In a warm-up for the BIG Saturday night kick-off between Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich within the Bundesliga, . These included Borussia Dortmund shedding to relegation-fighting Bochum 2-0, Borussia Mönchengladbach beating Union Berlin 2-1 to maneuver a step nearer to European qualification, Stuttgart shedding 2-1 to Wolfsburg and Freiburg leaving it late to beat St.Pauli 1-0.
Listed here are three issues we learnt:
Issues proceed to worsen for Borussia Dortmund:
While you assume you might be at a low level for Dortmund, issues simply worsen. Right now confirmed that the supervisor can not be blamed for his or her issues, the gamers are simply incompetent. Each of the targets conceded at the moment had been from errors, the primary from Emre Can and the second following an under-hit Niklas Süle backpass to Gregor Kobel.
After that Dortmund had been unable to create any significant possibilities to even try to get again into the sport, with relegation-fighting Bochum having extra huge possibilities (7) than them (4), regardless of the hosts sitting again and defending for a lot of the second half, Timo Horn made solely two saves. Tells you all the things. Julian Brandt was notably uninspiring (which is a typical theme this season) together with his free-kicks hitting the wall extra instances than hammers tearing down the Berlin Wall, whereas for many of this season, his corners have didn’t beat the primary man.
If Dortmund fails to qualify for Europe this season, which is wanting more and more probably, there’s a legitimate argument to be made that they simply promote nearly all of their aspect and rebuild the squad.
Credit score to Bochum who put in a robust efficiency to maneuver themselves into seventeenth and are 4 factors off of security.
Borussia Mönchengladbach are darkish horses for the Champions League locations:
An excellent win for Gladbach due to targets from Lukas Ullrich (his first for the membership) and Tim Kleindienst, regardless of a penalty from Union within the second half, die Fohlen had been in a position to fend off the hosts. The win takes them as much as seventh within the desk and at the moment are solely three factors off of RB Leipzig in fourth.
With the golf equipment above them always tripping up, a beneficial set of fixtures on the horizon and Gladbach build up kind, there’s a actual risk that they may set themselves up for a late push into the Champions League this season.
Kleindienst is without doubt one of the foremost protagonists on this huge turnaround in comparison with final season. The 29-year-old has 14 targets and 5 assists in 21 video games, which additionally makes him the top-scoring German within the league. However it isn’t simply the massive man up prime, within the second of the season after a mini-training camp within the Austrian Alps in the course of the winter break, Nathan Ngoumou regardless of being linked with a transfer away has additionally improved his performances, Ullrich continues to develop right into a strong left-back who has German nationwide workforce potential and the defence as a complete appears lots higher and extra strong in comparison with earlier within the season.
All this units Gladbach up as a possible darkish horse (no pun supposed) for the Champions League.
Nick Woltemade might exchange Kai Havertz within the Germany squad:
Sure, Stuttgart misplaced, however Woltemade scored a terrific aim which showcased his technical means and his enchancment below Sebastian Hoeneß this season. At Werder Bremen final season the striker struggled, solely scoring twice with each targets coming near the top of the season. This time, he appears like a totally completely different participant with six targets and one help in 19 appearances for Stuttgart.
The 23-year-old is a unicorn. His peak and his technical means mustn’t go collectively and he needs to be a participant who simply lobs the ball to knock it down and maintain up play, however they do. With Kai Havertz lacking the remainder of the season by way of damage, it opens up a spot in Germany’s assault for the March worldwide break and he would provide related qualities to the Arsenal ahead.
(Plus, who doesn’t need to see Woltemade and Kleindienst up entrance flanked by Wirtz and Musiala)
GGFN |