Wolfsburg – Dortmund 1:5. Pulisic and Dembele kept their places in the starting 11 and the only changes in the front 6 were Aubumeyang for Ramos and Gotze for Castro. If against Darmstadt the go-to combination seemed to be working the ball to the byline and cutting back for the shot, this time Dortmund kept playing through-balls into space to bring their speedy attackers 1 on 1 or 2 on 1 with the goalkeeper. The 1st, 3rd, and 4th goals were all scored in this manner – vertical as you like, but all passes along the ground. In fairness, the scoreline is a bit misleading as Wolfsburg did offer some resistance, outshooting Dortmund 16 to 10 and particularly threatening early in the 2nd half when Mario Gomez hit the post and had the ball cleared off the line and then when they cut through Dortmund's defense to make it 2:1. But they would have needed to defend much better (particularly in terms of pressing from midfield) to stop Dortmund's attack in this kind of form. When Piszczek scored from the corner for the 5th and final goal, he was Dortmund's 14(!!) different goal-scorer this season already. BTW, it seems like we should have fought harder to get Rafael Guerreiro – he has arguably been Dortmund's best player this season, surprisingly finding his home in the midfield 3 rather than his natural LB position.
Bayer – Augsburg 0:0. Rodger Schmidt changed his central defensive partnership after a poor performance in the last game – now it was the new boy Alexander Dragovic alongside Jonathan Tah, with former defensive leader Omer Toprak dropping to the bench. The new partnership seemed to have clicked, but now the attack sputtered with yet another missed penalty as well as several other missed chances. Julian Brandt came on for the last 25 minutes and created a couple of good opportunities that his teammates couldn't convert. Bayer look like a decent team, but are still searching for the right combination to really take off this season.
Schalke – Köln 1:3. The new Schalke manager Marcus Weinzirl is desperately trying to find a winning combination – the first 3 rounds yielded 3 defeats with 0 goals scored. This time he changed the central defensive partnership, moving veteran Höwedes from the flank to CB to partner Naldo instead of Nastasic and restoring Schalke's big talents Geis and Max Meyer to starting roles. It seemed to work in the first half – Schalke finally had their first goal of the season, courtesy of Huntelaar, and looked generally more alive and coherent than in previous games. Unfortunately for them, Köln are a team in good form (particularly the striker Anthony Modeste) and far from being intimidated, they responded with 3 goals of their own – the last two owing to the hapless defending of Naldo and of journeyman full-back Sacha Riether who replaced Howedes at RB. So far the loss of Matip created a kind of "domino effect" for Schalke – the downgrade in defensive solidity has exposed an inconsistent attack that relies too heavily on Huntelaar's finishing prowess and an overall lack of identity. Schalke has a lot of potentially top-class young talent in the team – Meyer, Embolo, Bentaleb, Geis, Goretzka, Schoph – and I think the only way Weinzirl can turn it around is to give those players a flexible attacking system to express themselves. The turgid cautious style of yesterday won't cut it for Schalke any more. I wonder what their fans must be thinking looking at how much fun the hated rivals Dortmund are having with their talented youth, while Schalke's equally talented youth are being essentially wasted.
RB Leipzig – Gladbach 1:1. The hosts dominated for most of the game, but a goal from American winger Fabian Johnson restored parity late on. Forsberg came on for the last half hour, Dahoud was an unused sub.
Bayern – Hertha 3:0. I watched this game live and was following LFC loanee Allan all game. He played as the deeper of the 2 midfielders, showed good willingness to press when out of possession (which against Bayern was around 75% of the time) and good range and quality of passing in the relatively rare moments when he ended up with the ball. He didn't look intimidated and if anything, I noticed hints of frustration when his teammates opted to clear the ball to safety rather than give it to him to try to get some combinations going. That ultimately proved to be his undoing, however, as he gifted the 2nd goal to Bayern when his GK passed to him when he was alone at the edge of the penalty area with Thiago closing in – Allan, being obviously confident in his technique, tried to turn with the ball, but Thiago was too quick, stealing the ball and scoring easily. A really bad mistake to make on your debut, but an equal share of the blame should go to the goalkeeper for placing a young player under pressure unnecessarily. The strangely poor state of the pitch at the Allianz Arena also might have had something to do with it.
Bayern struggled somewhat to break Hertha down despite a huge edge in possession, but a Messi-esque goal from Ribery gave them the lead and then, shortly after Allen's mishap, Robben (who came on for his first appearance in many months) finished them off with a trademark goal. The commentator said that Bayern's starting 11 was the oldest of any team in the Bundesliga in the last 3 seasons, while a day earlier Dortmund fielded one of the youngest starting 11s ever. I think Bayern under Ancelotti will surely set some age-related records before he is done – Carlo loves older, intelligent players and Bayern have plenty of them now.
Bayer – Augsburg 0:0. Rodger Schmidt changed his central defensive partnership after a poor performance in the last game – now it was the new boy Alexander Dragovic alongside Jonathan Tah, with former defensive leader Omer Toprak dropping to the bench. The new partnership seemed to have clicked, but now the attack sputtered with yet another missed penalty as well as several other missed chances. Julian Brandt came on for the last 25 minutes and created a couple of good opportunities that his teammates couldn't convert. Bayer look like a decent team, but are still searching for the right combination to really take off this season.
Schalke – Köln 1:3. The new Schalke manager Marcus Weinzirl is desperately trying to find a winning combination – the first 3 rounds yielded 3 defeats with 0 goals scored. This time he changed the central defensive partnership, moving veteran Höwedes from the flank to CB to partner Naldo instead of Nastasic and restoring Schalke's big talents Geis and Max Meyer to starting roles. It seemed to work in the first half – Schalke finally had their first goal of the season, courtesy of Huntelaar, and looked generally more alive and coherent than in previous games. Unfortunately for them, Köln are a team in good form (particularly the striker Anthony Modeste) and far from being intimidated, they responded with 3 goals of their own – the last two owing to the hapless defending of Naldo and of journeyman full-back Sacha Riether who replaced Howedes at RB. So far the loss of Matip created a kind of "domino effect" for Schalke – the downgrade in defensive solidity has exposed an inconsistent attack that relies too heavily on Huntelaar's finishing prowess and an overall lack of identity. Schalke has a lot of potentially top-class young talent in the team – Meyer, Embolo, Bentaleb, Geis, Goretzka, Schoph – and I think the only way Weinzirl can turn it around is to give those players a flexible attacking system to express themselves. The turgid cautious style of yesterday won't cut it for Schalke any more. I wonder what their fans must be thinking looking at how much fun the hated rivals Dortmund are having with their talented youth, while Schalke's equally talented youth are being essentially wasted.
RB Leipzig – Gladbach 1:1. The hosts dominated for most of the game, but a goal from American winger Fabian Johnson restored parity late on. Forsberg came on for the last half hour, Dahoud was an unused sub.
Bayern – Hertha 3:0. I watched this game live and was following LFC loanee Allan all game. He played as the deeper of the 2 midfielders, showed good willingness to press when out of possession (which against Bayern was around 75% of the time) and good range and quality of passing in the relatively rare moments when he ended up with the ball. He didn't look intimidated and if anything, I noticed hints of frustration when his teammates opted to clear the ball to safety rather than give it to him to try to get some combinations going. That ultimately proved to be his undoing, however, as he gifted the 2nd goal to Bayern when his GK passed to him when he was alone at the edge of the penalty area with Thiago closing in – Allan, being obviously confident in his technique, tried to turn with the ball, but Thiago was too quick, stealing the ball and scoring easily. A really bad mistake to make on your debut, but an equal share of the blame should go to the goalkeeper for placing a young player under pressure unnecessarily. The strangely poor state of the pitch at the Allianz Arena also might have had something to do with it.
Bayern struggled somewhat to break Hertha down despite a huge edge in possession, but a Messi-esque goal from Ribery gave them the lead and then, shortly after Allen's mishap, Robben (who came on for his first appearance in many months) finished them off with a trademark goal. The commentator said that Bayern's starting 11 was the oldest of any team in the Bundesliga in the last 3 seasons, while a day earlier Dortmund fielded one of the youngest starting 11s ever. I think Bayern under Ancelotti will surely set some age-related records before he is done – Carlo loves older, intelligent players and Bayern have plenty of them now.
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