2014 - 2015 Football Thread - Page 393

I made a pretty in-depth post about this in the CL thread, but BVB's problem was that their transfers over the past two years have been almost a complete bust.

Aubameyang and Sokratis are acceptable transfers. Both are ok, but aren't star-level players. They have off-matches relatively often but they still contribute and are very good. Aubameyang is an extremely one-dimensional player (speed and middling finishing) and Sokratis makes some questionable positional decisions, so they can't be the facilitators of a winning team. They need a good cast around them.

Ramos, Immobile, and Dong Won Ji are unknowns. We haven't seen any of the latter and the two former don't get enough playing time to make a definitive decision. What we have seen of them says that they are quality finishers but they can't create chances (I criticized Lewandowski about this to an extent in the past, but he's just so fucking good that he makes up for it, whereas these two don't).

Ginter and Mkhi are just abject failures. There is literally nothing positive to say about Ginter's play at this point, and while Mkhi had/has a lot of potential and had an OK season last year, he's a complete liability on the pitch. He makes terrible passes, takes far too many touches on the ball (resulting in him losing the ball all the time), and he can't shoot to save his fucking life. If he actually gets it on target then he's accomplished something, and him actually scoring is like seeing a fucking unicorn. I have absolutely no clue why the fuck he starts.

BVB made a shitload of moves to try to shore up losing Lewandowski and Gotze, and didn't make any quality signings anywhere else. There is zero depth in the defense and the midfield could use some serious work as well; Kehl is getting old, Bender is fairly invisible most of the time, and Grosskreutz isn't half as good as people ever thought he was (he's a Jack of All Trades that was buoyed by having a great team around him; his best quality is that he doesn't make huge mistakes). Even Weidenfeller isn't that reliable because people have realized he's fucking terrible at saving shots that go low; he lets in an embarrassing amount of shots 5-hole (through the legs) or around his ankles.

This team made a complete bust and wasted a lot of money in the last two transfer windows and the only way they don't get relegated is if they make some big fucking moves during the winter window. They are undoubtedly and definitely the worst team in the Bundesliga at the moment and it's simply because the team lacks quality; all of the potential that they bought has translated to jack squat on the pitch.