Ich habe das in einem privaten Forum geschrieben, dachte aber, dass es auch hier vielleicht gute Diskussion erlauben könnte. Ich entschuldige mich für das English - als kein Muttersprachler ist es ein bisschen zu zeitaufwändig alles zu übersetzen!
Seven reflections with 30% of the season done:
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The way we blow out weaker teams is very exciting to watch and reminds of the Sextuple juggernaut. This suffocating approach should become our signature style against weaker opposition for years to come, regardless if we choose to make changes against superior opponents.
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However, we shouldn’t get too excited about building a BL lead already. It does reflect our good performance, but equally reflects the competition reverting back to its usual habit of dropping lots of points unnecessarily. B04 and BVB are already 7 points behind, out of just 27 possible. In truth, against such inconsistent competition, we should expect to win the BL title 9 out of 10 seasons.
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VK has proven himself to be an excellent man manager. Team unity appears at an all time high, comparable only to Flick’s reign. Regardless of the unique player personality and situation (e.g. Kimmich vs. Davies vs. Gnabry vs. Sane vs. Goretzka), VK has found a way to motivate and extract the most from each person. This is not something that was top of expectations when he was hired, but it’s tremendous positive and gives a lot of hope for the future. In the long run, well people-managed teams heavily outperform well tactically-coached ones.
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The partnership in central defence was a big worry, but is working as well as we can hope for. Given the error-prone history of Kim and Upamecano and the controversial de Ligt sale, this should not be taken lightly. It may be that both are still just a wobble away from mentally collapsing again, particularly in big games, but so far so good.
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There are two main areas of concern. One: the way we lost to the two more elite, CL sides is worrisome. Time will tell is this is just a temporary, bad-luck hickup or a more systemic problem. There are good arguments on both sides. It’s worth remembering that Guardiola faced similar dilemas early in his post-Barca years, and his style shifted markedly after the CL final loss to Chelsea.
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Second concern, there should be some worries about the lack of usage of Tel and Aznou, despite plenty of opportunity for both to play a lot more minutes. For example, Kenan Yildiz is now dazzling in Torino, while we chose to let him go in because we had highly paid and aging wingers. This is a chronic, multiyear problem that VK was expected to help resolve, but so far we are not seeing that. The lone positive example, Pavlovic, had his breakout fuelled more by luck than club strategic choice. In an emerging football world where La Masia or City Football Academy churn both elite players and good extra revenues for their clubs, we risk falling further behind structurally and reputationally.
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The squad is far from perfect. The right profiling for incoming players (in January or in the summer) will make or break VK’s tenure in the longer term. Three good examples come to mind. One, some of the current wingers don’t fit VK’s approach too well. They will likely be replaced, but profiling their replacements correctly in a very diverse market will be critical. Two, as shown by the impact of moving from Pavlovic to Palhinha, we have little ability to replace or rest Pavlovic and Kimmich without disrupting our build-up style. Hence, profiling correctly central midfield acquisitions to allow for a 60-70 game season will be critical longer term. Three, we have no ability to replace Kane for injury or rest. Same as above: identifying the right profile of player who can sustain the system when Kane is rested or injured can make or break our seasons.
) for not appointing you when you interviewed with them for a major position as you mentioned a while back on here: They sure lost out on a great analytical mind that could only have brought them further ahead still!
