Bundesliga 2019/20 [12. Spieltag] - 22-24th November, 2019

[SchalkeUK]

Raman with his first goal and a 2-0 lead - sorry nudge!

[Michael]

Frankfurt 2 nil down now to Wolfsburg, I can't believe that we haven't at least taken advantage of us being a man up. Having said that, I can't begrudge Wolfsburg the lead, they have been the more smart team on the field so far. There's about a quarter of an hour of the match to go, hopefully we will score a goal or two, but I am not counting my chickens.

[SchalkeUK]

Bringing on Burgstaller for the last 10 minutes was almost a disaster - he gave away the ball every time except one - an open goal and an attempt which went out to the far side for a throw in to Bremen.  Enough said and if I have to be honest the little Japanese man in Green was really the best man on the field today.

[Michael]

15 minutes ago, SchalkeUK said:

Bringing on Burgstaller for the last 10 minutes was almost a disaster - he gave away the ball every time except one - an open goal and an attempt which went out to the far side for a throw in to Bremen.  Enough said and if I have to be honest the little Japanese man in Green was really the best man on the field today.

I didn't watch the Werder Bremen v Schalke match, but I can't say that I am surprised about hearing how poor Burgstaller was. I think we've said before that he is not good enough to play for Schalke. He'd probably do well in the 2 Bundesliga, as he has his uses as a big hard working centre forward, but he lacks the class to be playing for a big club like Schalke.

[Michael]

In all honesty, it was a poor performance by Frankfurt against Wolfsburg today. Wolfsburg rightfully won as they were the better team. Frankfurt created chances, but we just weren't clinical enough, most annoying is the fact that I thought that we would at least throw the kitchen sink at Wolfsburg in the dying moments when we had little to lose, but we hardly created any clear cut chances in the last 5 or 10 minutes or so. 

Apart from Bas Dost's goal which was ruled out for being marginally offside, as well as Paciencia's first half diving header which forced Casteels into a good save and lastly Durm's late shot which was once again saved by Casteels, Frankfurt didn't create any other clear cut chances. All the other efforts by Frankfurt were essentially half chances. Weghorst was smart to nick his goal with his clever header from Arnold's shot, but Wolfsburg deserved this win.

Obviously Wiedwald made a terrible mistake for Wolfsburg's second goal from Victor and we will definitely be glad to have either Trapp or Ronnow back to replace Wiedwald again. I have always said that having a class goalkeeper makes a huge difference to a team. Wiedwald is several rungs below Trapp and Ronnow in terms of quality. Wiedwald is a decent shot stopper, but he is prone to mistakes at times, as we witnessed today and he never ever seems to be able to hold on to a ball to save his life. He always either palms or fists the ball away, which on many occasions leads to danger from the rebound. 

I think Hutter is yet to find the best combination for Frankfurt. He does change the lineups a lot, because we do have depth as a team, but it seems like that might be affecting our performances to an extent. We've played some excellent football at times this season, but today was clearly not one of our better performances. I hope we display a much improved performance against Arsenal in our next match.

[nudge]

9 minutes ago, Michael said:

Obviously Wiedwald made a terrible mistake for Wolfsburg's second goal from Victor and we will definitely be glad to have either Trapp or Ronnow back to replace Wiedwald again. I have always said that having a class goalkeeper makes a huge difference to a team. Wiedwald is several rungs below Trapp and Ronnow in terms of quality. Wiedwald is a decent shot stopper, but he is prone to mistakes at times, as we witnessed today and he never ever seems to be able to hold on to a ball to save his life. He always either palms or fists the ball away, which on many occasions leads to danger from the rebound. 

I will always love Wiedwald but he needs a lot of playing time combined with ongoing support and trust as he tends to lose confidence quickly and then he's very susceptible to errors. Being a first choice keeper in a lower league club would be great for him; I wish he'd have gone back to Duisburg instead of deciding to be a third choice keeper at Frankfurt.

[Michael]

2 minutes ago, nudge said:

I will always love Wiedwald but he needs a lot of playing time combined with ongoing support and trust as he tends to lose confidence quickly and then he's very susceptible to errors. Being a first choice keeper in a lower league club would be great for him; I wish he'd have gone back to Duisburg instead of deciding to be a third choice keeper at Frankfurt.

Yeah, Wiedwald clearly has a lot of ability, but he doesn't instill confidence as a goalkeeper. Obviously there was a lot of pressure on him today playing for Frankfurt, as it will be rare for him to get much more playing time. Perhaps the pressure in a big Bundesliga game such as today's match did get to him.

He is definitely good enough for a 2 Bundesliga side such as Duisburg, in fact he did quite well for them when he was on loan there in the second half of last season. Either way, I can't wait for Trapp or Ronnow to return for us, I am a huge admirer of both of them. 

As for Wolfsburg, I will be watching them against Oleksandriya on the 28th at the Lviv Arena and I will be hoping that Wolfsburg lose, which will go some way to making me forget today's bitter defeat. In reality, I think that Wolfsburg will probably win, especially now that Schlager has returned from his injury. He's a great player who I hugely admire. But Oleksandriya do have an outside chance, they drew with St Ettiene in both games against them, so they do have something about them, but they will still be the underdogs against Wolfsburg. However,  I will be cheering the Ukrainian under dogs on, in the hope that they win. 

[Michael]

That was a great free-kick from Forsberg to make it 4-1 to RB Leipzig, I just had a feeling that they would score when they were lining up to take the kick. Leipzig have been superb against Koln. They look so confident every time they attack and they have a very strong team this season. I know that they have their detractors because of their association with Red Bull, but they are a lovely team to watch play.

[Stan]

Gladbach don't fancy the title then. Beaten away at Union.

[Tommy]

This is a fucking shitty matchday. 

[Tommy]

And it just got shittier. Öztunali with the lead for Mainz against Hoffenheim.  

[Tommy]

Jesus Christ. Mainz with a player sent off are owning Hoffenheim. Not good for us.  

[nudge]

Just now, Tommy said:

Jesus Christ. Mainz with a player sent off are owning Hoffenheim. Not good for us.  

Not good for us either  Three teams (Werder; Hertha; Fortuna) on 11 points...

[Tommy]

What a performance from Zentner though. Man of the match together with Kunde for me. 

[Michael]

3 hours ago, Tommy said:

Jesus Christ. Mainz with a player sent off are owning Hoffenheim. Not good for us.  

Yeah, Hoffenheim conceded 4 goals in that second half, despite being a man up! I think that most Bundesliga matches are very hard to predict, as most of the teams outside of the top 3 clubs in the country(namely Bayern, Dortmund and Leipzig in my opinion), can beat each other on any given day. 

As for Fortuna Dusseldorf, I still think that they will stay up. We are not even half way through the season, so there is still so much to play for.