Hannover - Dortmund - how to give away three points

After a night of sleep I still can't get over yesterday's result. Actually Hannover is a terrific team and there is no shame in losing against them, but there is when you lose like we did. It was one of our most unnecessary defeats, and we had a lot of them. So how did that happen?

First (laudable) 70 minutes

The first 70 minutes were a classic Borussia Dortmund match. Very dominant, much possession, lot's of chances and none taken, except for the beauty scored by Shinji Kagawa. Our pressing was good, Hannover set back and waited for their chances on the counter, which was to expect since Hannover are a very good counter attacking team, who have problems to make the play themselves, as the 0-0 draw against Standard Liege has shown.

Even though Dortmund had no defensive minded defensive midfielder (funny, isn't it?!) as Sven Bender and Sebastian Kehl were injured/suspended many important tackles were won by Gündogan and for the rest some last ditch tackles by Subotic had to be done but nothing too dangerous by Hannover.
Perisic started from the beginning to replace a tired Kevin Großkreutz and in my eyes he did very will for the first time, linked up well with Kagawa and Lewandowski, created danger space and my favorite part: He is capable of holding the ball, a quality Großkreutz and Kuba are lacking of.



No concept after Kagawa's goal

After Dortmund scored their first goal the game didn't really change, Hannover set back, Dortmund tried to break down their defense. Generally there is nothing wrong with that, but in our situation it would have been smart to sit back and let Hannover to try to break down our defense while we get spaces for counter attacks, in such a season with so many games we have to think economically.

But we didn't and thus we lost our game because we were not clever enough.
Our major problem was that our back line didn't pushed high enough while our offense pressed deep into Hannover's half, chasing for balls you usually don't chase for 10 minutes before end. So we were too stretched and were only chasing shadows.
Another effect of our style of play is tiredness, even if you still got the legs you sometimes lose your focus and more and more 50-50 situations went towards Hannover's direction. Which ultimately led to unnecessary fouls resulting in unnecessary standard situations, from which Hannover scored their equalizer that gave them the euphoria to score the second.

Oh captain my captain


Another problem was, with Hummels subbed off, there wasn't a leader in our team anymore, who could have stepped on the ball and calmed the game down, give commands or anything else. I wish Klopp would have said something like "hold the ball" for once, since we immediately attacked after gaining possession. Taking the pace out of the game would have brought time and mental relaxation, which could have brought the focus back (would, could, should... I know, I know). Roman Weidenfeller might be the captain, but let's face it, he can't do much about it though. Everyone was occupied with himself in the last minutes which certainly is another reason why we lost.


Tactical errors


As I said, we didn't play it very cleverly this time. In the dying minutes of the game our offensive midfielder's chased the ball while our defense was sitting too deep, which left a huge space for the opponent, even though we have the ball in figure 1, we will be easily out numbered if Hannover gains the ball which is irresponsible 5 minutes before the end. Standing compact and defending as an unit (till the end) would have won us the game.

Figure 1
Huge Gap between defense and midfield

Mistakes before the 2:1

Here we have a good example of what went wrong in the last 10, 15 minutes: As you already can see in figure 1 the gap between offense and defense was wide, there was no defending as a team, neither was everyone behind the ball, nor did they put pressure on the opponent, which in other words is: refusing to play Bundesliga football.

Here are two approaches, how Dortmund could have dealt with the situation, but also the whole last 15 minutes of the game.
In figure 2 you can see again, how huge the gap between offense and defense is, even though there is no real danger yet we aren't putting any pressure on the ball, but still far stretched. Headless.

If those two players in the black circle would have waited for Hannover to come over the midfield line before they put pressure on them, we would have had something called an "organized defense", Hannover 1:0 down (not in this picture, but I'm trying to make a point here) would have had much more trouble to break our defense down and probably would have failed, but also'd have given us space to counter attack.

Figure 2
Black circle = striker's actual position
Orange circle = where they should be
Yellow space = space and time attacker can pick out his pass without pressure

Figure 3 is pretty much the same, but with a higher defensive line and a higher defensive midfield, which a) wouldn't have given Hannover so much space to attack, but b) and more importantly we could have chased Hannover and put pressure on them as we usually do, without a gap of the size of Australia between our lines. However figure 2 and figure 3 aren't that different, one more attacking, one a bit deeper-lying but both with one huge similarity: Compactness.

Figure 3
Violet line = where defense is
Pink line = where defense should be
Blue circle = where defensive midfield is
Red circle = wehere defensive midfield should be
Orange = gap between Defense and strikers, aka freedom for the attacking player

I hope Klopp will fix this problem and our boys will mature and maybe get a "dirty" 1:0 win in the future instead of losing 1:2. Also Großkreutz should have made it 2:0 before, but I didn't want to mention it for the sake of my blood pressure. (YOU ALSO GOT A LEFT FOOT FFS!!)

Heja BVB

feel free to comment, criticise, rant or whatever is on your mind.

Dortmund - Arsenal - we came to stay

Proud to be back

I can't tell you how excited I am to see my team play in the Champions League. After eight long years of absence we are finally back, and we have every reason to be proud of that. Because we earned it, with very little financial power we signed the right coach and pulled off many great transfers. Dortmund is a real team again. Our team has an immense spirit, they are basically friends with each other and you often can see that on the pitch, when one fights for another. Fans can identify again with a team that gives 100% every match. Borussia Dortmund managed to win the title with honest work, no Sheik, no backing by a huge company or anything else that goes into the direction of financial unfairplay. Now the first game knocks on the door and it's Arsenal, a fixture many people hoped for.


Special Atmosphere

The stadium was sold out within minutes, an indicator that Dortmund fans look forward to this match. 65000 is the capacity for international fixtures, 3000 are usually reserved for away fans but Arsenal brought only 1500.  For those who don't know yet, international fixtures involving Dortmund are usually very tense and emotional. And as we all know that English teams often are not that good anymore, once they left their little island. So our great stadium packed with our great fans will be a magnificent advantage. Once the referee makes a poor decision the thing will be boiling.


Two teams not in form

If Dortmund's season would have started off better nobody would talk about the lack of Nuri Sahin, but with Gündogan we have a great playmaker for the future, not for the presence. Dortmund's creative moment is only provided by Mario Götze at the moment and that is just not enough. Many of Dortmund's players are out of form. Shinji Kagawa, who was injured half a year, is only a shadow of what he usually is: a goal threat with virtue, ideas and the technical abilities to execute them, but at the moment he is lacking a good first touch, ideas and impulsiveness. He couldn't manage to put his mark on a match so far. I expected at least one goal after 5 games but the chances he had against Hamburg went begging and in the other matches he disappeared somewhere in the middle. Kevin Großkreutz is another good example for not being in form. He lacked composure and also disappeared somewhere in the last two games.

However, Arsenal can't be at their best with many injured key players plus many new signings who first have to adapt to Arsenal's automatism and style. This is actually a big factor and may Arsenal cost the game. Vermaelen, Wilshere, Ramsey, Rosicky all injured Wenger still has enough options to field a terrific eleven though.

Don't be fooled though, Dortmund's poor start of the season has also to do with international breaks and very deep-sitting opponents. Since Arsenal won't sit deep, so BVB won't look as bad as they did against Hoffenheim or Berlin, because they will get spaces to combine fluently.
But it also doesn't matter so much who plays, but more how both teams play as a unit. Both teams have offensive power, so I think it will come down to the defense behavior, where I see an advantage for Dortmund. Arsenal will face a pressing opponent, who won't be not afraid to run the extra kilometer. If Arsenal lacks discipline in their defense they will be in trouble.

Mental factor

One good advice for Arsenal is to attack right from the beginning. Dortmund might be nervous, because it's the first time these boys hear the Champions League anthem before a match and they have already shown in the previous European encounter that they make unusual mistakes. But there is also a different approach to that topic: greed. Something that Dortmund completely lacked against Hertha Berlin, but maybe their minds where already with this match on Tuesday. All these young players will be extra motivated to enter the big international stage and will make this match even more intense, so bad news for Arsenal.


Open Match

Arsene already said that he want to attack, which is good news for Dortmund and neutral spectators (for Arsenal fans, too of course). Dortmund's plays their best football when the opponent attacks, they need spaces for their quick transmissions from defense to offense. Klopp said that his first priority is to "stand compact", but that doesn't mean, that we won't attack. So, I expect an open match with end to end stuff.
Arsenal's offense is good enough to bring even a good defense as ours into trouble, and luckily their defense is shaky enough that we also can create chances. I expect goals. Mertesacker already knows what I'm talking about, he had knots in his legs when he played in Dortmund the last time.

The Szczesny factor

Dortmund is famous for their nonclinical finishing, they especially have the great ability to make goalkeepers look unbeatable. Szczesny is a worldclass goalkeeper, from what I've seen. It may be that he will win the match for Arsenal, as he denies Dortmund. Last years European campaign was pretty good for Dortmund, we dominated all 3 opponents in every match, but failed to take our chances. The reason why we went out so early. It may be Déjà vu for BVB, as they often fail to unleash unstoppable shots.
If we want to progress in CL we need to work on that, especially against Marseille and Piräus we won't get many chances.




Lucky No 44

I'm talking about Ivan Perisic, chances are high that he will start instead of Großkreutz. His "luck-bringing" number is 44, but he is not allowed to wear it in the Bundesliga, because of stupid nonsense Germanness.
He is wearing the 14 on his back in the domestic campaign, but all his attempts on goal where very unlucky. He hit the post, or goalkeepers denied his shots per inhuman super saves. Football is full of miracles and I would not be surprised if he finds his scoring boots with the 44 on his back again.

Enjoy


As Jürgen Klopp says in a commercial, he advised his players to enjoy the match. He reminded his players, that it's always important to have fun, because they were losing a bit of their lightness in the recent matches. But it's the best advise I have for anyone who will watch this match: Enjoy!

Line Ups

Dortmund

Arsenal - I hope I've got that one right

BVB - Hertha - the wall of Berlin still stands

Wrong Line Up


We lost this match for many reasons.
It all started with Klopp fielding the wrong 11, he should have brought Perisic for either Großkreutz or Kuba. Both were poor, neither of them were in the game at any point, while Perisic managed to create Danger, as in every game he played so far.


Berliner Mauer (wall of Berlin)


Dortmund's major problem is that they don't have an answer for deep-sitting opponents. The reason for that is pretty easy: they never trained these situations, or at least not enough. Dortmund are famous for they quick transmission play and to use their spaces on the counter. But Hertha did what they had to do, they never let this kind of situation happen. Two quick offensive players were enough to score two goals on the counter and after a corner resulting from a counter respectively. And if Raffael would have been a bit more effective and Weidenfeller not as a great goalkeeper as he is, it easily could have been 4-0.


No passion, no glory


I'm most upset about the fact that my beloved Borussia wasn't the Borussia I know. Usually, even if we play bad, we fight, we work hard and play with 100% passion. Nothing of that was to see in the first 80 minutes, until Berlin scored the 2-0. Klopp talked about tempo-variations before the match, but to me it all looked like old age pensioner jogging. If the opponent sits deep, you have move a lot and rotate all the time so you can create spaces and holes where your teammates can pass through. Where we are at the next talking point: passing! I can't remember a game where we had so many easy losses of possession, many passes were played sloppily into an Hertaner's foot. It was too easy to intercept our passes, the receiver just stood there and waited for the ball to come, while the marker (who usually was right behind the receiver) just moved towards the ball and gained possession plus extra free space. The king of dreadful-pass-land was Gündogan, he head a dreadful game without any creative moments or danger creating Ideas, so he was expelled to bench-land at half time. Da Silva was at least a little bit better.


Dear, Jürgen Klopp


Where was Moritz Leitner? Oh, yeah, right on the bench. Awesome. We need more creativity?! Okay, let's throw Zidan in the game, yeah, that'll work. NOT.
Yes, this might be kind of a rant, but I'm still full of burning lava-rage...
Zidan, was a good player, but he is a kind of striker, and he is not famous for his many assists. Not the kind of player you sub in when you are looking for creativity and somebody who can create space and danger out of nothing, like, for example, Leitner.


It's just that easy to beat Dortmund

yellow lines = spaces Dortmund were allowed to use

However we have to pay a huge compliment to Hertha, they defended very well, with a 4-4-1-1 system. They closed the middle very well and forced us to attack over the wings, which was a good plan since Kuba and Großkreutz couldn't leave any mark at all. The middle was very dense, Gündogan and Kagawa were taken completely out of the match by Niemeyer, Ottl, Hubnik and Mijatovic. Bundesliga teams have figured out how to beat Dortmund. A thing Klopp has to work on. For example we need more shots from distance! It can't be that Sven Bender is the only one who shot from distance, and he isn't famous for long-distance shots, at least he struck the bar. But a Dortmund game without a nice shot at the woodwork wouldn't be a Dortmund game, right?

Now the "English" weeks start, maybe it was a very secret test of trying to win a match with only 50%, I don't know. However Dortmund never look good after international breaks and I'm curious how they will deal with the Champions League mentally. Will be a great test for our boys... Let's hope we learn from this defeat and will bring it on again against Arsenal.






HEJA BVB!

BVB - Hertha Dortmund without Götze

Borussia Dortmund - Hertha Berlin (10.09.2011 15:30h cet)

Eventhough I'm too busy with thinking about the match against Arsenal on Tuesday, Dortmund has to play a bit of football in between. After a year in 2nd division Hertha Berlin is back with a rather mediocre squad, but this is still the aftermath of Dieter Hoeneß. However Berlin never really managed to get something in Dortmund and I don't think that this will be different on Saturday. In other words Dortmund will win this!

Too scared

Berlin's games this season all looked pretty much the same: Two deep defensive lines, a wide gap, and then.. I don't want to say offense, so let's call it forward orientated players. Hertha's major problem is fear. They are afraid to go forward! They usually don't even try to before halftime and maybe in the 2nd half, when they manage to wipe of their fear. No wonder that they scored most of their goals so far in the last 10 minutes. Actually it's not that they aren't moving forward, but in modern football it's all about quick transmission from defense to offense. A counterattack with only two or three players is not enough and it takes ages until Hertha's midfield is moving forward, I hardly saw a sprint, and the defensive line looks like it was stuck with hard glue on an imaginary 22 meter line. But it's probably the right thing to do. They can't afford to get caught on the break and to concede, because then they would be confronted with a task they can't execute at the moment! Making the play.

Dortmund's next Mario Götze (by Jürgen Klopp)


Since Götze is suspended for two games, Jürgen Klopp has to adjust his starting IX. Götze creates space, bounds defenders, creates assists and scores goals. Who will replace him?
The Candidates:


Ivan Perisic
Little fun fact right at the start: Ivan Perisic nearly was a Bundesliga player in 2009, when he was on a trail-training at Hertha Berlin, but Lucien Favre sent him back to Belgium. I like Lucien Favre. Perisic has already shown what he is capable of! He created lots of danger so far but was a bit unlucky that he only struck the woodwork twice for Dortmund and his great volley was saved by Leno against Leverkusen! He certainly is a great option because he is a constant goal threat and he is the most 'complete' player of those three. He is both-footed, great header, quick and for Berlin it'd be hard to predict what he'll do and where he plays. I would love to see what he is capable of over 90 minutes, this is certainly a good chance for Klopp to start him from the beginning, also Perisic needs more playing time to adapt our system. Also his physical appearance will be the most effective against Hertha's rustic defense. My personal favorite for the job. We need somebody to score goals, something that Kuba and Leitner can't provide in his style.




Kuba

After a great game against Germany, where he even scored a penalty (lol). So maybe Kuba gained momentum. His advantage is that he is not a stranger to Dortmund's system and knows all the automatism. Also links up great with Piszczek on the right side! He is a hard working player, who gives more stability to Dortmund's defense but is not that of a goal threat as Perisic is. I often forget how good he really is until I watch closely what he is doing on his right side.






Moritz Leitner

Now this little kid right here is interesting and I really can't wait for his debut in Bundesliga. Moritz Leitner comes Götze's abilities closest to all three contenders, because his technical ability is great, his cheekiness reminds a bit of Mario's and his game intelligence and his vision is greater than Gündogan's (but that's only a personal opinion). It did happen one or two times that I accidentally mistook him for Götze, when I watched Dortmund, since they look pretty much the same from far away, but also the movement is quite equal, too. Maybe he will only come for the last 15 minutes, but he is a joy to watch. He linked up very well with Kagawa and Götze in preseason, certainly someone who brings more chaos to opponent's back lines.


So however Klopp will decide, he will decide right. Mario Götze may be a gem, but Dortmund has enough depth to replace Götze without a huge dip of quality. I'm glad that I don't have to make the decision.

Line Ups:

Dortmund

Berlin

What to expect

I expect a match where patience will be key. Hertha will sit deep with the task to destroy the game, I'm sure they'll be happy with a 0-0. But the game in Hannover has shown that Dortmund can't sit back after they score, if they let Hertha play they will! It's not like they are unable to attack. But if Dortmund scores early this easily could be a hammering, but I wouldn't count on it. My prediction is 3-0.

Heja BVB!