villa4europe Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Need a new GK and a proper top quality CB to get back up there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted January 24, 2017 Moderator Share Posted January 24, 2017 Should go in the "Things that piss you off..." thread but "Is he the new [insert tenuous comparison]". In this case "Zlatan". Because he's Swedish? Piss off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 7 hours ago, BOF said: Should go in the "Things that piss you off..." thread but "Is he the new [insert tenuous comparison]". In this case "Zlatan". Because he's Swedish? Piss off. swedish and of foreign ancestry It is a career killer though, amount of mini playmakers ruined in Argentina by the new Maradona tag was shocking. they werent even bad players just never lived up to the hype Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted January 28, 2017 Share Posted January 28, 2017 Some all-time awful defending by Leverkusen against Gladbach. All 3 goals were really shocking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turnbull Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 On 1/23/2017 at 21:46, VillaChris said: Yeah Dortmund need to actually start properly challenging for the league again if they want to keep some of those. I cut them some slack last season as they weren't too far in the end but this year they're underachieving. From what I've seen I think Dembele will go to the very top....very special talent. Not sure on Pulisic but seems Liverpool want him. Even when BVB were challenging for the title, they still lost players to Bayern, unfortunately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve1986 Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 I am glad they're doing so badly this year, just a shame Schalke seem hellbent on not buying a striker so they won't/can't score. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 More dropped points from them today....were pretty much in control v Mainz. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 1 hour ago, steve1986 said: I am glad they're doing so badly this year, just a shame Schalke seem hellbent on not buying a striker so they won't/can't score. I've always quite liked Choupo-Moting.....is he at the level he'll stay (mid table striker for Schalke or another club in another league) or is it possible he could have a breakout season that might attract the interest of a top 6 club? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turnbull Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 16 minutes ago, VillaChris said: More dropped points from them today....were pretty much in control v Mainz. Once again, they couldn't finish a team off and once again, failed to keep a clean sheet. All v frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Only interest in the league is Leipzig, 10 pts clear of the next club. Only club that can stop Bayern winning the title now but they wont. Bayern still relying on Robben I see though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve1986 Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 23 hours ago, VillaChris said: I've always quite liked Choupo-Moting.....is he at the level he'll stay (mid table striker for Schalke or another club in another league) or is it possible he could have a breakout season that might attract the interest of a top 6 club? Top 6 in which country? Chupo Moting for me has 2/3 good games a season and rarely has an impact on a game. Schalke need to actually invest some of the money they recoup on big player sales and buy some quality. I like the new manager this year, but fear he won't last long due to the poor quality within the squad which he has been left with. This year there is nearly 0 chance of Schalke getting European football and this will not go down well with the fans. As for BVB rumours that Tuchel is not enjoying life there at the moment, that Isak was bought without him knowing could mean he is off soon, wouldn't put it past him replacing Wenger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 10 hours ago, PaulC said: Only interest in the league is Leipzig, 10 pts clear of the next club. Only club that can stop Bayern winning the title now but they wont. Bayern still relying on Robben I see though! not really true, he has missed a third of the season and Lewandowski is main man now more worrying is the decline of Muller this season, he was poor in Euros as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve1986 Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Feel sorry for Muller, think he needs to leave, I don't think he was well utilised by Low in the Euros and also the Pep effect has probably hindered him (long term). Would love to see him play in England think he would thrive on our style of football. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 2 minutes ago, steve1986 said: Feel sorry for Muller, think he needs to leave, I don't think he was well utilised by Low in the Euros and also the Pep effect has probably hindered him (long term). Would love to see him play in England think he would thrive on our style of football. I dont think their is a more intelligent footballer playing at the moment and that for me can be a problem. Its hard to find a position for him in my view. He isnt mobile enough to play centre forward on his own or out wide and probably not creative enough to play 10 but I have never seen a player get in so many great positions on the pitch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 12 minutes ago, Zatman said: not really true, he has missed a third of the season and Lewandowski is main man now more worrying is the decline of Muller this season, he was poor in Euros as well I know but hes still scored 6 goals from 12 games this season. I just think hes a brilliant player and for me is was the best player in the last world cup. Carried Holland to the semis's on his own. Don't know what wrong with Muller but he did score 32 goals last season under pep 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 (edited) 2 hours ago, steve1986 said: Top 6 in which country? Chupo Moting for me has 2/3 good games a season and rarely has an impact on a game. Schalke need to actually invest some of the money they recoup on big player sales and buy some quality. I like the new manager this year, but fear he won't last long due to the poor quality within the squad which he has been left with. This year there is nearly 0 chance of Schalke getting European football and this will not go down well with the fans. As for BVB rumours that Tuchel is not enjoying life there at the moment, that Isak was bought without him knowing could mean he is off soon, wouldn't put it past him replacing Wenger. It's a decent squad there though...Howedes international standard CB, Baba (awful at Chelsea but had a good reputation in the Bundesliga), Bentaleb who everyone (well maybe just Sherwood) was raving about not so long ago, same for Konoplayanka although he's always seemed a bit overrated. Kolasinac is a really good player I think. That's a decent core anyway. Schalke have always seemed a bit of a cross to me of a Newcastle (massive crowds but rarely win anything) and West Ham (big signings always seem to get injuries straight away like Coke and Embolo). For this season their awful start has handicapped them and put paid to any top 6 ambitions. Edited January 30, 2017 by VillaChris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve1986 Posted February 2, 2017 Share Posted February 2, 2017 Hewed has big injury issues (as alluded to, but also is slow, passion cannot compete with quality I guess). Baba is now out for the season, but with Kolasinac doing so well he has been a bit part player. Bentaleb started well, but has tailed off, probably why he's never fully made it I guess. As for Konop, he clearly isn't fancied can never get in the starting team. The issue is the lack of pace and energy, Max Meyer is a huge talent but is wasting it, Goretzka is always injured and the others just don't quite cut it. Real shame as the fans are incredible (best in Germany I have seen) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 (edited) Good point for Schalke today Steve. Naldo was the one I forgot to mention in my experienced core of players post....was excellent for Wolfsburg but watching highlights of the Frankfurt game Alex Meier made him look a total mug. Maybe the squad find it difficult with the pressure of 60k every game...it happens in this league so imagine it's an issue in Germany aswell. Edited February 5, 2017 by VillaChris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve1986 Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 Great point yesterday, yes Chris. Naldo is good, but slow and old now, but a good 'leader' I suppose. I think the squad is just cheaply assembled, and the areas where they need real reinforcements are always overlooked. Think they could have had Chicarito a couple of years ago for 8-10 million, but high wages, instead they went for Franco Di Santo as he was 6m and lower wages. Schalke are a team who are vastly rich, and pay big money, but never spend it where they need to. They are unlucky with the quality of players who seem to leave: Ozil, Neuer, Draxler etc but apart from Fahrmann (who was youth team anyway) none of those players have ever been replaced. With regards to the fans, they are very passionate, but very supportive it takes a lot for them to turn on the team, I only ever witnessed it once (funnily enough when RDM was in charge which is why I didn't want him here). They sing for 90 minutes and create a supportive atmosphere, but if they are not being given 100% by the players, and some definitely don't , then they have a right to get on their back. Either way I am off to the derby in March and cannot wait, even though I expect an absolute hammering unless Embolo is back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted February 7, 2017 Moderator Share Posted February 7, 2017 Germany's most hated club RB Leipzig hit by stones and insults "Dosenverkauf" Quote Germany's most hated club RB Leipzig hit by stones and insults Football hooliganism is nothing new in Germany, but when violence broke out before a Bundesliga match between two of the top clubs, this was something different. The stones and bottles thrown and the hate banners displayed by Borussia Dortmund supporters on Saturday exposed a widespread loathing in Germany for a team seen as upstarts, RB Leipzig. The club is challenging for Champions League football in its first ever season in the top flight. The hatred is because of the way they are wholly owned by one company, Red Bull. A wall of hatred was on view: "Slaughter the bulls", "Red Bull, enemy of football" were some of the milder slogans used. Families came under attack, and six fans and four police were hurt. One top football official Max Eberl said the violence was sick: "Whether you like RB Leipzig or not, it shouldn't get out of hand." Why the hatred? Dortmund's fans are not alone One tabloid newspaper, the Berliner Kurier, even refused to print the club's name a few weeks ago, using the insulting term "Dosenverkauf" (Can-sellers) in their Bundesliga table. Selling drinks is the core business of RB's owner, Red Bull, and there have been plenty more insults since the company bought a team in the Leipzig suburbs in 2009 and oversaw four promotions in seven seasons. Listen to Tim's BBC World Service programme here: The Rise of RB Leipzig The vitriol derives from RB's ownership model. Traditionally German football clubs are run without a single, rich investor. It is the members who must control a majority of the shares in the entity that owns the team. But RB Leipzig has only 17 members. It follows the letter of this law, but not its spirit. Among the club's biggest critics is the chief executive at Borussia Dortmund, Hans-Joachim Watzke. "It's a club built to push up the revenues for Red Bull and nothing else," he says. Read more on RB Leipzig here: RB Leipzig's rapid rise 'no fairytale' Andreas Bischof, whose blog in Leipzig pokes fun at the new club, goes further. "This club is not owned or sponsored by a company, this club is like an outlet of a company," he says. "It's a whole new level of using sports as a marketing vehicle." But others argue that RB Leipzig is just what the city and surrounding region need. There has been little Bundesliga football in the former East Germany since unification in 1990. "Football is a business that needs an enormous amount of money," says Martin Machowecz from weekly newspaper Die Zeit. "And here's someone who's come along, got involved and made sure that we've now reached the same standard as in West Germany in an area of society that's important." Leipzig's football tradition What RB as a club lacks in sporting history, its home city and its stadium provide. The German Football Association, the DFB, was founded there In 1903 VfB Leipzig became the first German champions The stadium was built in the 1950s partly from World War Two rubble With seating for 100,000 the Zentralstadion was the largest in the whole of Germany East Germany played many international matches, there as did Lokomotive Leipzig Lokomotive Leipzig became a household name when they beat Bordeaux in a penalty shoot-out to qualify for the final of the Uefa Cup Winners' Cup in 1987. The goalkeeper saved two penalties before stepping up to score the winner. Gerlinde Rohr, now director of the Leipzig Sports Museum, was among the reported 110,000 in the stadium that night. "I was there with a school mate and after Rene Mueller scored his goal I jumped on the seat and we embraced each other," she remembers. The Zentralstadion fell into disuse after unification but was given a new lease of life by the 2006 World Cup. The oval embankment of the old stadium was retained and a new stadium built inside it. It's now called the Red Bull Arena. How did RB Leipzig rise so fast? Many see the appointment of Ralf Rangnick as the turning point for RBL, who had spent two frustrating seasons in the fourth tier before his arrival in 2012. As sports director and, for a brief period, trainer, he oversaw three promotions in four seasons. Ralf Rangnick's key to success is youth. He likes to buy players who may never previously have had a professional contract and his squad is the youngest in the Bundesliga, with an average age of a little over 23. In his eyes, young players are hungrier for success and fit his playing philosophy. In Leipzig they place huge emphasis on pressing the other team high up the pitch and winning the ball in the opponent's half. "Even if you're the best player in the world and you're being attacked by three players, you lose the ball," he says. Ralf Rangnick also believes in the club's controversial ownership model. "What do you need members for? I'm more interested in the number of supporters we have," he says. As for suggestions that Red Bull's owner Dietrich Mateschitz plays a big role in the way the club is run, the sports director says they meet and speak on the phone a handful of times every year. But what of the complaint that RB Leipzig is merely a vehicle for selling cans of energy drinks? "For us it is completely unimportant," he says. "It's got nothing to do with what we do." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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