A very late recap - and an outlook for the weekend ahead

So, hello there,
Apologies for the lack of update from the weekend. It shall be done now.

Hannover seems to lack some steam at the end of the season's first half. Mirko Slomka doesn't seem so keen to rest more than 2 players a match, therefore a lot of players lack freshness. Remember those very quick counter attacks from last season? Not happening at the moment. The pace in midfield has gone, our midfield seems to try and put in as minimal effort as possible, thereby never really giving the defenders options to play the ball out from the back properly. Where guys like Pinto and Schlaudraff can get plus points for scoring the occasional golazo, Schmiedebach is quite frustrating to watch as he doesn't seem to deliver more than fouls and brawls with opponents.

Before the Freiburg match I said I wanted 7 points from the last 3 league matches. It is still possible, and I am still hopeful, but let's be honest: We might only get 2 or 3. As good as our home performance is this season, we are as sharp as a rusty kitchen knife forgotten in the back of the drawer. We can be very happy with a draw in the last home match in the league in 2011. I'd love us to bounce back once more, as the game in Freiburg has shown however, we are uncapable of holding on to a lead. Ron-Robert is doing a great job in goal and prevents a lot of goals, but he's not infallible. Our game on Saturday against Leverkusen is the "top match", I suspect we might park the bus for that. Nick the odd goal, as we have done in the past. We don't look that adjustable at the moment. It is unfortunate, that Henning Hauger, who was brought in as a kind of more controlling and distributing midfielder, is out injured for so long. Therefore we have to stick to our counter tactics, we still fail to look good when we need to control the match.

But no matter how dark the picture is now, the games in the league are crucial for the outlook in the league for the rest of the season. Hamburg is rising from the bottom, the guys in the top 6 somehow running away with the European spots. I'm not saying we need to qualify for one of those, but it'd be nice to stay in touch as long as possible. A win, yes, I still believe, would get us in reach of them again. A draw or loss would certainly let us drop down the table. So fingers crossed for that game, kicking of at 18.30 German time. I try to get a good stream for that and get an analysis quicker this time, promise.



Well then, looking across the North Sea and the Gunners had a mixed week. A comfortable win against Wigan, as everyone hoped and predicted. Clean sheet, 4 different goal scorers, in touch with 4th spot again. This was followed by quite an abysmal outing in Piraeus, where our second (and third) string failed to really show up. Things started quite badly, then got worse, until it became unbearable. I didn't watch it as a whole and so I didn't see Mannone and his street football skills live, but the outpour of sarcasm on twitter was crazy. And rightly so. This was his chance to prove his big words right, but he imploded very soon-ish. I suppose the League One teams should draw lots and whoever loses needs to take him.

As for the rest, it is a shame that Santos got injured, leaving us a bit exposed before the Everton game. Miquel looked quite promising as LB, nice for him to get a few minutes, Ox looked decent as well, but beyond that we never got the flow you'd need. Yossi scored a neat goal, but that was about it.

Looking forward to Everton (16:00 German time), a win will be vital for Champions League hopes. Our first team (except Santos) will presumably play, unless something horrible happens in training. Like TV5 having a malfunction and destroying our last remaining defenders, leaving us with Squillaci and Djourou as replacements. Horror. Or worse, him colliding with Szczesny. Now that would be the apocalypse at the moment. Does anyone have the number of Mad Jens? Might fancy him on the bench.

Normally we should beat a fairly unconvincing Everton side, but then you never know. We can't blame the CL this time for lack of effort, because from the first XI Saturday, only one (or two) will have played. So a win there, hopefully a clean sheet as well.



I am very confident that I can write a recap on the weekend on Sunday already, let's hope I get to do it. ;)


Come On You Reds! Both Of You!



PS: How funny was it last night to watch both Manchester sides crashing out? I thought it was incredibly hilarious. Everyone rightly laughing at Nasri now. All those fans in disbelief on 5live last night were awesome. Schadenfreude, we invented it.
If Hannover get back to good form, we could face them. But that's a different story for after the draw on the 16th.