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Thank you party animal

07.06.2011, 19:09 Uhr von:  Redaktion

In the last century, when a defense player still wore a moustache and his football quality was limited to elegantly hammering the ball onto the mainstands, one could measure his effort according to only one criterion: How often did he strike me in a negative way?

I actually tried this for Neven Subotic and wrote down- free from the mind- in which situations he actually bothered me.

1. In Lemberg, of course. But this, on the one hand, concerned the whole defense, and on the other hand, the biggest mistakes were not his ones.

2. During the first half against FC Bayern. Even though he played against Mario Gomez most of the time, every now and then he was run over too easily.

3. At the most stupid own goal of the season. Pass Neven, goal Mats, or something like that. Actually, however, Neven couldn't have expected this, since Mats actually can't strike own goals....

4. In Mönchengladbach. Surely, against a Championsleague player you can actually lose a duel, but before the goal against us, one simply has to shoot the ball onto the stands and nowhere else.

Not on the list are the penalty kick in Mainz, which can be found as a foul from Subotic on Szalai in the statistics, where Neven, however, had played the ball, as well as the two bans, that he got throughout the season. Neither was the 5th yellow card in Wolfsburg eligible, nor the yellow/red card in Kaiserslautern (Because of this Neven Subotic was, by the way, the only Dortmund player, who had to miss out on a game because of a ban. Another proof for how our BVB has achieved the Championship title).

Well, the 80es have long passed, thank God, and a central defense player has to have more abilities nowadays than running and straddling, however, this stays the most important part of this job. And Neven Subotic is actually something like the prototype of a real and rough, but fair opposite player. Generally strong in the duels (62% of won duels are the best score within the Bundesliga and also a better score than his three fellow defense players could achieve), he operates equally well in the air as well as on the ground, he is in great shape, fast and always highly concentrated. Even though the collection from above is probably not complete and I have most likely been mild, when another player has taken care of one of Neven's mistakes, it basically confirms my last point. One can basically not think of any situation, where one could actually be angry because of Neven's carelessness.

And what about the other qualities of a modern central defense player? You wouldn't do Neven Subotic justice, if you compared him with Mats Hummels in that point. Mats was, especially because of his qualities in pushing forward, basically THE central defense player of the season, and therefore Neven can hardly achieve the same in this area. I can actually not remember any goals that were arranged through a long pass from his side, like Mats has done it so many times, but then again, the same goes for any other defense player in the Bundesliga and therefore doesn't mean that Neven has no skills in this area. Opening the game is another one of his great strenghts, which is basically a generell strength of every player of our Borussia- switching from defense to offense.

Still, there is one area, where there is actually some room for criticism on Neven Subotic. Let me say it with the charming words of Mats Hummels: "I actually think that Neven is better when it comes to headers in the offensive game, but unfortunately he rarely knows where the ball is going." Compared to the number of free and cornerkicks, we had gathered throughout the season, two goals by a header (once against Gladbach, the other in Sevilla) are actually not enough, but then again he fits into the whole team when it comes to using your chances. Still I would like to reactivate my old trick, screaming "goal Subotic!!!!" after cornerkicks, since I am still stunned about the fact, that a central defense player was actually able to score three times during his first four games. If Neven Subotic actually manages to go back to that, this could be a really exciting competition in the Bundesliga next year, when it comes to the best defense player of the season.

By the way "stunned": The stuff Neven Subotic has celebrated during the two weeks between "Nürnberg" and "Frankfurt" on Dortmund's streets, still puts a spontanious grin on my face. Already amazing as the victim of the famous Stiepermann straddle on the pitch of our Westfalenstadion, and then, only two hours later the "Give him!" in the Kreuzviertel, in the fanbus and also at the bus stop. Rightly so he nowadays is the only person with an exclusive right to park his car in the middle of the Lindemannstreet. And the way he and Kevin Großkreutz (holding each other) sang "getting home drunk late at night" in the Sportstudio only a couple of weeks later (even though Neven was reported to have an angina[LOL]), will never be forgotten. The fact that I was allowed to watch scenes like those on the day after the last game, with a terrible hangover, were actually the reason to go back to Dortmund in order to watch the Championship celebrations. For this and for everything else as well:

Thank you party animal!!!

Ps. We are, by the way, still waiting for those videos from the ride through the city, that you have promised the people on ARD, whilst standing on the wagon. The subscription of the youtube-channel from "Neven7" has to pay off after all!

Text Scherben, translation: Ida 07.06.2011


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