MY TAKE ON BORUSSIA GLADBACHMUNCHEN VS BORUSSIA DORTMUND. 1-3

now yesterday dortmund played gladbach at their home . first let me tell you klopp is successful and is now a liverpool manager because he improved the players made them better technical players . good in close quarter passing and good in one on one situation . players under  klopp are played had very good interplay and that were the highlight of his team then gladbach team  coach is no different . his team too has very good interplay and are very good in one on one situations .
now gladbach started the game with a 4-4-2  where they had raffael and stindl upfront with johnson and traore on the flanks . dahoud and Nordtveit were in the middle in front of the bac four . the back four consisted of korb,christiansen,elvedi and wendt. dortmund started the game with a 4-3-3 formation . they had abumeyang upfront with mikhitariyan and reus alongside him . while the midfield consisted of weigl,gundogan and castro . weigl was sitting in front of the back four while gundogan was on the right while castro was on the left . the back four consited of Piszczek,sokratis,hummels and jo hoo .
now both the teams like to play on the counter but the difference between them is that gladbach like the opposition to come and close them down so that they can play around them  . dahoud,raffael,traore are very good in one on one situations and good at moving the ball and finding the pass . gladbach's offense is that they wait till the ball comes into the  midfield and then press and then launch their counter . while dortmund on the other hand like to move the ball through the flanks . they try to open a flank then try to swith the play and exploit the space that is left open by opposition who is concentrating to guard attack from one flank .

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now the game started with a very good pace with gladbach sitting back and hitting dortmund on the counters . for the first 20-25 min the best chances fell to gladbach . now dortmund were trying to high press gladbach and it was working perfectly gladbach who would pass the ball around had play out of the press and move the ball . now the thing is that gladbach had two in the  middle while dortmund had three in the middle . so to compensate numbers both stindl would drop into the midfield to help out the midfielders . now the problem was that they didnt had a players up front on the shoulders of the back four so they play johnson and traore very high up the pitch . dortmund have a very way to move the ball and at times the players were single minded on who they were going to pass which the opposition could read and the move wouldnt have continuation since the opposition could take protective measures . now dahoud was playing in the middle two because xhaka was serving suspension . he is good player but lacks the discipline that is required for a middle player . he would leave his position and try to go and close down weigl leaving a big space in front of the back four for Nordtveit to cover .
now in the initial exchanges galdbach were having the upperhand with dortmund not troubling gladbach that much . the reason being that at time dortmund were not releasing the ball quickly enough for their team who would make a run who would then caught offside or loose the ball under challenge . now as i had said that dahoud has the tendency to go upfront quickly trying to press . the other thing was that gladbach's back four were concenrned about abumeyang's and didnt want to come from their positions and close him down leaving his time on the ball to find a pass . the first goal was because dahoud had left his position and gundogan collected the ball just off the hole and released the ball to reus who slotted it home . now there was a difference in the approach for dortmunds play and the way they defended .
for the first 25 to 30 min dortmund were trying to hardpress which was getting beneficial for gladbach but after 25 min dortmund started to wait a little and let gladbach take the initiative on the dribble and not hard press them . they would let gladbach start the move and then press them . the trouble with gladbach is that their game plan is simply counter offensive . they want the opposition to come and close them down . they dont have particular offense if the opposition sits back and invites them to come and open then up . in the second half dortmund just started to sit back and hit gladbach on the counter which made dortmund even more potent . they moved the ball faster and from back to front and gladbach trying to press offered them space everywhere and dortmund just milked them up .
gladbach will have to find a good offense when they have the ball and the opposition tried to sit back and hold their shape . dortmund on the other hand have a plan but it needs improvisation as well as changes as the situation demands . game against bayern munich had shown the flaw in dortmund's plan and they need to address that .