Germans abroad: Weekend round-up
It was a weekend with a lot of rotation, especially for the teams that are playing in international competitions.
Premier League
Timo Werner
Southampton 0-6 Chelsea
•Great game
•2 goals
•Great runs
•90 minutes
The German striker took advantage of the change in the line-up from the week prior, playing against the Saints as a number 9.
Werner harmed Southampton’s defense over and over with his runs behind the line, chasing long passes and stretching the field, allowing his teammates to occupy spaces.
The high block presented by Hassenhuttl’s men suited the traits of the criticized forward perfectly.
Werner hit the post twice and was denied with an incredible save by Forster before scoring his first goal after taking advantage of a horrendous error from Ward-Prowse and dribbling past the keeper.
Havertz’s goal also came from an effort from Werner, who pressed Salisu and recovered the ball before hitting the post for a third time, with Havertz then shooting in the rebound.
Werner scored the fifth goal after Forster blocked Kante’s shot.
Kai Havertz
Southampton 0-6 Chelsea
•46 minutes
•Great individual plays
•Good work between the lines
Havertz continued his good form with his performance against Southampton. The ex-Leverkusen linked up great with the movements of Mount and Werner, occupying the half-spaces and rebounding well the passes from the defense and midfield to avoid the pressure from Southampton.
He also made some great individual plays and took advantage of Werner’s rebound to score his goal.
He was subbed off with the game 0-4 thinking about the clash against Real Madrid.
Antonio Rüdiger
Southampton 0-6 Chelsea
•90 minutes
•Comfortable game
•Still not his usual self
The desired center-back had a quite comfortable game, closing the spaces well and not allowing any of Southampton’s forwards to make a half-turn on his watch.
However, he was not accurately anticipating, it is not his main strength but he surely can do better; he has not looked completely focused or, at least, has not shown the dominance he had in the first half of the season.
He is going to have the chance to redeem himself from the UCL first leg this Tuesday.
Pascal Gross
Arsenal 1-2 Brighton
•Played as a sort of wing-back
•Important physical display
•High positioning
•Not an offensive threat
Groß showed his versatility, playing as a wing-back and being paired with Xhaka throughout the match, positioning high almost as a winger and pressing; when Xhaka came into the inner channels, Groß followed.
He also doubled his right centre-back against Martinelli. Groß made a good physical display and his defensive positioning was very good.
Attacking wise, the German came inside at times to help with the build-up. Although he was not a threat offensively, his positioning helped get spaces for his teammates.
He was booked for a hard tackle after being dribbled by.
When Arsenal changed the formation, he dove a bit to the inside, although he sometimes pressed the left centre-back.
Vitaly Janelt
Brentford 2-0 West Ham
•70 minutes
•Turning into a good box-to-box player
•Physical presence but could not be decisive
Played once more on the right side of that midfield trio and showed his box to box, pressing when possible either the opposite left-back or one of the midfielders, and running forward whenever he had the chance.
Janelt occupied well the offensive spaces, positioning himself high, in between the midfield and defensive lines and in the half-spaces, although he could not produce any good opportunities.
A lot was required from him defensively in his position, having to follow more agile midfielders in Fornals and Lanzini and marking Antonio on the set pieces.
Substituted with 2-0 on the scoreboard at the 69th minute.
La Liga
Marc-Andre Ter Stegen
Levante 2-3 Barcelona
•Saved a penalty
•Great saves in key moments
The keeper was crucial for his team’s victory, first denying Morales in a 1v1 when the game was still 0-0, and then saving the second of three penalties Levante had during the game.
That save allowed Barcelona to keep being in the game, as the goal would have meant a scoreboard of 2-0 for Levante.
He did not have any responsibilities in conceding the other two penalties.
Serie A
Diego Demme
Napoli 2-3 Fiorentina
•10 minutes
•Testimonial presence
The 30-year-old came in as a substitute for Lobotka at the 80th minute as Napoli tried to equal desperately the great game made by Fiorentina.
A hard blow for Napoli’s title hopes.
Nadiem Amiri
Genoa 1-4 Lazio
•82 minutes
•Played as an attacking midfielder
•Good game, Lazio's own goal was produced by him
Amiri tried his best to turn every Genoa attack into something productive; the midfielder played high almost as a second forward at times and tried to press Lazio.
His team was completely overrun by Lazio’s game, Amiri was able to shoot 5 times with two going on goal, but was not able to score.
He produced his team's only goal after a great individual play dribbling from the right side of the area to the inside, his shot was deflected by Patric and ended up in goal.
The lack of time Genoa had with the ball hindered the midfielder on loan from Leverkusen to display his best football.
Robin Gosens
Inter 2-0 Verona
•30 minutes
•Inzaghi slowly giving him minutes
•Entered as a left wide back
Gosens slowly starts to receive minutes after his recent fight with injuries. Inzaghi subbed in the German to play in his natural left wing-back position, taking advantage of Perisic’s versatility by playing him up front with Dzeko.
The ex-Atalanta player gave Inter a lot of width while being aware of his defensive positioning, closing spaces, and being solid in the 1v1.
Physically he is not there yet, but these 30 minutes were great for him to gain rhythm.
Koray Günter
Inter 2-0 Verona
•90 minutes
•Solid performance against a hard opponent
The center-back played in the middle of the three-man defense set by Verona.
Sure with the short passes, Günter had a fierce duel against a master of the art of playing with the back against the goal in Edin Dzeko.
The German followed the Bosnian forward whenever he dropped down a bit to rebound for the build-up and marked him well in the aerial duels.
Dzeko’s goal was a collective error from a corner kick, leaving alone Perisic that flicked the ball on to the Bosnian.
Ligue 1
Tilo Kehrer
Clermont 1-6 PSG
•Subbed in at the 80th minute
•Testimonial presence
Alexander Nübel
Monaco 2-1 Troyes
•Full match
•The only shot on goal was the 1-1 goal
The German keeper had a calm afternoon, only being challenged once with a cross. He could not do anything to stop the goal.
Kevin Volland
Monaco 2-1 Troyes
•Entered at the 57th minute
•Scored immediately after
•Returned from a cold
The forward showed how important is for Monaco and how good his pairing with Wissam Ben-Yedder is.
Volland did well to control the ball inside the penalty area from a cross, turned around, and shot a missile to score the definitive 2-1.
Ismail Jakobs
Monaco 2-1 Troyes
•Subbed in at the 78th minute for Caio Henrique
•Short but a solid appearance
•Monaco hold off the result
Caio Henrique keeps performing at a great level, and it seems like there is no doubt he is the starter. Jakobs has not been in the starting eleven in recent matches.
Karim Adeyemi
Klagenfurt 0-6 Salzburg
•Continued with his recovery
•Played 45 minutes
•Scored a penalty
The BVB target keeps adding minutes to his recovery, playing a half in a very one-sided match against a Klagenfurt side that played with 10 men since early in the first half.