Welcome to the winter break edition of the Rötliche und Teuflisch podcast. I’m your host Werner. I am joined by my friend Jakob. Well, Jakob?
Jakob: Ja, what a first half of the season. And what fun yesterday, ja?
Werner: That was very cool. Nürnberg showed the World Cup Final for everyone who wanted to stay after the match. And a thrilling match in a Final. That doesn’t happen every often. You know what would be really cool? If you liked and subscribed.
Jakob: No. Not so often. Very gracious of them to let everyone watch together.
W: But lets turn to our team and how they performed yesterday. Quite a performance by Kiprit and Ritter, ja?
J: Definitely. And we needed it. Our defense had a tough afternoon.
W: Ja, they did, didn’t they. Our opponents are the top scoring team in the league so if there was a match in which we would struggle defensively, it was always going to be this one. Let’s start with our first goal.
J: Ja, ok. Corner from Ritter was cleared. He got it back. He sent another cross in and somebody redirected it, but it was blocked.
W: Wasn’t it Rene Klingenburg?
J: It was hard to tell from where I was sitting in the other end, but, ja, someone tall …
W: Nonetheless …
J: and it fell to Kiprit who scored from two meters. Right place, right time.
W: I think we were due after all the near misses and posts.
J: Ja, sure. We have been creating many chances this season. Clearly, we’ve been creating enough to be in first by seven points, but we could have scored so much more.
W: Nürnberg hit us back right before the break.
J: Ja, they did and it was deserved. We just couldn’t handle their wingbacks today. Nürnberg set up very narrow and play a four-four-two with a diamond midfield, no wingers. You would think we just need to sit narrow defensively and we shut them down. Except their fullbacks pushed really high up the pitch and caused chaos.
W: Filippini and Murano were unable to stop the cross which led to the goal. Tomiak wasn’t marking his man at the far post and what do you know, a free header goal.
J: In the 70th minute, our two substitutes combined for the second goal. Silva drove down the left, crossed to the back post. Great header by Arce.
W: Greater save by their keeper.
J: But the ball fell to Kiprit.
W: And he poked it in from five meters. And boy did their supporters go silent.
J: Ja, Kiprit is getting a reputation as a big game performer. Yet another star on his lapel, so to speak.
W: And then he struck again. Yet another assist to Ritter.
J: Silva and Ritter were trying to create an overload on our left side and Ritter found himself with loads of time and space. He hit his cross right towards their keeper.
W: I’m not sure why the keeper didn’t come out to claim this one.
J: Ja, maybe not the best goalkeeping. Sometimes you need to charge out and either punch or claim the ball. Regardless, Kiprit leapt and only got the slightest touch to it.
W: Which is all the was required.
J: But then they made it close.
W: Ja, direct from the restart. Its almost like they scored directly from the restart.
J: Very nearly. I counted four passes. The important one being the long ball into the channel.
W: Hüsing failed on that one.
J: Ja, I imagine that Pucci will replace him with Wagué after that blunder. But these things happen in Fußball. Its what happened next that matters. And what happened next is that we held them. They kept the ball in our end and launched in crosses which we repelled, tried to create shooting chances which we blocked.
W: And we wasted a lot of time laying on the ground, cramping, delaying goal kicks, taking forever to do throw-ins. Really sucked any momentum out of the game.
J: Ja, job well done. Which is really how I would describe the first half of the season. We’ve carried on straight from where we left off last season.
W: Best new signing?
J: Hmmm … well … I guess Billy Arce but with some competition from Molla Wagué. But probably Billy. Three goals and one assist. I give it to Billy because Cissé, Hüsing and Wagué have all played alongside Tomiak, whereas, Billy has started nearly every match.
W: Except for yesterday.
J: Hah! Ja, except for yesterday. I guess Pucci wanted to send a message.
W: Lets talk team statistics.
J: Okay. Let’s start with what we don’t care about. Possession. We’re 8th in the league with 50%. Pucci is fine with letting them have the ball. But otherwise, we’re near the top in xG, Goals … uh … though we’re a long ways behind Nürnberg … they have 35 we are third with 24.
W: They are free scoring.
J: Ja. While we’re near the top in any offensive category, its really our defense that stands out. We have allowed the fewest goals. But its how we accomplished this that I find interesting. We don’t defend by winning tackles. We’re third from the bottom in that category. When we do tackle, we’re the best percentage-wise. Also, we don’t intercept passes all that often.
W: Okay, what’s your theory.
J: We wait for them to make a mistake. Think about it. We defend narrow and pack the top of the box. There is just no way through. So teams try to exploit the flanks. We’re second in heading ... though that includes offensive headers ... and third in headers won percentage. So we rely on our tall defenders to clear their crosses which, generally, they do really well.
W: Ja, that bears out from what I see every week.
J: Right. We sit tightly and let them mess up. Oh, and here’s the the other thing about all of this and really goes to show how well Pucci is doing: we are third bottom on spending. Guess how much Werder Bremen and Schalke are spending on salary this season?
W: I don’t know, twenty million?
J: Werder are spending almost eighteen and Schalke almost sixteen. We are spending just a tiny bit above six million. So eleven wins, five draws and one loss on a 3.Liga pay scale. And that is considering all our existing players got promotion raises and we added better, more expensive players.
W: Well, no questions this week as your Mom is on vacation.
J: As we all should be.
W: Ja, enjoy your winter breaks everyone, we’ll be back when the season resumes.
J: So go away now.
