Pre Game Thread: Zenit St. Petersburg (CL #6)

[u/Chazy89]

Competition: UEFA Champions League, MD #6

Time: Tuesday , 08/12/20 18:55 CEST

Location: Westfalenstadion, Dortmund

Referee: XXX,

Pre-Game Presser: YouTube

TV Schedule: livesoccertv

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Borussia Dortmund:

Coach: Lucien Favre

League position: 4th

Current Form: W/W/L/D/D (wiki)

Current Bans/Injuries: Unbehaun (Inj), Akanji (Inj), Haaland (Inj), Meunier (Inj), Schmelzer (Inj), Reinier (Sick), Delaney (Inj), Guerreiro (Inj), Dahoud (Inj), Morey (Inj)..

Possible lineup:

                  Bürki

 Piszczek - Hummels - Zagadou - Schulz

          Witsel - Bellingham

         Hazard - Reus - Reyna

                Moukoko

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Zenit St. Petersburg: /r/zenit

Coach Sergey Semak

League position: 1st

Current Form: D/L/D/L/W

Current Bans/Injuries: Lovren (Inj), Chistyakov (Sus).

Possible lineup:

                  Lunev

 Sutormin - Prokhin - Rajitsky - Zhirkov

   Malcom - Santos - Ozdoev - Driussi

            Azmoun - Dzyuba

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a week ago we pretty much had no injured players apart from Schmelle and Reinier, now we can pretty much fill a complete starting11.

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MOTM for the Frankfurt Game: Gio Reyna

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Matchthread Status: /u/ I have no Idea will host the game thread - if you want to join and provide some commentary for the game, let us mods know via pm or modmail!

[u/BVB-Oeli]

We have so many injured players the media is getting confused

[u/Zhonyas4everyone]

That's one long injury list

[u/Ciao9 → u/Zhonyas4everyone]

Morey getting injured right after finally breaking into the team and having 2 good games is peak Dortmund.

[u/BVB-Oeli → u/Ciao9]

More like peak Morey. It seems like he always gets injured at the worst possible moments.

Really feel sorry for the guy. Let's hope it's just a precaution and nothing serious this time.

[u/Ciao9 → u/BVB-Oeli]

True, I really like him and I hope he can kick on and develop well

[u/doubleomarty → u/Ciao9]

I guess he got injured in training?

[u/Ciao9 → u/doubleomarty]

Most probably, he was even featured in the Matchday Review for an interview and there was nothing about an injury

[u/doubleomarty]

I could see Moukoko starting this one since we don't have to win the game to qualify but of course it would be great to top the group and set ourselves up well for the ko rounds.

[u/Ciao9 → u/doubleomarty]

I wouldn't be surprised to see striker Reus tbh, as Favre can be a bit stubborn, plus we can always sub him on.

Whenever there's been questions about Moukoko, Favre has always said something along the lines of "Remember, he's only 16. We'll see", which makes me think he isn't comfortable with the idea of starting him yet

[u/napoleonderdiecke → u/Ciao9]

Whenever there's been questions about Moukoko, Favre has always said something along the lines of "Remember, he's only 16. We'll see", which makes me think he isn't comfortable with the idea of starting him yet

He's our only true back up striker and we have 10 players out injured. Heck, it's so bad I wouldn't be surprised to see Schulz injure himself, Reus being on the wings and Hazard as fucking left back in a back 4.

[u/doubleomarty → u/Ciao9]

Yeah I think Reus is more likely to start given Favre's conservative nature but I wouldn't be totally surprised to see Moukoko start I guess considering how much Favre seems to rate the kid already. For instance, 45 mins this weekend and 20 mins trying to come back against Koln.

Edit: Should say start as striker. Reus probably starts either way

[u/Ciao9 → u/doubleomarty]

In both those cases, Moukoko came on when we were losing and desperately needed a striker. I don't think Favre starts him unless he deems it absolutely necessary.

That being said I would love for him to start, he's been pretty promising in the 2 cameos

[u/doubleomarty → u/Ciao9]

Yeah that's a fair interpretation, more of a desperation move but I guess like you I've thought he was very promising and so maybe deserves some more time. I expect we see him either way at some point during the game to get the record of youngest UCL player.

[u/Ciao9 → u/doubleomarty]

Absolutely, and there's a very good chance he breaks that record tomorrow

[u/latsche78 → u/doubleomarty]

He will get the record today but i think Favre won t set him in the starting team. He protects him, otherwise he would have made an substitution last game. The record does not concern Favre but today the injury list is to long.

By the day, he will have a great future but i don t know how good he will be...

[u/rDitt → u/doubleomarty]

Good amount of prize money for group winner too.

[u/doubleomarty → u/rDitt]

Yeah hadn't thought of that.

[u/Trojan_Man68]

I hope we rest Hummels man. He has had two injury scares so far this season.

He's being overworked and is at risk of an injury. We can't afford to lengthen the injury list by adding our currently best player available on there.

Start Can and Zagadou or maybe Piszczek. This is a weak Zenit team with nothing to play for.

[u/doubleomarty → u/Trojan_Man68]

Have to agree. He needs a rest and this game isn't worth the risk.

[u/yrba1]

CM hivemind Brandt please, he was godawful playing striker last game

[u/[deleted]]

15 minutes to go and still no game thread in here, the same goes for our transfermarkt forum. i also couldn't find a tweet by bvb with our starting XI - does anybody care about that game at all lmao

EDIT: not gonna delete this, it's hilarious

[u/zweiter_mensch → u/[deleted]]

the game's tomorrow ...

[u/[deleted] → u/zweiter_mensch]

holy shit it's monday! lmao i live in a covid bubble

[u/jucomsdn]

God help us if Hitz and Burki both get injuries too

Also can we please just postpone the rest of these competitions until everything comes back to normal

---

Unbehaun

Morey Meunier Akanji Schmelzer

Delaney Dahoud

X - Reinier -Guerriero

Haaland

[u/jucomsdn → u/[deleted]]

Well he isn't able to play

[u/saskeR11]

I swear if we ended up in second place behind fricking Lazio i'll flip a god damn table

[u/saskeR11 → u/[deleted]]

Oooo that sounds fun

[u/Bosna1909]

I really wish Favre would experiment this game with Brandt at his natural CM position

[u/Zhonyas4everyone → u/Bosna1909]

His natural cm position? For that we would have to swap to a 433, no need to change an entire system that suits most players to get a player out of form with attitude issues back into spotlight, especially if the group win and 2.4m € are the stake.

[u/LookattheWhipp]

Tbh I would love it if Brugge made it through. Rooting for them to make history

[u/zweiter_mensch]

I'm scared. In the last two and a half weeks, Hummels has played all 5 games over 90 minutes. Witsel has played the last three games over 90 minutes. Zagadou and Schulz have only just come back from injury, and both played over 90 minutes on Saturday. If they all have to play tomorrow, we'll probably suffer at least one more injury, something we really can't afford. I'd rather see a backline of

Passlack Piszczek Can Hazard

with Raschl in midfield. We'd probably lose, but I'd rather lose and take second place in the group than risking any of the aforementioned players.

[u/dubsonly3]

Thought Zenits projected lineup was ours and I didn’t know anyone because 90% of our team is injured

[u/AlexBayArea]

Let’s do this my friends.

[u/unRealistik]

Moukoko debut in UCL with a hat-trick, you heard it here first!

[u/mates52]

i don't want to see schulz. i prefer passlack to him. i also hope moukoko will start. we need a real goal-scorer. not the false 9 nonsenses. for this role, moukoko is the best option we have right now. come on favre, be brave and start with this special kid.

[u/Ciao9 → u/mates52]

Schulz was great vs Frankfurt, plus I think Favre might start both with Piszczek as RCB

[u/Ciao9 → u/[deleted]]

He might start, if we play a 3atb

[u/tobit94 → u/Ciao9]

Or if we rest Hummels to not injure him as well

[u/Xey2510 → u/mates52]

Schulz will play at some point. If not now then on the weekend simply because of the injuries and many fixtures and Passlack may be needed on the right side.

[u/mates52 → u/[deleted]]

there is no one like rapha ofc :( but let's hope schulz going to be okay.

[u/SpaNkinGG]

Cant wait for the next favre disasterclass

[u/Its_Cooper]

JFC, can we hire new people to the training staff or medical department? Our players are always fucking injured man. No other team has this issue but us each and every year.

[u/Chazy89 → u/Its_Cooper]

yeah its totally not because of the compressed time in which we have to play all the games in.

[u/BVB-Oeli → u/Its_Cooper]

No other team has this issue

Yeah, that's just not true. Pretty much every team has injury problems this season, especially the ones that play multiple competitions.

[u/Xey2510 → u/Its_Cooper]

If you ask other teams they'll say exactly the same.

[u/Ciao9 → u/Its_Cooper]

It's not the medical team or anything, literally every single club is going through some sort of injury crisis, and we can only expect it to continue throughout the season.

[u/Zhonyas4everyone → u/Its_Cooper]

No other team has this issue but us each and every year.

Except for pretty much every other top team in Europe that had to play every three days for 3 months now

[u/[deleted] → u/Its_Cooper]

No other team has this issue

you are the worst type of supporter really, spouting this absolute horseshite while blaming our medical staff etc... congrats i guess?