Football: Still in December

[Soylent Brown]

Perhaps. You guys may have noticed that I'm not afraid to give up on a player if I don't think they're good enough, but I'm not ready to do that with Minamino yet.

 

[Rorshach]

1 minute ago, Soylent Brown said:

Perhaps. You guys may have noticed that I'm not afraid to give up on a player if I don't think they're good enough, but I'm not ready to do that with Minamino yet.

 

Can't say I've noticed at all, no.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Meanwhile in the Bundesliga.

Bayern labored themselves to a win over Stuttart in a game, that was closer than the scoreline suggests. Dortmund have lost at home to Köln for the first time in almost 30 years in the Bundesliga, the last time they managed to win there both DoF (Zorc (Dortmund) and Heldt (Köln)) were actively involved on the pitch (true story actually). If you don't believe me.

Union managed to throw away a 2 goal lead, against Frankfurt, who decided not to defend for the first 20 minutes or so, just to salvage a draw thanks to a beautiful goal by Kruse (Max )

Gladbach and Schalke continued to impress in their own way in their encounter. Gladbach by showing again, that they are actually a good team. And Schalke that they are absolute shambles. They parted way with their squad planner (Reschke), terminated the contract with Ibisevic, who signed on a free at the start of the season (it was a low base salary contract (10k a month or so) with bonuses being the kicker, so the termination was mutual), and suspending Harit and Bentaleb from training with the team. Fun sidenote, they told Bentaleb the news, on his birthday, and while he was being told, the club send out a happy birthday tweet. Yes, that club is functional at the same level as the British Goverment. Oh, yeah. The encounter ended 4-1 in favour of Gladbach.

Bremen lost out on a goal bonanza on Friday at Wolfsburg. (5-3)

Freiburg will be disappointed with a draw against Augsburg, or as Streich put it. there are periods, when you just seem to be out of any luck whatsoever. So on to the next game.

And for future references. There's no second tier football league in Germany.

 

 

[AncalagonTheBlack]

11 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Meanwhile in the Bundesliga

Leipzig's defensive record so far has been impressive.They've only conceded 6 in 9 games, which is the best in the Bundesliga.

Wonder what the price tag of their centre-backs would be in Jan?

[polishgenius]

Back to the diamond against Saints, with Matic, Fred, VDB and Bruno. I'm not against it in principle but Matic against Southampton's rapid pressing is a worry. Does free up Fred and consequently put VDB closer to his proper position, so it's mostly that I'd rather McTominay than Matic.

[Consigliere]

We have no choice but to play Matic since McTominay picked up a knock. Pogba is injured too.

[Heartofice]

Think the diamond could work out well for Utd here. Allows them to pressure the center (which they seem to be doing) as Southampton do play quite narrow at times despite playing a sort of 442. Having Matic at the bottom of the diamond also gives the defenders an outlet against the high pressure of Southamptons front 2.

Think United look pretty decent so far, pressing pretty high and putting a bit of nervousness into the Southampton back line.


edit... forget everything I just said.

[Consigliere]

We deserved to win that game. A bit unfortunate to be down 2-0 at halftime. Relieved that we actually managed to pull it off since we usually look clueless when having to chase a game. Cavani made a big difference - he actually makes those CF runs and his workrate off the ball disrupted Southampton playing out from the back. 

[polishgenius]

7 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

Cavani made a big difference - he actually makes those CF runs

This was crucial and for all the love I have for Martial, Rashford and Greenwood, we need to prioritise getting a young true CF in the next couple seasons.

[Daemon the Leaner]

Yeah looks like Cavani was on a duty to keep Ole in the job today.

I wouldn't say we were unfortunate to be 2-0 down at HT though. For nearly 60min we were shaky at the back (De Gea has to do better on that corner) and unable to finish a chance. So Soton's lead was quite deserved IMO. 

That unability to score unless we get 10+ chances per game is concerning though. Now we just have to hope that Cavani, despite being 33, can sustain this form, with Martian being ill and Greenwood being...

[polishgenius]

2 minutes ago, Ser Glendon Fireball said:

I wouldn't say we were unfortunate to be 2-0 down at HT though. For nearly 60min we were shaky at the back (De Gea has to do better on that corner) and unable to finish a chance. So Soton's lead was quite deserved IMO. 

Unfortunate isn't quite the right word coz it was ropey finishing, but on balance of play we had better chances and they only scored two coz JWP is a freekick don.

[Consigliere]

Well, we were unfortunate in the sense that we had two clear cut chances to score but didn't. Southampton took their chances but 2-0 at halftime wasn't a fair reflection on the balance of play. 

[Consigliere]

22 minutes ago, Ser Glendon Fireball said:

and Greenwood being...

Greenwood has a lot of potential but his second season was always going to be much more difficult than his first. He burst onto the scene as an unknown quantity last season but opposition were always going to work him out in his second season and he would need to develop into a more well rounded player - he hasn't done that so far and is still fairly raw. His off the ball movement and getting involved in the buildup needs a lot of work. It's no surprise we were on the lookout for a RW and CF since Greenwood is not quite ready yet to be a regular first teamer.

[polishgenius]

For me Greenwood's big problem isn't that his off-the-ball movement is bad as such but that the rest of his skillset doesn't yet quite matchup with what he does there, in that he tends to drop off defenders rather than run the line and for that to be a useful skill he needs to focus on improving his passing game and holdup. With the right development he could create a great partership with Bruno and his tendency to break from midfield at any opportunity for example, but for now when he doesn't get the shooting opportunity he just loses momentum instead.

 

[Daemon the Leaner]

What an ambitious tactical approach from José. I was almost forgetting how he loves a good 0-0 away from home against big sides.

 

[polishgenius]

Nasty injury to Jimenez, Luiz really should be off too tbh.

[polishgenius]

3 hours ago, polishgenius said:

For me Greenwood's big problem isn't that his off-the-ball movement is bad as such but that the rest of his skillset doesn't yet quite matchup with what he does there, in that he tends to drop off defenders rather than run the line and for that to be a useful skill he needs to focus on improving his passing game and holdup. With the right development he could create a great partership with Bruno and his tendency to break from midfield at any opportunity for example, but for now when he doesn't get the shooting opportunity he just loses momentum instead.

 

To support this thought a bit look at how Silva is playing for Wolves and how Neto's able to utilise the space he makes. Obviously it does help that Silva is a much less known quality but Greenwood doesn't release the ball fast enough to be that kind of threat in that kind of position.

[lessthanluke]

1 hour ago, polishgenius said:

Nasty injury to Jimenez, Luiz really should be off too tbh.

Just shows the blatant disregard given to the health of footballers unfortunately. It's so far behind other sports on this issue it's embarrassing. 

[Soylent Brown]

It seems that Messi basically copied Maradona's debut Newell's goal before revealing the shirt as a tribute. Bananas.

 

[ants]

On 11/23/2020 at 4:37 PM, polishgenius said:

Special treat for your Monday mornings: enjoy every single person in the stadium at the MLS Cup game between Orlando City and NYCFC - the officials, both sides and the commentary team - forgetting how penalty shootouts work.

That was hilarious.  Especially at the end when the commentators forgot the other side also got a turn!