.06 (16) | 11.94 (8) |
This indicates that we were very lucky in the same period last season and relatively unlucky in this one, culminating in a great "gap of luckiness" for Seoane in both seasons. The truth is somewhere inbetween. And I think you can also conclude that we were indeed unlucky for getting ~30% less points than we deserve based on the chances we created/conceded.
We are not where we are because of individual errors but because we played terribly and were unlucky on top of it. Flaws in the system lead to individual mistakes - as a Dortmund fan you should be familiar with that
I'll grant you a bit of bad luck, so we actually think the same about this. Interesting to see how lucky Leverkusen was last season, wasn't aware of that.
The first four matches are underway, and after 20 minutes Frankfurt lead already 2-0 at Stuttgarter Kickers (a 5th league side) and Mainz lead 1-0 at VfB Lübeck (a 4th league side), those two games probably will have quite clear results...
Some minutes before end of regular time Darmstadt leads 2:1 against Gladbach, Hoffenheim is 5:1 ahead against Schalke and in the 2 other matches the favourites of higher leagues have a one goal lead.
Sommer and Hofmann had to go out with injury - 4 weeks before the World Cup for sure a topic.
Sommer and Hofmann had to go out with injury - 4 weeks before the World Cup for sure a topic.
Darmstadt is a good team to be fair, even the best clubs lose 2-1 vs them
Kramer sacked. Should have happened weeks ago.
Should never have gotten the job.
Probably.. But it's easy to criticize that decision when you don't have to consider the alternatives and to be fair to Kramer, he kept Bielefeld in the league in their first season.
Yes, Kramer isn't that bad as a manager. So let me rephrase it and say that no one should have gotten that job as it was designed at Schalke. He didn't get any authority there and this setup with Büskens still around etc could only fail.
Yeah, I knew we were lucky in the beginning of last season but never knew it was that lucky! Remarkably, we still finished third in xPts ahead of Dortmund which shows that what followed was indeed pretty strong.
Is Büskens a factor? He must have stepped in as an interim about half a dozen times and I assume he has no ambition to ever take the full job. He seems quite modest.
I think Schalke's squad is just not on a Bundesliga level, staying up would be a tough task for anyone and they will have to rely on vibes/their fans to win enough extra points. Kramer tried to play bland football with a terrible squad, that was never going to be enough, they need someone, who can make a difference tactically or via extreme charisma.
I think not really as a person, but the simple fact that the promotion hero stayed as part of the staff means that the new head coach will be questioned all the time and won'thave the authority he should have. It's similar to the Terzic/Rose situation we saw last season in Dortmund which also didn't end well for the new guy.
I have a lot of time for Schalke as many of my German friends are fans and have seen a fair few games in the Veltins Arena, but they are a total mess these days.
Hannover rotating more for this match than Dortmund... Quite clear where our priority lies this season, and it isn't the cup. Should be an easy win for Dortmund, but if they lose I'm already sorry, I'm going to be unbearable in this thread for you @do.ob
Great opportunity after the first corner, but the shot was to easy to save... Dortmund looks vulnerable