It has been revealed that Sabitzer was one of the players who tested positive during the first round of tests. He underwent the mandatory 14-day quarantine which is why he was only a sub last weekend.
Bundesliga Gameweek 27 (COVID-19 discussion-free zone)
- Thread starter do.ob
- Start date
This weekend I've watched the Berlin Derby, Dortmund and Leverkusen games (simultaneously) and now this one and all bar the first half of the Derby have been thoroughly enjoyable to watch despite being BCD.
Did you watch the game? Notice anything different? Fatigued quicker? Probably a hard thing to notice tbh.
Mainz saved by the flag.
Didn't see the first half but by all accounts it's been a walk in the park for Leipzig today so you cannot read anything into it. He was asymptomatic but missed a big part of training so he cannot be at 100% yet. Goal and assist today though.
Depending on how you look at it the Schalke post is not a major job anymore. Since Huub Steven's first tenure, which ended 2002, Mirko Slomka was the only coach who finished his second year in charge. Since the days of Magath and Rangnick, which are about ten years behind us as well, they haven't been able to sign any first tier coaches, but had to keep hiring and firing one hit wonders like di Matteo, Weinzierl, Breitenreiter, Tedesco or now Wagner.
Last season they came close to relegation, their squad needed a major overhaul, but as they are burdened by quite considerable debt and missed out on CL money they didn't really have a lot spend. Todibo, Kenny, Miranda, Gregoritsch for example are four loanees who probably were all supposed to play a significant role. Odds are the coaches who are more reputable than Wagner probably weren't too interested in the job.
The whole club is just a mess that breaks most coaches and players they sign, e.g. Mark Uth, who scored 2 league goals in 1.5 seasons for Schalke and now that they've loaned him out to Cologne during the winter break he's already scored 5, which also happens to be one more than the whole Schalke squad combined.
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Leipzig could and should have scored a few more. Werner missed a couple of easy chances, same for Poulsen in the 1st half. Nkunku was average again and he had a good chance as well IIRC. While all the plaudits would go to Werner for the hattrick, felt Kampl was fantastic today
Dusseldorf two up at Koln with minutes to go. Now 2-2 and Koln had missed a penalty.
Mental end tbh
I'm generally indifferent to the fate of Düsseldorf, but those two points could have spiced up the relegation battle a lot, perhaps even giving teams like Union Berlin or Frankfurt, who were already deemed safe, something to worry about.
Them being neighbors spices this up a bit, too.
Mainz always seem to be one of those teams who lose most weeks but never get relegated, remind me of us and Sunderland in the years before we got relegated. You watch them and wonder how they get so many points in a season.
Edit: Lost 8 of their first 11 games but they hardly draw so the wins have kept their heads above the bottom 3 so far.
Edit: Lost 8 of their first 11 games but they hardly draw so the wins have kept their heads above the bottom 3 so far.
Mainz are a small club, so they aren't supposed to beat most teams. But I would consider them fairly well run: they quite resourceful with their transfers, casting a net for bargains all over Europe, they have been both ruthless and patient with their coaches and most of the time they just play a solid season, so it's actually somewhat unusual for them to sweat over relegation worries. On the other hand they even made it into Europe a couple of times. Schalke poaching their long-time DoF doesn't really seem to have hurt them either.
Rule of thumb: If so many coaches of so many different types fail in short time at the same club under the same management, you shouldn't change a thing. It just means you haven't found the right coach yet
At this point you have to wonder how Tönnies can actually lose his job at Schalke. I guess some people see his private wealth as an insurance policy.Rule of thumb: If so many coaches of so many different types fail in short time at the same club under the same management, you shouldn't change a thing. It just means you haven't found the right coach yet
Can't believe those feckers got 4 points off us in their two games against us at home.
I haven't watched a huge amount of Bundesliga before but are the games always this high scoring and one sided? Or is the lack of a crowd having a real affect on player spirit to fight when they go a goal or two down.
I saw some stats that compared football before and after the coronabreak, and apparantly there are many differences.
There haven't been any upsets or anything close to it,
Home advantage seems to be gone completely
There is less dribbling,
More passes,
And a bunch of other stats. Bottom line is, yes, the lack to supporters seems to benefit the stronger teams and the football played is different.
@Zehner any news on why Tah wasn't in the squad? He generally hasnt played in their 2 man CB formation, which is bad enough, but then didn't even play the 3 man defense against Gladbach. Can't find news on him being injured.
He was benched quite often after Tapsoba arrived, AFAIK also when we played with three CBs. Wasn't quite in form this season, so the bench against Bremen wasn't all that surprising. That Dragovic played ahead of him against Gladbach was the real surprise because he was atrocious in his last games. And he continued with that, gifting Gladbach a goal this weekend. But Tah wasn't even on the bench so I guess that he wasn't fit. There has been zero communication about it respectively I didn't hear anything from official accounts, which is kind of weird, so that may also have disciplinary reasons. However, that's speculation and I think the most likely explanation is that he's not at 100% right now or caught a cold or something along those lines. After all, we've seen a couple of weird starting picks with Wirtz being the most noteworthy. Havertz as a CF is another one. Maybe corona just messed up the hierarchy since the levels of fitness may drift apart significantly between players.
However, he can't be happy with his situation anyway. Tapsoba arrived and conquered his starting spot with almost zero effort. Tah was considered our best defender by far for multiple years and now 31 year old injury prone, less talented former-midfielder-learned CB Sven Bender starts ahead of him. And the worst thing is that it's deserved. It's about time he gets his shit together again. He had a free pass for seasons now, which was bad for his development (I actually think 20 year old Tah was better than his 23 year old iteration) and that's finally over. This year could be the most important one in his career so far, with us being the best we've been since 2002 and the CB position in the national team available without real competition, and he plays his worst season since joining us.
I think the simple truth is that Tah has been stagnating for quite some time now and he's still making the naive mistakes that are sort of okay when you are the new kid, but unacceptable when you're entering your mid 20s and are supposed to either move on to bigger things or start becoming a squad leader. When you are playing attacking football you are bound to run into defensive situations with very high individual responsibility, where a lapse in concentration, a small positional mistake can mean your defensive gets overrun and there is no one to cover for you. I fully understand why Bosz is choosing the less talented but very experienced and reliable Bender over Tah, it's a similar story with Piszczek and Akanji (well.. until Zagadou got injured) at Dortmund.
Thanks for the update @Zehner
Tah's stagnation was an uncomfortable truth for a while. It's finally becoming bare that Leverkusen are feeling the same with Tapsoda playing ahead of them. Tapsoda has been brilliant since coming in, really astonishing given that he joined mid season without pre-season and slotted in perfectly.
I was aware that Tah wasn't playing in the 2 man system since Tapsoda came in, so wasn't surprised he wasn't starting against Bremen, but he was playing when they were using 3 at the back. That was why I was surprised he wasn't playing at Gladbach.
Wouldn't be surprised if Tah had an argument with Bosz about this, it would be difficult when you're the crown jewel of the club for 3-4 years and suddenly a new kid comes in to take your place. Not much to play this season so lets see what happens over the summer, still rumours of big clubs interested so Leverkusen can sell him while still keeping Dragovic/Jedvaj/Restos.
Tah's stagnation was an uncomfortable truth for a while. It's finally becoming bare that Leverkusen are feeling the same with Tapsoda playing ahead of them. Tapsoda has been brilliant since coming in, really astonishing given that he joined mid season without pre-season and slotted in perfectly.
I was aware that Tah wasn't playing in the 2 man system since Tapsoda came in, so wasn't surprised he wasn't starting against Bremen, but he was playing when they were using 3 at the back. That was why I was surprised he wasn't playing at Gladbach.
Wouldn't be surprised if Tah had an argument with Bosz about this, it would be difficult when you're the crown jewel of the club for 3-4 years and suddenly a new kid comes in to take your place. Not much to play this season so lets see what happens over the summer, still rumours of big clubs interested so Leverkusen can sell him while still keeping Dragovic/Jedvaj/Restos.
Yes Bundesliga is usually a high scoring league due to the very high defences even the bottom half teams play. There's always space to run into as demonstrated in Augsburg 3-5 Dortmund.
At even a goal up most prem teams would park the bus v a top 4 team but it's different in Bundesliga.
This is one of the best games I've watched in any league this season but again example of high lines getting exposed.