Bundesliga 13/14

As you said, it would take a bottling job of epic proportions for Bayern to not win the league this season. Your squad depth is arguably your most important asset. Bayern and Dortmund suffered many injuries to players at the start of the season. Difference being that Dortmund's squad is threadbare compared to Bayern's. One could argue that it was bad luck for Dortmund to have their entire back 4 injured, but Gundogan's injury has hit them hard too. AND, they're losing Lewa to Bayern next season.

The only thing that could make the title chase remotely competitive would be Bayern's 'arrogance' or complacency.
 
Good game coming up today between Mönchengladbach and Wolfsburg. Both teams have good form (undefeated the past 8 games) and a victory today puts either team above Dortmund on 3rd.

Kick off at 15:30 (14:30 GMT).
 
Schalke triggered Sidney Sam's release clause as it was already rumoured for quite a while. He'll move in the summer for €2.5m. Huge blow for Leverkusen, loosing their best player of the season so far to a rival for basically nothing. I'm glad that he stays in the league though, Schalke really wants to build a team with a strong German core, so he fits right in. And if Draxler leaves, they have a quality replacement (he has been clearly better than Draxler so far this season) already in the club and still 40m to spend.
 
Balu said:
Schalke triggered Sidney Sam's release clause as it was already rumoured for quite a while. He'll move in the summer for €2.5m. Huge blow for Leverkusen, loosing their best player of the season so far to a rival for basically nothing. I'm glad that he stays in the league though, Schalke really wants to build a team with a strong German core, so he fits right in. And if Draxler leaves, they have a quality replacement (he has been clearly better than Draxler so far this season) already in the club and still 40m to spend.
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That is an absolute bargain.
 
Balu said:
Schalke triggered Sidney Sam's release clause as it was already rumoured for quite a while. He'll move in the summer for €2.5m. Huge blow for Leverkusen, loosing their best player of the season so far to a rival for basically nothing. I'm glad that he stays in the league though, Schalke really wants to build a team with a strong German core, so he fits right in. And if Draxler leaves, they have a quality replacement (he has been clearly better than Draxler so far this season) already in the club and still 40m to spend.
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2.5 millions? Something is really wrong with them if they didn't offered him a new contract.
 
I'm sure they did, not much you could do if he didn't want to sign it.

It's all not that surprising, if you accept that clubs in the Bundesliga don't want to be dependent on selling players to finance their wage bill. It's very rarely happening, but it leads to lower wages offered to young players to extend their contracts, therefore more often than it should be, they leave for low release clauses or even on a free. You get some of those deals in your favour as well though.

If Draxler stays another year, very unlikely if Schalke don't finish in the top 4, not impossible if they do, they really have an exciting team, imo.

Huntelaar
Draxler Meyer Sam
Neustädter Boateng
Aogo Papadopoulos Höwedes xxx

with Farfan, Goretzka, Kirchhoff, Kolasinac on the bench. They need a significantly better rightback than Uchida and a quality goalkeeper, but that's so much talent and they have more amazing youth player coming through as well. There are also rumours about Holtby maybe coming back, who is shockingly misused in Tottenham, imo. And even if Draxler leaves for his release clause, that's a lot of money to strengthen the team further.
 
Balu said:
If Draxler stays another year, very unlikely if Schalke don't finish in the top 4, not impossible if they do, they really have an exciting team, imo.
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If they keep Keller, they possibly won't :D


sidenote: Rode on a free agent from Frankfurt to Munich. And Pizarro publically admitted to being heterosexual.
 
strongwalker said:
If they keep Keller, they possibly won't :D


sidenote: Rode on a free agent from Frankfurt to Munich. And Pizarro publically admitted to being heterosexual.
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:lol: Didn't read that.

Rode is just Kirchhoff 2.0. We need another central midfielder, so he's a good addition, but there's no way he'll ever become a starter, so most likely he'll leave after 12 months.
 
Well, if there wasn't any European football competition like, well, the Champions league and if football would be played with 5 players, not with 11, then he might have a point actually.

No idea about Jermaine Jones, never liked him, only read he wants to leave in January, which is good for Schalke, imo. I don't think I've heard any rumours about anyone in Germany being interested, so really not the slightest idea.
 
Balu, Schalke signed Giefer so they should be fine in that area.

Also, not too sure if we'll see Boateng as a defensive midfielder, but who knows.
 
I think he should play as a box 2 box midfielder, but what do I know :lol:. Pretty sure he'd be more suited to that role than to the false 9 role, Keller has him playing so often.

Totally missed, they signed Giefer. Good for them. His contract is up in the summer, right, so he signs on a free as well? That's good business by Schalke.
 
So, the Bundesliga resumes after the winter break in about 30 minutes with the game between Bayern Munich and Gladbach. Bayern Munich have completely dominated this season so far, but they are about to face one of the hardest challenges of the remaining season, playing the 2nd strongest home team, who have a undefeated record (8 wins, 1 draw) at their own pitch.

Appearantly Bayern will try to utilize Götze as a false nine in this game. Both Dortmund and the national team tried this in the past, but it never worked out properly. Let´s see if Guardiola can pull that off. I´m sceptical, because I don´t think that this position really favours him that much.
 
Weak bench for Bayern, Robben is the only one who can make a difference from subs.
 
Interesting line up by Bayern, no out and out striker and they play with Lahm as a 6 in midfield
 
1-0, brilliantly played for the goal. So easy if you have players running into space and can find a team mate in the box :(
 
I thought that was very poor defending. There were like 5 Gladbach players around Götze and a second Bayern player, yet Götze was in acres of space.
 
It's completely mental how young that team is and how mature they play. The 5 attacking players Götze, Shaqiri, Kroos, Thiago and Müller are less than 23 years old on average, Müller the oldest one with 24.
 
Balu said:
It's completely mental how young that team is and how mature they play. The 5 attacking players Götze, Shaqiri, Kroos, Thiago and Müller are less than 23 years old on average, Müller the oldest one with 24.
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Just keep rubbing it in. How about you also remind us how sensational your midfield is with probably the three best midfielders under 25 in one squad. :mad:
 
Balu said:
It's completely mental how young that team is and how mature they play. The 5 attacking players Götze, Shaqiri, Kroos, Thiago and Müller are less than 23 years old on average, Müller the oldest one with 24.
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:(

Gotze looks a ridiculous talent.

Same age as Neymar but plays more maturely.
 
NoLogo said:
Just keep rubbing it in. How about you also remind us how sensational your midfield is with probably the three best midfielders under 25 in one squad. :mad:
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Sorry :( .. Is there any thread where I'm allowed to be happy about it?
 
Is this Kramer from Gladbach good?

He's been impressive so far.
 
NoLogo said:
Noooooooo. :D

Just kidding man.

Be happy about it.

I know I would be if our team could only play half as well football as yours. :(
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Not that I would have cared and stopped mentioning it from time to time :lol:
 
KM said:
Is this Kramer from Gladbach good?

He's been impressive so far.
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The stats suggest he's having a very impressive season. Thought in that half he was probably their best player, although still had one or two moments like where he lost the ball just outside his own box. His entire team struggled so I dont think a couple of lapses are too concerning. On the positive side he won the ball back a couple of times (and averages the most in the team this season) and had a nice run forward at the end where he took his team up the pitch and waited for a good oppertunity to find a teammate. His pass was pretty good and allowed them their late chance with Arango

I doubt this will be going unnoticed by Moyes whether he came there to specifically watch him or not. He looks a good young central midfielder with defensive qualities as well as a bit of ability on the ball.
 
Kramer has indeed had a very impressive season so far. Joined Gladbach in the summer after playing for Bochum in the 2. Bundesliga the last two years and instantly became a regular starter. He rarely played for the German youth teams so I didn't really follow him until this season.


Ffs.. ter Stegen.
 
This Hermann guy looks awful tonight. And Xhaka is struggling to pass a football and gave away the penalty. I'd say its a wasted night if we're scouting any Borussia players other than Kramer or Kruse who have had their moments
 
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