Borussia Dortmund (A) | CL | Post-Match Thread

[HelloCity]

I'm disappointed for Alvarez. He came to the club on the back of a good run of form and brought that into his first couple of appearances, but now he looks lost.i think he should have started in place of Marez or Grealish in some games. I don't know what he was told when he came, but it can't have been this.

If players aren’t doing it in training then they don’t have much chance of playing. Pep sees them every day and has a much better idea of where everyone is up to. Then you’ve got to take into account that the manager knows much more about how a player is settling into living in England and how much time they might need to adapt. Even Bernardo was barely a regular starter in his first few months here.

This form of playing well in a South American League is also much different than being able to do it in the PL and CL. There’s a huge difference in quality. As far as we know Pep might think he’s not made that bridge yet having seen him play football for hundreds more hours than we have.

Like Bernardo in his first season, hopefully we see the best of him, or close to it, in the new year.

 

[Cotton Weave Blue]

If we go and smash Leicester off the park after conserving our selves through Subutteo 94 tactic of pass it round the back until the end of time, this will be a good week.

 

[Gray]

If we go and smash Leicester off the park after conserving our selves through Subutteo 94 tactic of pass it round the back until the end of time, this will be a good week.

And if we can stop Leicester scoring 2 goals from their 3 chances.

 

[HelloCity]

BBC match report on this game is hilarious by the way. Painting an image of a club in crises. Their logic just doesn’t line up with the reality of how recent games played out. Written by one of their Liverpool fan club members.

 

[Impeccable One]

And on behalf of all those with me trying to get out of Dortmund train station back to Bochum, Essen & Dusseldorf last night ….. FUCK Deutsche Bahn !

 

[SilverFox2]

Seems to me the result suited both teams so the game was unlikely to burst into life unless a goal occurred.

 

[adr2.8i]

Job done and all that but there’s a few issues for me. Although I’m a fully paid card carrying pep fan boy if Cancelo and Haaland were ill before the game why risk it. Both were way off the pace anyway so playing them made no sense.

Although the recruitment in the summer was decent I think the lack of options at full back is hindering our play. To have four centre backs on the back four is a ludicrous situation to be in. We have five top class centre backs but only 2 out and out full backs both of whom are essentially right backs. I know we were going nuts deep for cucerella but there’s other left backs out there or even a right back. This could really hamper us this season. Cancelo is going to be fucked if we aren’t careful. He should have been left out altogether last night but we don’t have the options.

Also our lack of pace especially in wide areas. To many times we have to go back and rotate the ball. We need that burst of pace in the box sometimes. Crying bout for the wide man to take the full back on. Palmer came on and tried it and you have them on the back foot. Look at Liverpool the other week how many times did the wingers take on the full back.

We had a couple of breaks last night but don’t have the speed to be effective in what we are doing. Mahrez can not get away from anyone and even foden seems unable to get away at any great speed.

Although we are in good positions in the league and champions league I still think the squad needs work. Full back and winger would be amazing.

I see no stand out candidates either in the league or champions leagues so it’s on us if we want to win both. Just need a few tweaks here and there.

Pretty much my thoughts as well mate. I'm sure we'll be on the case in the next 2 windows.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

This is an example of where stats can be useless.

Apart from a few counter attacks and one dangerous corner, that was an easy night of football for us and we were in control of the game enacting the tactics to get us the draw we needed to top the group with as little threat of injuries or conceding a goal as we could manage while not really exerting ourselves too much.

We were unadventurous and boring but they needed to win more than we did and they were less adventurous with mostly very poor quality (apart from their defending) and they were at home.

 

[oldius]

Top of the group qualification is ALL that matters.
As for performances, it was okay. Gundo was imperious, at times; Alvarez pressing created some tension in their back line; Grealish made a difference in his short time on the pitch, releasing an excellent through ball that we should have done more with, and Stones and DIas - for me our best partnership - looked solid, and effective when bringing the ball out.
I keep saying it, but it is Palmer's time, IMO.
They also had some excellent performances - Brandt and Bellingam looked excellent but their right midfielder, Adeyemi, looked superb.
Onwards and upwards to play a slightly resurgent Leicester.

 

[bluethai]

very... friendly match...