Borussia Mönchengladbach

Bundesliga Matchday 2 - 10 Sep 2016

SC Freiburg vs Borussia M'gladbach

SC Freiburg: Schwolow - Stenzel, Gulde, Söyüncü, Günter - Höfler, Frantz (67. Haberer) - Bulut, Grifo (89. Abrashi) - Philipp - Niederlechner (82. Petersen)

Borussia Mönchengladbach: Sommer - Elvedi (77. Herrmann), Christensen, Jantschke - Kramer, Strobl - Traoré, Wendt - Stindl, Hazard (69. Vestergaard), Raffael (69. Hahn)

Goals:
35.) 0:1 - Thorgan Hazard
54.) 1:1 - Maximilian Philipp (assist by Vicenzo Grifo)
85.) 2:1 - Maximilian Philipp (assist by Nils Petersen)
88.) 3:1 - Nils Petersen (PK)

FT - SC Freiburg 3:1 Borussia M'gladbach  



Gladbach's "away bestia negra" strikes again... The less is talked about this match, the better.

As you can see it's been a while since Gladbach last won in Freiburg:

Spoiler:

I would just love to know why Schubert turned the 3 men defence into a 4 men defence in the 69th minute when he replaced Thorgan Hazard by Yannick Vestergaard, just to return to a backline of 3 only 8 minutes later when he took out Nico Elvedi for Patrick Herrmann. That this won't lead to a more stable defence should be obvious - or not?

Let's finish this with what I thought about this match:

Champions League Matchday 1 - 14 Sep 2016

Manchester City vs Borussia M'gladbach

Originally this match was supposed to take place on Tuesday, but this led to a postponement of 24 hours:

As the security of the fans getting to the stadium couldn't be guaranteed due to heavy lightning and flooding, the game couldn't start at the proper time.

For the new date, only around 500 of the 1600 travelling Gladbach supporters were able to stay, and BMG decided to reimburse the tickets for all fans who travelled to Manchester, no matter whether they could attend on Wednesday or not.

Before kick-off, Max Eberl went to the stands of the Gladbach supporters and greeted every single one of them by handshake and thanked them for staying till Wednesday.


Manchester City: Bravo - Zabaleta, Otamendi, Stones, Kolarov - Fernandinho - Jesus Navas, De Bruyne, Gündogan (81. Clichy), Sterling (79. L.Sané) - Aguero (83. Iheanacho)

Borussia Mönchengladbach: Sommer - Elvedi, A.Christensen, Strobl - Dahoud, Kramer (38. Korb) - F.Johnson, Wendt - Stindl (81. I.Traoré), Hahn (59. T.Hazard), Raffael
Unused subs: Sippel (GK), Vestergaard, Hofmann, Jantschke

Goals:
09.) 1:0 - Sergio Agüero (assist by Aleksandar Kolarov)
28.) 2:0 - Sergio Agüero (PK)
77.) 3:0 - Sergio Agüero (assist by Raheem Sterling)
90+1.) 4:0 - Kelechi Iheanacho (assist by Leroy Sané)

FT - Manchester City 4:0 Borussia M'gladbach

This week was a veritable horror show for me. First RWO get thrashed 5:0 in Wattenscheid on Sunday, and now Gladbach get steamrolled 4:0 in Manchester. No fun at all.

At least my favourite goalie gave a good account of himself as none of the goals against him were his fault or savable.

Yann Sommer was by far the best Gladbach player - if it wasn't for him the result could have been 7:0 or 8:0 or worse.

A man can only handle so much. @YannSommer1 @borussia_en @borussia @ManCity @ChampionsLeague pic.twitter.com/9HHD21PZdN

— Christopher Winkler (@cwinklerdesign) September 14, 2016

Bundesliga Matchday 3 - 17 Sep 2016

Borussia M'gladbach vs Werder Bremen

Borussia Mönchengladbach: Sommer - Korb, Vestergaard, Jantschke - A.Christensen, Kramer - I.Traoré, F.Johnson (84. N.Schulz) - Raffael (46. J.Hofmann), Stindl (63. Dahoud), T.Hazard

Werder Bremen: Drobny - Gebre Selassie, Ludovic Sané, F.Diagne (46. Moisander), Ulisses Garcia - Fritz (46. A.Johannsson), Robert Bauer - S.Yatabaré (86. Kainz), Grillitsch - Junuzovic - Gnabry


(click to enlarge)

Goals:
11.) 1:0 - Thorgan Hazard (assist by Fabian Johnson)
17.) 2:0 - Thorgan Hazard (assist by Jannik Vestergaard)
21.) 3:0 - Raffael (PK)
41.) 4:0 - Raffael (assist by Lars Stindl)
73.) 4:1 - Serge Gnabry (assist by Aron Johannsson)

FT - Borussia M'gladbach 4:1 Werder Bremen  

Bundesliga Matchday 4 - 21 Sep 2016

RB Leipzig vs Borussia M'gladbach

RB Leipzig: Gulacsi - Bernardo, Orban, Compper (63. Papadopoulos), Halstenberg - Ilsanker, Demme - Kaiser, Sabitzer (57. Forsberg) - Timo Werner (81. Burke) - Poulsen

Borussia Mönchengladbach: Sommer - Strobl (24. Elvedi), A.Christensen, Vestergaard, Wendt - Kramer - I.Traoré (N.Schulz), F.Johnson - Stindl (90. Jantschke) - T.Hazard, Hahn

Goals:
06.) 1:0 - Timo Werner
84.) 1:1 - Fabian Johnson (assist by Lars Stindl)



FT - RB Leipzig 1:1 Borussia M'gladbach

Bundesliga Matchday 5 - 24 Sep 2016

Borussia M'gladbach vs FC Ingolstadt 04

Borussia Mönchengladbach: Sommer - Jantschke, A.Christensen, Elvedi - Kramer, Dahoud - Korb, Wendt (88. N.Schulz) - Stindl (83. Vestergaard) - F.Johnson, Hahn (55. T.Hazard)

FC Ingolstadt 04: Nyland - Levels, M.Matip, Tisserand, Suttner - P-Groß, Cohen (61. Roger) - Leckie, Mo.Hartmann (57. Hinterseer), Morales (77. Lex) - Lezcano

Goals:
42.) 1:0 - Lars Stindl
76.) 2:0 - Oscar Wendt (assist by Mo Dahoud)


FT - Borussia M'gladbach 2:0 FC Ingolstadt 04  

This was now the 10th Bundesliga home game in a row that Gladbach won.

Due to the bad results in this season's Hinrunde, Borussia Mönchengladbach replaced André Schubert by Dieter Hecking who got a contract till 2019.

Source: http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/startseite/667333/artikel_vertrag-bis-2019_hecking-uebernimmt-gladbach.html

Do you think he'll keep the same formation? Or will he change it up?

Hm. I have no idea. André Schubert's "problem" was that he tried out numerous formations even within one match and he seems to have confused the players by that. Maybe Dieter Hecking will try to keep to one formation instead, but I'm not 100% sure that 4-2-3-1 is the perfect solution even though Hecking used that quite often.

I guess by formation, I meant 3 at the back, which seems to be favoured for a while.

Gladbach played both 4 and 3 at the back, even within one match under André Schubert's direction. As for Dieter Hecking - I guess we shall see whether he will implement his old favourite system or whether he will experiment with three at the back, too.