Dominic Sanchez-Cabello
What a goal that was! That’s why we love this game! You see a goal like that and you want to trudge up to the park and kick a ball about… on your own if needed! Somehow the absurdities of a grown man bundling a ball about in a park desert you, when confronted with such artistry.
Arsenal – Dortmund: ‘the first real test for this untested Arsenal side’ is what a bad pundit would tell you. Consciously forgetting he had said the exact same thing about the Napoli game, the Marseille game, and the Spurs game. But then again a TV pundit doesn’t have to be consistent, especially if they played the game at the highest level.
We played Dortmund a couple of seasons ago. In Dortmund we drew, in London we won. You might remember Song’s mazy dribble or Robin’s goals. But what relevance do those results have with the games we are about to play?
Dortmund have clearly improved; Klopp has refined them, in startling time, from a team that finished bottom of a group to a team that nearly won the competition. Since we played them last: Lewandowski became a top class striker; Reus arrived from Gladbach and Gundogan developed into a highly rated centre mid. They lost Goetze, but replaced him with Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan.
But we have also improved. Our team is better than before; The Ramsey we used to watch barely resembles the player we now see and Gibbs has matured far beyond the brittle talent he was. We have a centre back pairing that compliments each other and a goalkeeper that doesn’t frighten us. We also have Mesut Ozil, Santi and most significantly, a resilience we didn’t always have – hard to quantify, but real enough.
Lately they’ve been suffering with an injury list to rival our own. Gundogan, Kehl, Schmelzer and Hoffman. With Reus, Bender and Sahin only returning this weekend (a rusty showing, which saw them beat Hannover by a single penalty).
Dortmund at their best are quite the team. They completely dismantled Madrid last season, with a vigour both attractive and scary.
As you may have sensed though, I’m confident. We are similar teams: both energetic and young, both comfortable counterattacking. We play the same formation, but have the superior midfield. In general that decides games in the modern era. That is why Barcelona were untouchable, why Bayern were able to dominate Man City away and why we schooled Napoli, who schooled Dortmund.
The team will probably look a little like this:
Wojciech
Sagna Per Koz Gibbs
Arteta Ramsey
Rosicky/Cazorla Ozil Wilshere
Giroud
Flamini is injured, which is never good news, but a personal consolation will be that if there were a way he wished to get injured, it would be by head-butting an opponent. Another consolation is that the Welsh Zidane plays in his favoured position. I’m not sure who will start on the right, is it wise to play Cazorla twice in quick succession? And with Rosicky developing into a big game specialist… it leaves quite a dilemma, but a pleasant one at that.
Have a good day, enjoy the game – should be a cracker…
Dom
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Recent posts
- How will Santi-Özil develop this season?
- Happy Birthday Arsène Wenger
- Picking the Arsenal team for Tuesday is simple…or is it?
- Why Arsenal don’t need to buy anyone at all
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- The Anniversary Files: January to June
- The Anniversary Files: July to September
- The Anniversary Files: October to December
The books…
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches
The sites from the same team…
- The Arsenal History Blog from the AISA Arsenal History Society
- Arsenal Managers
You forgot to mention how we were told that it was always difficult to play in Turkey given the fervent nature of their fans.
All the very best Folks. Let us ride on. No one is going to stop us.
Flamini got injured doing what he loves best lol.
My stomachs turning summersaults every time I think of the match. My god how much do I love Arsenal.
Not confident. But then as I’ve said before, the eternal pessimist.
I only stop pacing the room if we’re 3 up and moving in to injury time !!!
Just held my hand out and it’s shaking thinking of it.
Does that mean I’m a bit obsessed ?
Come on boys. Just for the boss on his birthday.
Almost agree on the lineup,
I think Wilshere will start on the right with Rosicky on the left, but they’ll swap throughout the game anyway. Rosicky turns on the ball well and Wilshere more direct, so…
Rosicky hasn’t quite reached his very best yet but he’s getting there. Tends to give the ball away a bit too much but part of that is down to the fact that he tries to move the ball on so quickly. He really does try to inject pace into everything he does.
When he gets it right I really think he gives us something extra.
I am as hopeful and excited as any Arsenal fan about tonight’s game.I have just heard a German’s view point on our game and Schalke’s on talkspots and he was very positive about Dortmund.
He pointed that Dortmund are a strong team on a winning streak so their confidence is high. This game is going to be a toughy but then we like it tough.
COYG
With all the hype now gathering momentum, the main thing at the Stadium is not to put the team under undue pressure should goals go missing for some time. Fans world-wide watching on TV can groan, moan and generally curse when things go wrong BUT those present in person at the game must only give support.
@jambug
I used to feel like you up to 2 seasons ago, then i saw the improvements the team was making every week, and it has made me really calm now while watching, because i know we have the strength and ability to play to the very end of the game, we are much more settled as a team, play with tactics now and are no longer a one-dimensional team.
In fact the only thing i think of now while watching is “do not make silly mistakes in passing or tackling”, as these are what gives the opposition a chance to score, all in all i am quite relaxed watching the games now.
Dortmund fired and became a great team last season and continues on, Arsenal fired at end of last season and have stepped up a notch this season, so bring them on.
@nicky This is new test for Arsenal: to perform under pressure of expectations as they are no longer underdogs. In my book they are leading EPL title contender this season. Anything short of EPL title would be an underachievement for this Arsenal team. Should they manage to get at least 4 points from Dortmund it would be a statement of intend in Europe and establish Arsenal as a genuine CL title contender.
Dominic
Just tell me what park you go to and I’ll meet you there and we can practice together that move Jack and Giroud pulled off. ( I too am unafraid to make myself look silly)
The best team goal I’ve seen in a long , long time.
Arsenal have been tested and each game presents a different set of challenges for players and managers alike. It’s a cliche , but you can only play and beat teams they put in front of you.
Dortmund present a unique challenge because they press high up the pitch in a compact formation , so there aren’t many empty areas to explore in a middle of the park.
They play aggressive style of defense and they can sustain it for most of the game.
They can transition quickly into offense and are unafraid to take people on.
Flamini is going to be a big miss tonight and it will be interesting to see if Arteta has the legs to cope with a high octane Dortmund style of play.
Walcott is another player I would’ve liked to see play agains Dortmund to stretch them defensively .
Player for player Arsenal are a better team , 2-1 the good guys .
Happy bday Arsen Wenger.
Actually, I am less worried about mistakes, now. The team’s ability to win back the ball and perform well under pressure means we can push forward, try the one touches that can open up a defence and then be confident that we can get the ball back without conceding. The ponderous possession for possession’s sake football seemed to come about because players were afraid to take the chances going forward because we were unstable in behind. This seems to be fading.
@Andrei,
Yes but when you play at home, you don’t want moans and groans by your own fans at mistakes which are bound to occur. Expectations are running so high at the moment, I fear for the fickle nature of SOME of my fellow supporters at the Ems.
well all i know is that the game will end in favour of arsenal
What an absolute con. No way did they deserve to win that.
That scumbag lewandowski shouldn’t have even been on the pitch
The “untested” Arsenal team finally fails the test. What to do? Roll out the guns; line them up, shoot them. I expect to see hot leads flying everywhere in blogshete and the press.
My view, I see tired players needing freshening up. We sorely missed Flamini and Walcott. There will be other days and other great games…
Looked completely overwhelmed in the first fifteen minutes then slowly imposed themselves. Dominated much of the second half at least possession-wise but it’s no good keeping the ball unless you do something with it, like put it in the net. We barely tested their keeper.
Dortmund came with a plan it seemed, soak up the pressure and then steal something when Arsenal make a mistake. They looked the real deal. They may have the best squad after Bayern Munich so we shouldn’t be too downhearted.
Game was ok, we played a little cautiously at first, but second half we could have made it, just did not happen, we missed Flamini really, and what does Ramsey think of his “mistake”? These are the type of mistakes i meant in above post, being too casual and losing the ball, but no problem we will beat them at Dortmund, Flamini is back then and Cazorla will have match fitness by then.
Our tactics were matched by Dortmund, who soaked up pressure in 2nd half as we did in first. Still things to be learned by the team.
Calmed down now and seen the replays. I don’t think the elbow was intentional but we should have at least come away with a point. Ah well onwards and upwards. COYG
Ramsey was out of the game, ozil through first half. Sagna wasnt ok since his last injury, and it showed today.
i think tiredness was the problem, they can rest some players and still win their league game, we cant due to strength of league, and injuries…..
Arteta was brilliant and best player followed by Giroud, then our CBs.
We didnt deserve the win, neither did they. It was a game of who took their chances and they did.
Now am gonna ask a referee question to WALTER, why do EPL refs give more injury time than FIFA refs?
We ll come back, we had an off day for most of our players, and our best, Ramsey was the most off, but we will beat them in their own home.
A disappointing result, but for much of the match we were more than the equal of Dortmund. I give the team a lot of credit for their efforts.
As expected, as soon as we get a bad result rupert the depressive sewer rat, who pretends he is an Arsenal supporter, decides to reappear.
We were too slow. Our pacey players could make a difference but we still lack a bit of steel. They looked excellent off the ball, always pressurizing us. I doubt we’ll win in Dortmund. And it’s pretty desperate when the only striker we’ve got coming on to save us is Bendtner. A world class one is needed.
Still this should fire us up for Palace away and then comes November when we play some really good teams and we’ll see what this team is made of.
Another note: why is it always in big games, the german section of fans games out sing our home fans, all the way through the game.
They didnt sit, we didnt stand, something is got to do to fix this out. I dont know but maybe the type of fans who go to big games, with higher ticket prices, are not the diehard ones who maybe most of them couldnt afford it since the transfer from highbury?
Am just asking for an answer and not criticizing
@Yassin, did they rest players? Why are we tired? Norwich is hardly an exhausting test. When Arsenal won the double in 71 they had to play a huge amount of games with a pretty small squad.
Koscielny was probably our best player. Ramsey had his worst game this season, why he didn’t just clear it instead of gifting Dortmund a goal I’ll never know.
Well played the lads and unlucky to lose. We were worth at least a draw. If the one that hit the bar had gone in we may well have done it, sometimes a few inches can make a big difference.
The pratt Adrian Chiles couldn’t resist bringing the word crisis into the post match bullshit on ITV. The experts were quick to point out that their keeper was not worked much but I didn’t hear them say the same about Szczesny who had little to do, especially the second half. Roy Keane was the most sensible and pragmatic, Dixon and Wright too negative for my taste.
@Rupert Cook
I notice your negative hat is back on your head.
@ Rupert,
I dont know if they did, but i believe they can due that EPL is much harder than Bundis liga, anyway, our player were tired and lost a lot of concentration, rosicky didny do a good past in the whole first half, ramsey was out of the game, sagna wasnt good at all, and am not talking about their mistakes in the 2 goals, that happens, but the way they played all around.
Epl teams are much harder to beat than normal bundisliga teams, so yes they can take a risk, but i dont know if they did.
Anyway it was an off day, now its how we bounce back, and this is where we the fans have to get in. We are lucky that next game is crystal palace so we can have better chance to come back, but still u dont know in EPL.
Today i believe we played a team whose problem was the passes behind their defence, and walcott could have been immense so could chamberlain, we werent good i say, but we werent bad. And they werent that good either, with iur weakness today we matched them, let them come back when we are back to our best. And this depends on the fans, show believe mates, we are the Arsenal. Back your players and manager, we need to do what we did against villa, we want championships.
I was looking forward to this game. To me, the 1st real test.
My sister has many German friends and she is a big admirer of Bayern. She was here today and when the game started she just looked at me surprisingly. She didn’t understand why Arsenal were allowing Dortmund so much possession and let them pressure in their half. Dortmund is team that pressures a lot, forcing the opponents into mistakes.
Well, it didn’t take too long for the error to come.
Dortmund weren’t at their best. Reus had a very poor game but do you know what they do better than Arsenal and most other teams? They know how to play without the ball.
Many people think Guardiola’s Barcelona were a joy to watch because of their technical passing game but that was only 50% of their game. Barcelona’s positioning and pressing was equal important. They didn’t allow opponents too much space and time on the ball.
This is one of the reasons I think Arsenal will never win a UCL under Wenger. In the UCL, the tactical side of the game matters a lot. More than in the League. Klopp has not so many years in the UCL as Wenger but today he won the tactical battle.
Napoli, under Benitez, at their place were far superior to Dortmund tactically. 2X1 was generous to the German team. It won’t be an easy task at San Paolo. Who will end up playing in Europa League dross?
@Yassin, I’m not sure they were tired, think the team really lacked pace. Also we need to pressure teams when we don’t have the ball. According to Walter he reckons Dortmund players ran 10km more than ours.
I expect us to beat Palace, they are dreadful and destined to be relegated. Three points is a must but nothing is writ in stone in football, remember Bradford and Blackburn?
@Mick, I say it as I see it. This team has loads of potential, I’d love to see it progress to the highest summit but I have my doubts; I’m hoping wins over Manu, Chelsea and Pool will assuage them. I’d take two wins and a draw out of those fixtures.
Actually, this is one of the few times we lost and I wasn’t gutted or didn’t feel so down. That performance, especially the second half, was mesmerising. I think if Ozil and Carzola stay fit then a lot of teams are going to be in a lot of trouble. Dortmund were struggling with our wing play, and had Carzolas shot gone in, and without that goal line clearance to Rosickys shot, we’d be talking about something else right now. These things happen in football, Dortmund rode their luck and scored from their solitary chance in the second half. Lots of positives for me to take from this game, lots.
By the way, three time in a row that Arsenal is beaten by a German team at home.
Sperez, just piss off back to justarsenal. No one cares about your anti arsenal rubbish
Omfg, sperez, Rupert, are out. I’m off to bed. Don’t wish to get depressed.
‘3 times’.
That was nothing anti arsenal. It was just what happened today. Dortmund is a team the plays better without the ball than Arsenal. FACT!
Same here Al.
We didn’t see him for weeks (sperez) and we lose the first game in two months and before the ref blows the final whistle he is already out there…
It must have been a long wait.
If you cannot enjoy it when we win and celebrate it at that moment, no need to come over here when we lose.
@Al, yes we had lots of possession but we hardly worried their keeper. When you consider how much time we spent in their half in the second half it’s not really good enough. Dortmund know how to play without the ball. They pressed us out of the game whenever we got into decent positions. We have to do the same. And remember we’re at home, Dortmund will expect us to come at them. Tactically they played a good game. Think we lack a world class striker, Giroud is a fine player but he is as good as linking up with a striker as being one himself.
Sperez really man, you are not welcomed here, say something good for once about our team man. Or just leave us alone, we are not in a good mood for ur negarive thoughts.
In sperez & rupert we seem to have two foul weather depressive AAA sewer rat trolls – both from the same nest?
@ rupert,
Disagree, Giroud was one of the best players today, our midfield werent at their best, that’s it, and we were 1-0 down so they closed the game, and they are the best at this. Now the best to do in dortmund is to score first, and then look how open they will be, their defence back line is so weak, its their midfield that is so strong. Anyway they are a good team, we just lacked something today that stopped us from playing our game, and i think that thing is Ramsey, he ll come back just release the pressure off him.
@Yassin, I don’t think I made it clear about Giroud. I thought he had a decent game too but I think he’s good at linking up as well as being a striker. I think if we’d had someone better than Bendtner on the bench Giroud could have supplied a vital assist. Of course we didn’t have a lot of time to draw level anyway.
Arsenal improved, Walter. No questions about that. The team is finally beating the mighty Sunderland, Fulham and Norwich when just last year the likes of Bradford and Blackburn humiliated the Gunners.
However, I was expecting this game. A real test. Klopp showed Wenger what to do with less money. Yes, glad it was against Dortmund. So that tiresome excuse cannot be used.
So, beaten at home 3 times in a row by German teams. Someone here said ‘flavour of the moment’ about the German teams not so long ago. Well, it seems this ‘flavour thing’ is taking too long now.
Yassin
The answer to your earlier post is two fold.
Firstly, German fans have a little different relationship with the clubs they support than their English counterparts. Bundesliga clubs go out of their way to make supporting their clubs as affordable as possible for the fans, and it’s a well known fact that fans with lesser means tend to be louder during games.
Secondly, relationship between players and fans is a two way street and the best way to get the fans fired up , is by starting games strongly .
Whether it was by design or not , Arsenal started both halves extremely slow and that’s not conducive to creating excitement in the stands.
Oh do be quiet, Dortmund didn’t outplay or out think Arsenal and the game could have easily gone the other way.
Hitting the post, having a clearance off the line or having a goal disallowed for a push that would not always be called (but perhaps should be) clearly could have ‘troubled the keeper’ on another day and could just have easily have won us the game.
We played alright against a good team but were a bit unlucky, nothing more.
sp*r*z,
Your comments start off quite ok, decently pointing at facts. It’s the interpretation you give to those facts that turn you into a wrecker. The quicker you’ll realize that and change your attitude, the better for everyone.
There was a noticeable difference between the Arsenal from Saturday and the Arsenal from today. Walter noticed a stat showing Dortmund outrun us by some 10km in the 75′. That can only be down to tiredness, and I’m sure Arsene will look into that. But we are a solid team, we turned the game around in the second half, and only the bad luck prevented us from scoring.
And last, if there is any positive, it’s good that this defeat came now, while there is still time to make fixes. Were it in the penultimate game, the situation could have looked even worse.
Since the loss away to Tottenham last season Wenger has changed the way Arsenal play. No longer is it the total posestion football that we were used to seeing, Arsenal now allow the opposition more of the ball. This stops teams like Norwich just sitting with two banks of four holding and denying Arsenal space around the penalty box. Against 95% of teams this works, but last night it showed one or two of its weaknesses. The first is against teams who pressurise well high up the pitch any mistake is punished not necessarily in goals but loss of possession and an inability to play a passing game. The second weakness is the squad needs to be flexable, being able to interchange at will to punish teams when Arsenal get the ball. Again against 95% of teams Arsenal would of won last night but our subs bench let us down (I think) the flexibility was not there. Having players like Flamini, Walcott & Podolski missing was a big loss to Arsenal. Cazorla was really the only player on the bench who could come on and play this way, Bendtner has shown that he can not play the way Wenger wants him too, Monreal & Jenkinson are great attacking fullbacks which is great but not what we needed last night. At 70mins we needed somebody to replace the hardworking Rosicky.
The last half hour BD were tired their pressure style of play was beginging to slow down they were not hunting in packs like they were in the first half. Arsenal can I think with a few players back from injury go to Germany and get something out of that game it’s not all doom & gloom there were many positives to take from last night, the combination of Ozil & Cazorla when he came on looked good, our CB pairing dominated BD and Girouds performance was world class his movement and holding up of the ball to bring other players in to the game was great. The only downside was again Sagna for the amount of possession he has down our right so little comes of it (yes I know we scored from the right). When we were pushing towards the end his crossing and decision making was poor. Also his recovery from attacking positions to defencive positions is poor again, against most teams Arsenal as a squad can cope with this but against teams like BD who are well organised you need players who have good decision making and are able to get up & down the line quickly.
Rupert,
I don’t think Dortmund will expect us to come at them in their stadium. After all we are all level on 6 points and in fact only a win will be good for either team.
I think they will try to come at us in their home game and if we could have a fast striker a la Walcott in the team we could kill them on the counter.
@Walter, agree. I’m sure Dortmund will be far more attacking in their home game which worries me a bit because I’m not sure Walcott will be back, I think he’s had a slight setback with his injury.
There is a slight difference in class, not a gap that can’t be bridged but our players need to press their players more. This has been a problem we’ve had for a few years and I’m sure if we could work harder at this we’d be winning trophies.
@Florian, not sure why the players should be tired. They’re professional footballers and train accordingly and should be able to recover from a game three days previously, and not a particularly strenuous game at that. I think a little complacency crept in towards the end because we had so much possession and they seemed like they wanted a draw. But a sleeping tiger is still a tiger and can pounce when least expected.
And sure we looked different from the Norwich game but did we run any more against them? We didn’t need to as Norwich are kittens not tigers.
Rupert,
I watched the game from about minute 20, after they scored, and my impression was of slowness in reaction. That could be tiredness or simply lack of sharpness because of a lack of focus. Both are difficult to understand, as the PL fixtures are not the most difficult – the schedule will get tougher in November, with Liverpool home, Borussia and United away in the space of 8 days. My money is on a draw with United away. But that’s off topic already.
I would disagree with “complacency towards the end”. We pushed increasingly harder as the game went on, it was them that wanted to settle the game, but after we retreated with the ball in an attempt to spread them over the field, we had another few waves of attacks during which we committed too many bodies forward, and that’s when they were presented with the opportunity to take the shot. Overall, their capacity of effort was superior to ours, and that’s where ultimately the difference was made. Actually, this kinda leads to a more pertinent explanation – it’s not that we focused on this game less, but they focused on it more.
@Yassin
Were you there? I ‘sit’ in the north bank lower and I can tell you we have not sat all season, and certainly not last night. We were signing and shouting all game but its hard to compete with the loudest fans in Europe! BVB fans were as good as their team, efficient and organized. Maybe next time come to the game and add your voice
@Florian, I think we agree here. My reference to complacency was more about the team perhaps thinking that Dortmund were happy to soak up our pressure and settle for a draw whilst we were pushing for a goal and perhaps not expecting Dortmund to suddenly break out like they did and score. That’s why we had too many bodies forward.
I don’t think we were outclassed or outplayed at all last night, there were periods in the game when BVB were on top, and periods when we were on top, this is to be expected when two very high quality teams play each other. Looking at the goals, the first for BVB came from a mistake, probably something which shouldn’t have happened but it does. Ours came from a great cross from Sagna which caused confusion in their defence, Giroud took advantage and scored. The deciding goal came from us being caught on the counter attack pressing for a winner, which is again, totally normal for a home team trying to get all three points. A disappointing result but not the end of the world, it could easily have gone our way when Cazorla hit the bar after a lovely team move. I’m confident in the return leg we’ll turn the tables and, with the pace of Theo back in the team will be able to play on the counter.
Take out the Ramsey error and i thought the defence looked solid throughout and BVB were forced to mainly shoot from distance.
Sperez, after weeks of excellent performances you finally comment after a defeat. You are the worst type of supporter and I have no doubt this is a reflection of your true personality. Disgrace of a person.
Look who’s back when we lose. Sperez you loser, you really need to get something meaningful in your life and appreciate the important things in life. Then you will see last night was not so bad, we actually did well and outplayed Dortmund for the majority of the game, sometimes, you get unlucky, you know, like the occasion when we are lucky to get the win.
Until the time you get something meaningful in your life, you will always be using football to blame / make up for your own personal failures.
@Stevie E
Agree, Arsenal gave as good as they got. There is very little to choose between the two teams.
As Jurgen Klopp stated before the match “I think these will be two close games and some of the small things will decide what will happen”.
Dortmund actually scored the winning goal at a period in the game when Arsenal were in the ascendancy. Dortmund’s high energy pressing game in the first 45 mins had clearly dropped during the second half and Arsenal’s more patient approach had gradually gained control of the match. And so the deciding goal, when it came, was something of a shock to the system it went Dortmund’s way.
After the match B Dortmund defender Neven Subotica sums it up well when he said “(The winning goal) was a huge relief”.
Finally, maybe Arsenal missed Theo walcott’s pace last night, to counter there pressing game and keep the Dortmund defenders back 10 or 20 yards deeper during the first half?
I think youre right Walter about needing a winger like Walcott who could slice through on the counter, I also think that we’re missing Poldi on the left,when he wants hes lethal, -Gibbs certainly looks like hes missing him, they combine really well.
There were moments last night where you could see the flow between Arteta, Cazorla and Özil evolving- beautiful to watch…at one point it will really become devistating!
Poor Rambo, I hope the mistakes dont get to him,and we certainly missed the hard (and seeemingly invisible whilst in play- but so far, much needed) work of Flamini.That guy for me is as impotant as Özil in many respects.
I personally felt that BVB took their chances few as they were, but the game could have easily gone our way and Dortmund know that and feel relieved. Im sure that in the next game we can get a win—its not like we were soundly beaten or robbed…
I also thought that BVB were better prepared for the playmaking of Özil and he was closed down and got fairly frustrated. So in the end we were just an inch or two from where we wanted to be, much to be positve about. Chins up!
COYG!!
Amen
It was disappointing but that is in the nature of things. They do become disappointing given enough time, unlike following a team which allows you to put disappointments behind you very quickly and look forward to the next game when you might, just might,see something remarkable. I choose to believe that last night will prove to be the making of this team for they are young enough (and ambitious enough)to want to learn from mistakes and to make themselves better. And the youngest member of the team in that respect is the manager, who still dares to dream, still believes in that orgastic future.