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Our first Champions League match was an absolute bloodbath, with us defeating Legia Warsaw six-nil. (Only Celtic had a worse day.)
Read our post-match analysis here.
Tuchel: 8
TT's tactics were an an equal balance of conservative (playing the 4-2-3-1 again) and the crazy (Guerreiro in the central midfield?). Fortunately both payed off, and we were tactically as smooth as Sean Connery.
However, this was a team with virtually no defense. After Leipzig, I'm not sure I have full confidence in TT's tactics against deep-defending aggressive teams.
Starting
Bürki: 8
He didn't have much to do, but the few times Legia broke through our defense, Bürki made his saves look effortless.
Piszczek: 8
Brilliant and and fun to watch as always.
Sokratis: 9
Papa isn't just our brick wall - the last few matches have shown that he's got great distribution and can be fast when he needs to. He'd just been letting Hummels do the work the past few seasons.
Bartra: 8
I love Bartra's playing style. He's so stylish and suave. His cheeky goal also showed that he can match Hummels in set pieces.
Schmelzer: 9
Captain Schmelle was definitely the main man in the defense. He's definitely a presence on the field and leading brilliantly.
Weigl: 8
Nice to see our boy back on form again and not making stupid rash decisions or getting into fights. Lets just call RedBull a bad day and forget about it. Hopefully we'll never see such an atrocious performance again.
He still needs to work on his forward passes though.
Guerrero: 10
Holy shit!
I thought TT was full of it when he played Guerreiro in the central midfield, but it worked so well! He played as a traditional 'eight' and was amazing at it. I think we might have found our Illy replacement!
Holy shit!
Dembélé: 7
Oh Ousmane. You have the skills, you have the energy, you have the attitude... but can you please pass occasionally?
Götze: 8
Mario is well on his way to redemption. A few more performances like this and he'll be there in my book.
Pulisic: 9
Okay. It isn't just you Americans over-hyping him. This kid has real skill and great decision-making. Dembélé and Mor might have a "higher ceiling" (whatever that means) skills-wise, but Pulisic will always be a
Aubameyang: 7
Auba was a bit disappointing. His finishing was off and he was a bit out-of-sync with the rest of the team. Despite this he managed to net a nice late goal, hence the relatively high rating.
Substitutes
Castro: 8
Gonzalo "The Great Gonzo" Castro was a brilliant impact sub, scoring a goal and assisting another. A miles better performance than this weekend.
Mor: NR
I'm having difficulty telling Mor and Dembélé apart. They both have such similar playstyles and they both need to learn to not be selfish. Emre did well, I can't really rate his performance based on the few minutes he was on after we were already up by a huge margin.
Ginter: NR
Matze is a reliable substitute anywhere in the defense, and he's done well whenever he's started. However, like Emre, I can't really rate his performance last night because I didn't see enough of him.
How does everyone else rate our players? Weigh in the comments!