CL Rant Box: Unirea Urziceni v VfB Stuttgart
By: Pete | September 29th, 2009Sorry I haven’t posted the past couple of days; was in the mountains camping/hiking and away from technology altogether. I did of course catch the match on Saturday and was very pleased with the results. No need to rehash; thanks to everyone who posted comments, covered most of the important points. Another massive change in the starting XI but obviously a successful one with a few of the starters resting for tonight’s matchup.
It cannot be overstated how important this game is for Stuttgart if they are to advance to the knockout stages. You’ve got to figure that they will need to take a few points away from Rangers and Sevilla and pretty much ALL the points away from Unirea. Sometimes easier said than done. While Urziceni are undoubtedly the underdog in the group they’ll be looking to make a splash as well and they looked threatening at times against Sevilla even though they lost. But let’s hope Stuttgart can build on the success from the weekend and take all three of these much needed points.
I’d like to see Pogrebnyak and Schieber up front together tonight in attack. Hleb will again be out as well as the long term usuals (Magnin, Lanig.) I’d assume Lehmann is set to go again as well too.
As you can see I’m calling this a rant box more than a CL preview – comment throughout the game and I’ll be looking to comment/reply often and keep it interactive. UP Stuttgart
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Unirea are decent opposition but in the end you should be able to come out on top no problem. Doubt there will be much of a surprise but your strikers will have to be on top form in order to come away with all 3 points. Expect the Romanian champions to sit back and defend heavily like they did against us two weeks ago.
Posted from
United States
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Same old Stuttgart. Take the lead and then do nothing and wait for the equalizer.
Let’s see whether they’ve learned something from the Rangers game…
Posted from
Germany -
God I hope so
Posted from
United States -
Nope. Instead of taking 6 points from the first two games, Stuttgart sit on two going into the back to back games against Sevilla, who should easily finish this group in first place now.
Quick analysis: different to the Frankfurt game, Stuttgart missed out on an early red card in their favor to go with the goal. Going from there Stuttgart simply no longer had a chance to win the game. ;-/
Home games against Bremen and Schalke coming up. At least those two should give Stuttgart some high level competition to prepare them for Sevilla, and if they can grab two good results from the games it should help with the confidence issues or whatever kind of mental block the team has.
Posted from
Germany -
WTF is up with these guys. Is it our midfield? Forwards? Finishing shots? I feel like we never have shots on target.
Posted from
United States -
They’ve come out horribly flat at halftime both CL matches, amongst a slew of other problems-
Posted from
United States -
You can’t have shots on target, when you hand control of the match to the other team especially when you do that without having a proper idea about possibly killing the game on a well executed counter attack or something. If your defense isn’t properly organized either you are begging for the equalizer.
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Germany -
Ambition: Our players have none. It starts with the damn captain. Case in point, our final chance at an attack: Instead of controlling the ball as it comes to him, Hitzlsperger launches it into the air. Pathetic.
I’m not sure if it’s Babbel’s tactics or the players at this point, but it is the same old story as Jan has already pointed out. We score a goal and then sit back with our thumbs up our asses and wait for the equilizer. We CANNOT be afraid to continue to attack after a goal. The VfB has never been good when they try to hold on to a lead by defending.
The result in short: SICKENING
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United States -
“I’m not sure if it’s Babbel’s tactics or the players at this point”
Good question. I wonder what would be easier to fix? Mental blocks are a fickle tricky thing to deal with, so I hope Babbel just works on Stuttgart’s gameplan and it all magically clicks.
The whole mental thing is interesting though as it leads to the question how much Babbel’s regular absence from the team to get his coaching license plays into this?
Posted from
Germany -
I’ve honestly always never really liked Hitzlsperger. I’ve mentioned that in other comments. He’s just not a very good controlling midfielder.
Should we be playing Hleb centrally, maybe as a central attacking midfielder ala Misimovic?
Posted from
United States -
I thought we had enough chances to win the game to be honest. Especially after the equaliser. Hilbert’s miss? I mean seriously?
Posted from
United States
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