Ah yes, the classic "let's get everyone else's hopes up and then we beat our main rival 5:0 on the next matchday" maneuver..
German Football 22/23 | 2. Bundesliga returns | Hamburg vs Schalke 20:30 |
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Even then it would only be a two point lead.
And Dortmund's remaining schedule is kinda soft...but would anybody bet against Bayern at this point?
Have to be honest, really not looking forward to that match in two weeks
Then again Bayern do look quite shit at times. But so do we
Unless Dortmund (somehow) win in Munich Bayern will remain firm favourites, but at the same time they aren't the well oiled machine of previous years. So there is a real chance for Dortmund. They've outperformed Bayern by 10 points so far in 2023, despite a pretty tough schedule in recent weeks.
What a dumb way to lose this game. Also not convinced by Nagelsmann's subs. Musiala for Müller was guaranteed to loosen our control of the game and create more openings for Leverkusen, for example.
I'm fully aware that football doesn't work like this and my post will come to haunt me in the future, but after the Bayern game Dortmund's schedule really is almost completely "free".
Five home games - Dortmund have won all their home games, except for Bremen and Bayern - they will be firm favourites in all of these. Playing Union three days after Leipzig sucks, but they have a midweek fixture in Frankfurt, too.
And only three away games, all of them against nominally weak teams. Bochum will be like a cup game, but still.
Wolfsburg, Gladbach, Augsburg and Mainz are teams that may have nothing to play for by the time Dortmund meet them.
Five home games - Dortmund have won all their home games, except for Bremen and Bayern - they will be firm favourites in all of these. Playing Union three days after Leipzig sucks, but they have a midweek fixture in Frankfurt, too.
And only three away games, all of them against nominally weak teams. Bochum will be like a cup game, but still.
Wolfsburg, Gladbach, Augsburg and Mainz are teams that may have nothing to play for by the time Dortmund meet them.
Dortmund will drop points v Union Berlin or someone, seen this script many times.
Don't trust them to get anything in Munich as usual so going to need Bayern to drop more points either side of their CL ties I reckon as they'll be expanding plenty of energy v Man. City.
Freiburg away three days before first leg looks a possible and Mainz away could be tricky aswell.
When did Bundesliga title race last go to final day, well overdue I think.
Don't trust them to get anything in Munich as usual so going to need Bayern to drop more points either side of their CL ties I reckon as they'll be expanding plenty of energy v Man. City.
Freiburg away three days before first leg looks a possible and Mainz away could be tricky aswell.
When did Bundesliga title race last go to final day, well overdue I think.
Leverkusen is just an insanely clutch club. Always showing up in these situation, the definition of a big match team.
Hence their nickname "Alwayskusen"
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Are people turning on Nagelsmann?
2018/19. Bayern won by 2 points, needed a draw at home to Frankfurt to seal the title and ended up trouncing them 5-0.
fecking Bayern. The one year you meet Peps City in the knockout stages you decide to have an average year. And they’re probably the best challenger quality wise (but still well behind)
The time to meet City was with Flick still in charge, but City decided to not show up by losing to.. Lyon?
Bayern in the CL are a different beast, I do believe that subconsciously theyre just more motivated in these big games compared to average Bundesliga games where they sometimes expect to win with way less than 100%. 0 goals conceded in 6 games against Barca, Inter and PSG is insane. I fully believe they will beat City over two legs.
I think it's too simple to put this down to motivation. I expect them to show something extra in the big games, too. But they have dropped too many points (and have fallen behind Dortmund as a result) to chalk this off to carelessness.
Lewandowski is gone, Neuer is injured, Müller has been getting subbed off early a bit recently - for whatever reason. These players have been pillars of their success and they just aren't there at the moment, without sufficient replacements.
I also feel there's something more substantially wrong with this Bayern team than just motivation. They look very vulnerable even when they win. Under Heynckes, Guardiola and Flick, Bayern seemed invincible in many games, completely suffocating you and leaving no room for chance or randomness. Maybe the opponent scored a lucky goal but you always knew they'll shrug it off effortlessly. As if they were thinking "we're winning 4:1 tonight, the order of the goals doesn't matter". But yesterday even when they took the lead, I was optimistic we could still turn it around. And that's basically the case for Nagelsmann's entire tenure, only that it is even more prevalent now compared to last season.
The trend definitely isn't favoring Bayern right now. Bayern is currently not only in a result but also a form crises. And while Bayern dropped many points even when they were playing well, Dortmund collected them left, right and center even in mediocre form earlier. And now they are even starting to play very well on top of it. The international break also comes at the perfect time for them since Adeyemi and Brandt have the time to recover from their injuries. Don't want to jinx it but it seems as if the stars finally align. Would be absolutely awesome if they get this over the line.
The trend definitely isn't favoring Bayern right now. Bayern is currently not only in a result but also a form crises. And while Bayern dropped many points even when they were playing well, Dortmund collected them left, right and center even in mediocre form earlier. And now they are even starting to play very well on top of it. The international break also comes at the perfect time for them since Adeyemi and Brandt have the time to recover from their injuries. Don't want to jinx it but it seems as if the stars finally align. Would be absolutely awesome if they get this over the line.
We just know Bayern will beat them at the Allianz 5:0 dont we 
YeahWe just know Bayern will beat them at the Allianz 5:0 dont we
Funny story: The Leverkusen block had a banner reading "Ihr macht euch zum Affen - Videobeweis abschaffen" You can see it in full glory in the stands while Palacios converted his penalties and ran off celebrating.
You can see it in full glory in the stands while Palacios converted his penalties and ran off celebrating.Tweet
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Am I reading too much into this or does this ("going to finish the season properly with Alwayskusen", "not looking at the future") sound like the standard phrases before a summer move is attempted?
Don't expect him to join segunda division though.
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I'm pretty relaxed on this front. His father positioned themselves pretty clearly, not only saying Wirtz will stay until 2024 but even going as far as stating that the outcome of this current season doesn't matter for them. I guess the fact that those quotes originate from a time before Wirtz hit the ground running after his comeback and I'm sure many will manufacture rumours out of that but that's normal with talents like him.
The ones to worry about this summer are Frimpong, Diaby and Tapsoba. It is possible that all three will leave.
Frimpong and Diaby are basically Leverkusen's attack this season, if they are sold and replaced with some fresh kids, does it really make sense for Wirtz to stick around for another year, where Leverkusen will probably attempt to start a new cycle?
It’s a standard answer to the question, whether you’re leaving or staying. Doesn’t mean anything.
At the beginning of the year his father/agent said that, until the Euros, his son is best positioned at Leverkusen.
A statement that could not have been clearer.
So if this wasn't just a careless comment it would constitute a clear change of mind in the Wirtz camp.
On the other hand I expect Leverkusen to basically price him out of a move, because, as has been mentioned, they are already about to lose two of their star attackers and giving away a (the) third would be reckless towards their chances next season.
A bit of a delayed reaction to the game but Leverkusen genuinely look so much better right now. Incredible that they were 0-3 down in the 1st half in the reverse fixture. The young CBs and midfield especially looks so organized lately.
Quite impressed with Palacios. Even outside of his goals, he was the best midfielder on the park I thought
Quite impressed with Palacios. Even outside of his goals, he was the best midfielder on the park I thought
Its not like the squad offers nothing apart from those two. Adli has made a big step this season and I expect him to do some more next year. Hlozek finally looks a really good player in the second half of the season. Schick will hopefully be fit again, Azmoun has started scoring. And we would of course, as you said, sign some offensive players in the summer after the big money we will probably receive for Diaby and/or Frimpong (which isnt even set in stone as of right now). I think its just a case of you trying again to interpret things as negative as possible for Leverkusen but thats nothing new.
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I mean, personally I would totally understand if he wants to make the next step already but as long as Witz and his father thinks it makes sense, the rest doesn't really matter. And the answers of his father were as clear as it gets with such players.
Regarding the general situation: I'm generally optimistic. I really like Xabi's style and think we're already witnessing much more control and stability. If we replace important but rather erratic players like Diaby, this might even be a chance for improvement. Frimpong is the more important player for us and I still have some hopes he stays. But even in the worst case of Tapsoba, Frimpong and Diaby leaving, there are some really good players in the team, primarily Hincapie and Palacios. And others such as Bakker, Kossounou, Adli, Hlozek, Andrich and Tah look very much improved. Plus whoever we might sign to accomodate Alonso's style of play. And I believe there will be plenty as the contracts of Sinkgraven, Aranguiz, Hudson-Odoi, Bellarabi and Azhil are running out and Demirbay, Amiri, Fosu-Mensah and Lomb are entering the last year of their contracts. Wouldn't be surprised if we see all 9 leave.
Come on.. Adli and Hlozek have improved, but for now they are still mediocre attackers and just a hope for the future at this point. Azmoun scored two goals and then he spent the next two Bundesliga games on the bench. I wouldn't write off Schick entirely, there's some quality him, but even before his injury he scored 2 goals in 10 BL games and 0 goals in 5 CL games. This is not a bunch of team mates you look at and think: "yeah, those guys will get the best out of me, I'll vibe with them".
To put it into simplistic terms, the game plan is being solid at the back, with a back 3 and two defensively aware midfielders and then
plan a)
release Frimpong (Diaby) into space
plan b)
have Wirtz pull something out of his hat
I think people are underestimating how much the approach is geared to get the best out of Frimpong, playing with a back three and a midfield two of Palacios and Andrich sacrifices so much in the center, just to carry his water. Since I don't expect them to be able to buy a like-for-like replacement I don't think Xabi would have much to build on tactically if he left. Which in itself isn't even necessarily a bad thing: on one hand trying something new is always a risk on the other hand he would have the opportunity to build something much more balanced.
Kossounou looks more like Tah 2.0 to me, Bakker has no football intelligence, I read "Tah has improved - really!" every single year and no matter the amount of fees Leverkusen may generate on sales, they'll still have to abide by their wage structure, which means most likely - especially looking at the past - a bunch of speculative transfers, who will need a year or two to settle.
In other words, they'll be at step one of a new cycle.
Freiburg and Union still have to be discounted a bit, because of their financial status, Frankfurt und Gladbach (hehe) will get picked apart in the summer, so it's not all bad, on paper I'd expect Leverkusen to have a very good shot at making top four next season. But from Wirtz' perspective I think he'd be wasting a year: he needs to face the pressure, play in the CL, play for the DFB Pokal at least - not spend a year playing for the Wenger cup at a club where people will be happy for him to just be there.
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It's a bit funny at this point how you just can't stay objective when it comes to Leverkusen
If you really are interested in Xabi's style of play, I recommend you this article about his time at Sociedad. You can already recognize many of those patterns in our game as well. Anyway, you're definitely not doing him justice with your take. Since he took over from Seoane, we're fourth in the table and third in the xPts table (ahead of Dortmund by the way). Under Seoane, we were 17th and 15th respectively. He stabilized the team to a great extent without losing much attacking prowess. And by now, we're also attacking much better. Attributing that only to the pace of Diaby and Frimpong as well as the genius of Wirtz' is definitely not doing Alonso justice. We've seen too many players ascend to form under him.
Bakker for instance had some excellent games and is already at 5 scorers under Alonso and that's although he didn't start at least three games because of being late. Adli and Hlozek aren't playing exeptional but get on the scoring sheets a lot. Same goes for Azmoun who also played very well apart from his goals. Palacios is playing excellently (easily our best midfielder both with and against the ball) and implying Alonso sacrifes so much in the center is pretty ignorant. He plays because he deserves it, not to accomodate Frimpong. If somebody plays to accomodate Frimpong, it is Tah or Kossounou, which brings me to the next point: Alonso doesn't even play three at the back against the ball. We defend with our at the back with one CB becoming fullback when we're not in possession. Which is why you see Hincapie on the left so often and Kossounou or even Tah on the right. Andrich as a CB is just another one of those rotations since he switches between CM and CB on those occasions.
Plus there's also the mentality thing looming around - something you like to talk about quite often, especially when praising Dortmund's season. The team definitely seems much more resilient and success oriented under Alonso.
I'd still understand if Wirtz wanted to move but mainly because he's just so incredibly good. I'd say he's already too good for every Bundesliga club bar Bayern but I also get that he doesn't want to risk the EC with a move.
All is nice but there is a real possibility that Xabi Alonso would not be the coach of Leverkusen for the next season. You know if Madrid is in search for a new manager in the summer his name will be one of the first on the list....
They appointed Zidane without any merits so who knows but I still doubt they would sign a manager with less than a season of experience in a top 5 league. But yeah, if they really are interested, I assume there's not much we can do.
Pep's Bayern won away vs City, group stage, I remember it for a 5-minute unbroken possession, not passing back and forth, but repeated attacks, clearance, another attack. Frightening machine football. Don't think his Bayern ever played that well again.
I'm not saying anything bad about Alonso. He has clearly been getting the results and he has stabilized the team. I just don't think the football is particularly sophisticated and most of what he's trying has been done by Seoane before, especially nominally playing Frimpong as "RB" and Hincapie as "LB". I assume that's just what is demanded by the way the squad is set up.It's a bit funny at this point how you just can't stay objective when it comes to Leverkusen
Anyway, you're definitely not doing him justice with your take. Since he took over from Seoane, we're fourth in the table and third in the xPts table (ahead of Dortmund by the way). Under Seoane, we were 17th and 15th respectively. He stabilized the team to a great extent without losing much attacking prowess. And by now, we're also attacking much better. Attributing that only to the pace of Diaby and Frimpong as well as the genius of Wirtz' is definitely not doing Alonso justice. We've seen too many players ascend to form under him.
Bakker for instance had some excellent games and is already at 5 scorers under Alonso and that's although he didn't start at least three games because of being late. Adli and Hlozek aren't playing exeptional but get on the scoring sheets a lot. Same goes for Azmoun who also played very well apart from his goals. Palacios is playing excellently (easily our best midfielder both with and against the ball) and implying Alonso sacrifes so much in the center is pretty ignorant. He plays because he deserves it, not to accomodate Frimpong. If somebody plays to accomodate Frimpong, it is Tah or Kossounou, which brings me to the next point: Alonso doesn't even play three at the back against the ball. We defend with our at the back with one CB becoming fullback when we're not in possession. Which is why you see Hincapie on the left so often and Kossounou or even Tah on the right. Andrich as a CB is just another one of those rotations since he switches between CM and CB on those occasions.
Plus there's also the mentality thing looming around - something you like to talk about quite often, especially when praising Dortmund's season. The team definitely seems much more resilient and success oriented under Alonso.
I'd still understand if Wirtz wanted to move but mainly because he's just so incredibly good. I'd say he's already too good for every Bundesliga club bar Bayern but I also get that he doesn't want to risk the EC with a move.
And what I mean by sacrificing the center for Frimpong is that he's allowed to leave the build up to others and wait in isolation until he gets to run at (or behind) the left back. Sure, against the ball he moves into the backline eventually, but since he's usually one of the top two highest positioned players of his team and he can't yet teleport across the pitch that takes some time. Which means others have to pick up the slack during build up and in defense / transitions. Which is probably the reason why Leverkusen need to play at least three CBs, with another two (more or less) defensive CMs in front of them to balance him out. That however means that on player is lost higher up the field. Namely a #8/#10 or #9, whichever way you want to look at it. And that greatly takes away from their presence in the center and makes their play more predictable. And that really shows, when opponents find a way to close their left flank.
Bayern won 3-1 away in that game probably the most dominant away match you will ever see
Other Bayern results at Etihad are 2-0 loss under Juup and a 3-2 loss under Pep when Benatia got an early red card but Bayern led for most of the game until Aguero struck
That 2:0 loss was at the last matchday in 2011 with a B- or C-team. Pranjic, Rafinha, Alaba as right winger, Gustavo+Tymo-midfield etc. Bayern already had secured rank 1 before and City with the win only got 3rd behind Bayern and Napoli.
I kind of agree that it's not that sophisticated as of now but the team is getting there. I completely disagree that he's doing what Seoane did before him, though. Alonso's team is much more structured and controlled, not only in possession but also in general. Seoane had different approaches to games, sometimes he sat back and countered and sometimes he pressed relatively high up the pitch but his attack almost always relied on quick transitions. He was also very reliant on a striker that could work with the high passes to him. But we had glaring wholes between the lines after possession turnovers all the time, our CMs would attack the box far more often and in general, our defenders and CMs were caught out of position without anybody covering them often. Under Alonso, that's not the case anymore. And we are much more patient in the attack, not trying to force passes when the lane is not open or finish off attacks with a cross or a long shot prematurely. Our positional game also looks much more strctured, players usually have two or three options and do better at playing out under pressure instead of hoofing it all the time.
I also think that Frimpong is an inportant part of our build up since hecan be very good at one twos and carrying the ball, often in our own half. Plus our CM is currently shining, Palacios for instead was the best player against Munich and is in excellent form in the last weeks. Which is why I think that the idea that Frimpong limits them is a bit off in my opinion.
And the jury's still out on how we look once we've signed a few players for Alonso. Many in our current team were signed for Seoane's style - Demirbay, Diaby, Adli, Andrich or Kossounou aren't exactly tailor made for the brand of football Alonso reportedly favors.
I can see the DFB already has a leadership crisis, with Philipp Lahm (head of the Euros organization comitte) going against Völler's strategy:
Unfortunate.
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Unfortunate.
BILD reported that Bayern sacked Nagelsmann. Tuchel is favourite to get the new coach.
This seems so random:
The club let Lewandowski go without a replacement, Neuer has been injured half the season.
He lost three games all season. One of them against Gladbach even.
His CL record is 8/8, against Barca, Inter, PSG - 21:2 goals.
let's wait and see what the media come up with.