Borussia Dortmund (H) Post-Match Thread

[Spanishbob]

My personal take on last night was because of the postponed spurs game I think it had an impact on some of our players in that we were slow and lost our momentum. Got to say what a beautiful pass by Cancelo with the outside of his right foot to set up Haaland.

 

[ONTHERUNWITHTHAKSIN]

Haaland is like Bruce Lee

 

[remember arthur mann]

Yeah, I turned to my neighbour and said how many times has Jack cut inside and his shot gets blocked. Don't know whether he's up against better defenders but he's having little luck when he gets a shooting chance.

Definitely think Dortmund have the typical German defence, very strong and disciplined. Regarding Grealish, he's at his best when given license to roam all over pitch, sadly for him Pep this year appears to be nailing players in set positions.

 

[Sergio<3]

Grealish Mahrez and Gundo in the same team, never again please! Painful how slow we played when they were on the pitch

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

There seems to be more of a direct risk-or-reward strategy this season, so inevitably our lack of pace and defensive nous will be exposed when Cancelo or De Bruyne lose possession cheaply from trying to be too clever. However, last night resembled our attritional style from last year, when opponents simply run out of steam in the last fifteen minutes.
Grealish and Mahrez seemed off the pace, but similarly they’ve hardly kicked a ball, so I’ll cut them some slack
Haaland is phenomenal, but in the back of my mind I’ve got this nagging memory of Gary Lineker scoring lots of goals for Everton in the year that they didn’t win the league, whereas the lesser talented Adrian Heath, Graham Sharpe, and even Wayne Clarke all won championship medals

 

[Tuearts right boot]

What do people think of Grealish ?

I really like what I see of the guy and have done in his Villa days but I still think he's got another 15% to give. Don't know if it's him or the way Pep wants him to play but each time he has the ball I'm willing for him to do something constructive when mostly we all know he'll pass back or take the easy ball. Yes he does does sometimes get in behind the defence, put the odd cross in and with success but I'd to see him attack the opposition more. I thought he would finally, after a full year of Pep, get to grips but it doesn't seem that way so far, I really hope I'm wrong.

 

[shevtheblue]

I think this game needed either Grealish or Mahrez but not both. Playing them both and then having inverted fullbacks as well and one of them is a CB, it was never going to work, surely? If he really wanted them both to play, then surely it would have been more prudent to start Gomez and get him to overlap Grealish with Cancelo doing similar on the other side. I really do hope Pep starts Alvarez a lot more now, his urgency and dynamism really does put fear into defenders. Not sure why he got benched, maybe Pep wants to ease him in but he looks like he's ready.

 

[Octavian]

I think this game needed either Grealish or Mahrez but not both. Playing them both and then having inverted fullbacks as well and one of them is a CB, it was never going to work, surely? If he really wanted them both to play, then surely it would have been more prudent to start Gomez and get him to overlap Grealish with Cancelo doing similar on the other side. I really do hope Pep starts Alvarez a lot more now, his urgency and dynamism really does put fear into defenders. Not sure why he got benched, maybe Pep wants to ease him in but he looks like he's ready.

Spot on

 

[Stoned Rose]

Definitely think Dortmund have the typical German defence, very strong and disciplined. Regarding Grealish, he's at his best when given license to roam all over pitch, sadly for him Pep this year appears to be nailing players in set positions.

I feel really sorry for Jack.

He very clearly isn’t a left winger but is constantly being played there.

Never in a million years is he going to go outside a full back and whip a left foot cross in like a proper left winger would.

It’s absolutely mental.

If persisting with it at least give him a proper overlapping full back rather than the set up we had last night.

The system is making him look a much lesser player than he is and must be doing his nut in.

 

[shevtheblue]

There seems to be more of a direct risk-or-reward strategy this season, so inevitably our lack of pace and defensive nous will be exposed when Cancelo or De Bruyne lose possession cheaply from trying to be too clever. However, last night resembled our attritional style from last year, when opponents simply run out of steam in the last fifteen minutes.
Grealish and Mahrez seemed off the pace, but similarly they’ve hardly kicked a ball, so I’ll cut them some slack
Haaland is phenomenal, but in the back of my mind I’ve got this nagging memory of Gary Lineker scoring lots of goals for Everton in the year that they didn’t win the league, whereas the lesser talented Adrian Heath, Graham Sharpe, and even Wayne Clarke all won championship medals

I don't think you can compare that Everton team with us tbh. He's got everything he needs to succeed here and you see game-by-game we are making minor adjustments (and so is he) to get us to flow better. It will never be the same as having a false 9 to cause overloads, but he 100% has more to his game and some of his touches were great last night IMO.