Season 2016/17

I didn't really make up my mind about the squad (simply because I can't). For sure our players were too slow and we may well have improved under that aspect. On the other hand many of the new guys are rather inexperienced and I can't say a word about their actual technique or skills at all. But I'm confident, that we will manage to somehow stable our defence and stuff that wide space we have had between our centre-backs and the midfield; Hasebe will hopefully play where he belongs and where he's best, Mascarell is said to be a good deep-lying playmaker and should hence being able to fill that gap.
I also expect our squad to study different systems and vary according to the needs of each and any opponent so I see the upcoming year with better hopes than the last one (which already in advance I was rather sceptical as I didn't confide much in Veh).
About the transfers? Well, I don't know them much but I suppose Varela (pure prejudice, I know) as a uruguayan player should be rather physically strong and technically fair so he'll hopefully manage to both, close his side in the defensive work and being able to arm attacks. Mascarell the same (despite the fact, that I have absolutely no prejudices about the physical constitution of tinerfenos). Moreover I still see Gacinovic and Fabián as "new players" - both should bring us more tranquility in ball-possession as they are capable of winning a one on one-situation and can well "open the field" through smart passes and thence taking advantage of our new-won speed through Rebic, Tawatha or Blum.
Though I'm a bit sceptical about our heading-skills as we lost Zambrano and (at least temporarilly) Russ

arytsy schrieb:

I'd list Hradecky, Meier, Hrgota, Chandler and Gacinovic as the top five players.

Absolutely, not to forget Abraham and Hector, who did a great job before being send off. Most important was the team-effort this afternoon, the attitude, the fighting spirit. Hope we'll keep up this great work!

arytsy schrieb:

Can't get my head around the fact that SGE won against Schalke and lost to Darmstadt. Anyway, the stats show that Frankfurt was better in possession, shots, passes and pass accuracy. Darmstadt won in duels, tackles, clearences, interceptions and, sadly, goals.

Not only better in stats, they played better all along. Well, they were also the only ones playing some actual football, Darmstadt never really interested in anything but destroying and defending with all they had. The goal was a bloody joke, intentionally it was a cross from the right wing which he (Sirigu) accidentally put on goal. In fact he got the "ultimate bonus" for not being able to do proper crossing. Such a frustrating afternoon, it's ridiculous not to win this match. The Universe has a weird sense of humor...

Zicolov schrieb:

Not only better in stats, they played better all along. Well, they were also the only ones playing some actual football, Darmstadt never really interested in anything but destroying and defending with all they had. The goal was a bloody joke, intentionally it was a cross from the right wing which he (Sirigu) accidentally put on goal. In fact he got the "ultimate bonus" for not being able to do proper crossing. Such a frustrating afternoon, it's ridiculous not to win this match. The Universe has a weird sense of humor...

Yeah, there was definitely some bad luck for SGE. Still, they had nice opportunities to score, but unfortunately those didn't work out.

arytsy schrieb:

Still, they had nice opportunities to score, but unfortunately those didn't work out.

Could have been easy, I remember two situations where they should've just passed the ball over to Alex Meier who could have scored easily. If we're 1:0 in front once we will 100% win this match because Darmstadt had NOTHING to offer offensively. It was just kick and rush, without the actual rush. Just kicking the ball as far away from their own penalty area as possible and hope it won't come back too soon.

dc_edinburg schrieb:

It looked to me like they had settled for a draw in the second half and got punished......by a bad cross.

To me it was actually Darmstadt who settled. Starting with the kick off . I mean they took off Ben-Hatira after 80 minutes who was their only player trying to play some actual football. And brought on a defender instead, so you know exactly what they were aiming for. There's no logic behind them winning this match 1:0, not even the goal scoring shot was supposed to be a shot on goal (their only one btw). He (Sirigu) tried to cross the ball into the box and scored a goal just because he wasn't even able to deliver proper crossing. This is ridiculous, isn't it? Christ...

arytsy schrieb:

Great win against Leverkusen! Here are the vital stats. SGE was better in aerial duels (60%/40%), total shots (17/7), shots accuracy (47%/43%), interceptions (32/17) and total crosses (12/7).


Gacinovic was a slight disappointment. Rebic looked like a promising replacement.

Rebic showed some great passion and skills. Also Vallejo in defense was really good, you would never believe the kid is just 19 years old. Great potential. And Fabian delivered an all-over stellar performance with one assist and the winning goal. Really cool with the ball on his feet, he popped up literally everywhere on the pitch and covered the greatest distance of all players of the pitch. And yeah, Alex Meier as usual I'd say?  Hope we can also pick up a point of three in Ingolstadt, even though it's already a tradition that we fail after a match like the one we played against Leverkusen.