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German Football 22/23 | 2. Bundesliga returns | Hamburg vs Schalke 20:30 |
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
They always have a young team, so they are a bit inconsistent and their keeper has probably had the worst non-Schwolowian season. I also have the impression that they have simply been a bit unlucky this year. xPTS has them in eigth place, at -12 their GD is miles better than all the other relegation candidates. I think it's relatively save to say that their overall play was fairly decent. Under Hoeneß they went 3-4-1 in the league. So their recent form has been quite a bit better than the picture the table paints.
The last time we played there it was filled with the likes of FSV Frankfurt, Aalen, Aue or Sandhausen...am glad there are fewer clubs with tiny stadiums this time.
Haha Hamburg. Karma.
Self fulfilling prophecy
You have to explain that one.Self fulfilling prophecy
Just relax. That title Dortmund owns alone.
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Looks like Dortmund may be buying Marvin Ducksch. I thought he's more like a #9/#10 hybrid, a Max Kruse type I guess, than a proper no9?! Not sure how well that would fit.
I don't really see any other player, who could be of interest at the agency for Dortmund though.
Klostermann used to be a topic, but unless Leipzig are desperate to get rid of him I don't think he'd fit the profile.
Demirbay for depth maybe, but that would be quite the stretch.
Weren’t there reports that Leipzig needs to sell in order to fulfill their FFP requirements?Tweet
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Looks like Dortmund may be buying Marvin Ducksch. I thought he's more like a #9/#10 hybrid, a Max Kruse type I guess, than a proper no9?! Not sure how well that would fit.
I don't really see any other player, who could be of interest at the agency for Dortmund though.
Klostermann used to be a topic, but unless Leipzig are desperate to get rid of him I don't think he'd fit the profile.
Demirbay for depth maybe, but that would be quite the stretch.
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DFL released their financial report. Note that these numbers are mostly for the 21/22 season.
As the journalist pointed out on Twitter Hoffenheim and Leverkusen had a kind "friend", who covered all their losses.
And this little slice of heaven is Hertha's numbers
I don't know. But I don't really see how he'd fit. For RB Dortmund already have Wolf and Ryerson, who can cover either flank, and they are looking to add a young Spaniard for quite a bit of money to that list. And being 4th choice CB would probably help neither him nor Dortmund very much, especially if they sign Alvarez, who could also play there if need be.
Ducksch is simply so underwhelming that I was looking for basically anyone else.
He scored 12 goals this season, no penalties, assisted another 7, that's not so bad at a club like Bremen. I think he's got decent technique for a "striker" and gets involved in his team's play. He's available for €7.5m and what I assume will be a fairly modest wage. He's 29, which is a decent age for someone, who is in all likelihood never going to be more than a backup and he's born in Dortmund, so that maybe would bring out little extra passion and fan identification probably won't hurt either.
I think it'd be a solid transfer/gamble in a lot of ways, I'm just not sure how he'd fit tactially, since Dortmund's attack relies so much on Haller's link-up play that I'd probably prefer a carbon copy that's all work and no goals, but has similar link-up play over someone, who scored a bunch of goals at his previous club.
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Pretty big news for Stuttgart.Tweet
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Does any BvB fan think there can be some value buys from Chelsea? Harvetz Ziyech, Zakaria anyone. They are desperate to sell and might cop a deal or 2
What Bayern needs is a DM and a striker and I don't think Chelsea has anyone good in those positions
What Bayern needs is a DM and a striker and I don't think Chelsea has anyone good in those positions
We don't own Zakaria. He was on loan and is being sent back to Juve but I don't think they're interested in keeping him so he can probably be had for like 20-25m.
As for DMs, you're right we don't really have anyone in that position. We're in the market for a new DM ourselves.
Zakaria can return to Gladbach but not for 25m.
I think Ziyech might be able to lift Dortmund attack. He was linked to Dortmund in his Ajax days
Ziyech has 2 years left on his deal but he can probably be had for a modest fee. It's obvious his time at Chelsea is done. Dortmund could be a nice club for him to land in.
What does Chelsea's situation have to do with Dortmund specifically?
If rumors are to be believed Dortmund are looking to buy Ajax's Alvarez for DM, Valladolid's Fresneda as a talent / starting RB and Enzo le Fee to replace Bellingham. I think a backup striker that's more similar to Haller than Moukoko is mandatory, though Ducksch could already be penciled in for that, if f his agent didn't just try to seek attention with his social media posts.. And Bensebaini appears to be signed already.
That would probably be at least €70m to €80m in fees and I wouldn't necessarily expect any big investments on top of it. The squad needs another CB for cover, but Alvarez has been playing there for Ajax. The wings could use a top player, but outright buying someone like that would be too expensive - save for some unique market opportunity. And the squad is otherwise decently staffed in that area with Adeyemi and Malen as first choice, two fairly promising looking talents in Bynoe Gittens and Duranville and Brandt/Reyna (somewhat similar to Ziyech), who could help out - a random "decent but not great" player wouldn't really help too much. Maybe also a well-balanced CM for cover.
But in general there is little value in buying players from a club like Chelsea, unless you're stealing someone from their academy.
That was fast. After a minute and the first corner 1:0 for Stuttgart...
It has been truly horrible to be a HSV fan in the last years...
This is a pretty fun game. Almost as good as watching Heidenheim.
and there's the 2:0, scored by the Hamburg lad
The logical thing now would be Hamburg fighting their way back into this tie just so they can lose it later on in heartbreaking fashion.
Already 3:0 - after a corner... - but Stuttgart badly underperformed this season. And had 13 points from the last 8 matches with Sebastian Hoeneß after Labbadia left.
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I swear VAR is so random. The ref obviously had a perfectly clear vision of the events. Maybe a little harsh, but definitely not wrong. So why is this going into review? How can you feck up such a simple concept to such an extend? We had wildly arbitrary VAR(in)-action thresholds, because of "the ref had a good view / missed it" and now they just roll the dice on whether there's a review. Clowns.
It is strange to me that Stuttgart ended up in 16th place. Their player „material“ is better than that. Hopefully they improve under Hoeness.
Abolish this relegation nonsense.
They heavily underperformed in parts of the season. But since Labbadia left they were fine again.
What's weird is how poor Bundesliga teams have performed in their home relegation games, only 6 wins, 5 draws and 4 losses (and only 3 wins in the last 10 duels).
2. Bundesliga teams then usually fail in the return leg at home, with only 1 win, 5 draws and 8 losses.
So it begs the question if being allowed to play the first game at home is actually an advantage here. Extra time would obviously favor the other team but it's only come to that once in 15 years.
2. Bundesliga teams then usually fail in the return leg at home, with only 1 win, 5 draws and 8 losses.
So it begs the question if being allowed to play the first game at home is actually an advantage here. Extra time would obviously favor the other team but it's only come to that once in 15 years.
The "relegated" team usually enters the tie with bad momentum and they have something to lose, the "promoted" team usually with positive momentum and they have something to win. So it's rather natural that the the first game is more difficult to approach for the Bundesliga club and it would also be logical for them to assume that they don't have to force things, because they are the better team anyway and thus a goal or two will come their way eventually. Second game is where things get real, the 2nd division team now either has something to lose or they need to offer space against a better opponent.
So I don't think the first game stats have much to do with home and away games, but for the return game it's perhaps a bit telling of the gulf in quality that the 2nd division teams have such a terrible record, despite getting to play at home.
The u17 Euros final against France just kicked off, if anyone is interested:
https://sport.sky.de/fussball/artikel/u17-em-finale-live-im-stream/12894816/34942
https://sport.sky.de/fussball/artikel/u17-em-finale-live-im-stream/12894816/34942
They got a bit lucky today but could it be that Germany is slowly starting to improve its youth program again?
It's a small sample but this year's results against France are pretty impressive:
* U16: 5:1, 2:2, 4:2
* U17: 3:1, 5:4 on penalties
* U18: 3:0
Then again it's difficult to make sense of youth results: Germany's U17 lost 6:0 to England in January and now they're the European champs.
Youth football is impossible to judge if you're not following it very closely. Since every developments takes years to show its effect at senior level I have no idea in what direction we're heading. Getting good team results seems to be a good sign, but it's only the two or three best players of a team that can hope to have a (good) career in Bundesliga or even the NT.
Some of these kids move up to the u19 (at club level) during the season, I imagine they will maybe need some time to adjust to playing and training with/against older kids, but they will probably develop an edge over players, who don't make that switch, towards the end of the season. So maybe that could explain the team not doing that well in January, but then winning the tournament in May/June. Or maybe it's just normal development spikes - who knows..
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I would even have an easier explanation. The youth teams in Germany have a winter break. January is not the best time to have them in shape...
When I look at the U17 in Bundesliga South - season part one ends start of December (the U19 even in mid November) and season part two started February 25th (end of January for the U19)
I had forgotten about the winter break, but you're right, that sounds very likely.
That wouldn't explain why they beat England 3:0 just 3 days earlier though...seems to be a prime example of the inconsistency that plagues youth teams.
Either way this was a pretty strong tournament from the German team and as you mentioned the more important question is how many players from that German squad will be Bundesliga or even national team material one day.
I remember that U17 team with Emre Can and Weiser from a couple of years ago that played some amazing football but unfortunately none of them ended up having a world class career.
I do not know if that is inconsistency. I looked at the matchpages to both matches and see how often they have substituted and how different the starting formations were. There were 9 substitutions in the second match at halftime. Different formations and backlines and it seems that it was not just the first set of players but the additional players, that right now weren't called for the tournament, were playing, too, like e.g. Paul Scholl, the youngest son of Mehmet. I was looking at the squad yesterday when I saw that they won to find out how many Bayern youth players were in that squad - the goalie and the no. 9.
Coming up next:
Blaswich - Henrichs, Klostermann, Orban, Halstenberg - Laimer, A. Haidara, Szoboszlai, Dani Olmo - Werner, Nkunku
vs.
Trapp - Tuta, Hasebe, Ndicka - Buta, Max, Rode, Sow, Kamada, M. Götze - Kolo Muani
Both Leipzig and Frankfurt have been very good cup teams in the recent past however RB has been the much stronger club in 2023.
Who's your pick to win it all?
Blaswich - Henrichs, Klostermann, Orban, Halstenberg - Laimer, A. Haidara, Szoboszlai, Dani Olmo - Werner, Nkunku
vs.
Trapp - Tuta, Hasebe, Ndicka - Buta, Max, Rode, Sow, Kamada, M. Götze - Kolo Muani
Both Leipzig and Frankfurt have been very good cup teams in the recent past however RB has been the much stronger club in 2023.
Who's your pick to win it all?
Leipzig should have the beating of them in my opinion, now Nkunku is back and in good form
Go FC Würstchen!
Such a waste of a great chance from Kolo Muani. Great vertical pass from Götze.