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Brooks sent off as Wolfsburg eliminated from Europa League

John Brooks and Wolfsburg didn’t have a particularly good evening in their return to Europa League play.

Brooks started for the Bundesliga side at Shakhtar Donetsk in its second leg Round of 16 tie. However, Oliver Glasner’s side eventually were eliminated after losing 3-0 in the match and 5-1 on aggregate.

VAR ruled in favor of a Shakhtar red card in the 67th minute, dismissing Davit Khocholava for taking down Joao Victor as the last man on a breakaway. Brooks though saw his outing end in the 70th minute for taking down Junior Moraes with a boot to the chest for his second yellow card of the match.

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With both teams down a man, it was Shakhtar who made the most of their final opportunities. Moraes netted a pair of goals in the final minutes while Manor Solomon also chipped in a goal in between the Brazilian’s efforts.

For Brooks, it was a disappointing way to end his season with the club now given a short break before kicking off the 2020-21′ Bundesliga campaign in September. Wolfsburg will also start off qualification for next season’s Europa League after finishing seventh in the Bundesliga this past season.

Comments

  1. This was just awful defending from Brooks here. Considering his team just went a man up 3 mins prior and he is already on a yellow…..yikes

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    • It was a bad play but Wolfsburg has absolutely nothing going. Couldn’t keep the ball, only shots were 35 yard hit and hopes doubtful they could have evened the aggregate anyway. I can away really depressed with the number of USYT players that will be stuck in their system because they value years of experience over talent.

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    • He is so good when he’s on and such a head scratcher when he’s not. Throw in he’s going to miss a month every year for injury and I think they’d be happy to move him if the offer was right.

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      • I’ve said it twenty times that he is overrated, a guy who looks decent when he is zonally guarding air and distributing the ball in space, but a mess when contested, which defenders often are (and are generally hired to handle).
        I mean, this is an open green space play at midfield. High kicks are illegal, but beyond that why are you taking a wild one peg swing around the attacker in open space, already sitting on a card? He’s in decent position, he can’t take a card risk and tackle, so he needs to hold for help.
        And since he is always framed as “Bundesliga player,” this is a B.1 team getting eliminated by a Ukrainian team, underlining such things are relative.

    • The Uniformed voice strikes again, Shaktar that’s ranked 15th in the UEFA club rankings (Wolfsburg 41). 2016 Europa League Semifinalist, been in the EL knockouts 5 of the last 8 years and in the CL knockout rounds the other 3. Frankfurt were knocked out by a Swiss side, and Monchengladbach were beaten by a Turkish side and an Austrian side in not getting out of their group. It’s called the internet maybe do some research. It was a stupid 2nd yellow but John Brooks was far from the reason they lost. Shaktar who is in season was the far better side in the first leg and the first 65 minutes of the second.

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      • Isn’t it true that when a keeper looks bad, you look at the back line; when a back line looks bad, you look at the midfield; and when the midfield looks bad, you wonder whether the wingers and strikers are tracking back to help out, etc.?
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        Looking at Wolfsburg, I just don’t see anything much happening in the whole area between Brooks and Weghorst. And they’re an awfully long way apart.
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        So it might be understandable if Brooks was partly just frustrated. But that said, he seems to have a very short fuse and to be not completely aware of how important it is to his team (any team) for him to keep a level head and not try to do everything himself. When he gets drawn out of position, it tends to open up a gaping hole somewhere else.
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        Just in general, why are there so few good defenders out there all over Europe? Where’s the next Virgil van Dijk?
        .

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