Bundesliga 13/14

Balu

Der Fußballgott
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The fixtures for the new season were released today.

The new season starts with Bayern playing Gladbach at home on Friday, 9th of August. Dortmund start with an away game at Augsburg. The first cup round is the weekend before.

Hertha BSC Berlin is back in the league after being relegated in 2011/12 and the league winner of 66/67 Eintracht Braunschweig is back in Bundesliga 1 after almost three decades, they went down in 84/85.

Dortmund play Bayern at home on matchday 13 (September 23rd) and the biggest derby in Germany, Schalke - Dortmund, will be on matchday 10 (Oktober 26th).

The teams in the league this season:
Playing Champions League:
Bayern München
Borussia Dortmund
Bayer 04 Leverkusen
Champions League Play-offs:
Schalke 04
Europa League and EL Play-offs/Qualification:
SC Freiburg
Eintracht Frankfurt
VFB Stuttgart (as runner-up in the cup final vs Bayern)
The rest:
Hamburger SV
Borussia Möchengladbach
Hannover 96
1. FC Nürnberg
VFL Wolfsburg
Mainz 05
Werder Bremen
FC Augsburg
TSG Hoffenheim
Hertha BSC Berlin
Eintracht Braunschweig

The last game of the first half of the season will be played on December 22nd. The second half starts on January 24th 2014 and the last matchday will be on May 10th. The german cup final will be played on May 17th, one week before the CL final.
 
First 8 games for Bayern and Dortmund - I still believe that it'll be a close fight for the league title:
Bayern:
1. Gladbach (H)
2. Frankfurt (A)
3. Nürnberg (H)
4. Freiburg (A)
5. Hannover (H)
6. Schalke (A)
7. Wolfsburg (H)
8. Leverkusen (A)

Dortmund:
1. Augsburg (A)
2. Braunschweig (H)
3. Bremen (H)
4. Frankfurt (A)
5. Hamburg (H)
6. Nürnberg (A)
7. Freiburg (H)
8. Gladbach (A)

Dortmund with the easier start to the season (non of the top teams while Bayern have to play Schalke and Leverkusen away). If Pep needs a few games to get the team going and Dortmund start strong, it could get really interesting.
 
Player transfers in the league:

Bayern:
In: Mario Götze (Dortmund), Jan Kirchhoff (Mainz), Thiago Alcantara (Barca)
Out: Tymoshchuk (Zenit Saint Petersburg), Nils Petersen (Bremen), Gomez (Fiorentina), Emre Can (Leverkusen)

Dortmund:
In: Sokratis (Bremen), Aubameyang (St. Etienne), Mkhitaryan (Donezk)
Out: Bittencourt (Hannover), Santana (Schalke), Leitner (on loan to Stuttgart)

Leverkusen:
In: Son (Hamburg), Stafylidis (PAOK Thessaloniki), Robbie Kruse (Düsseldorf), Palop (Sevilla), Donati (Inter), Emre Can (Bayern)
Out: Schürrle (Chelsea), Carvajal (Real Madrid), Kadlec (Fenerbace), Friedrich, Schwaab (Stuttgart), Hosogai (Hertha BSC Berlin)

Schalke:
In: Clemens (Köln), Santana (Dortmund), Szalai (Mainz), Goretzka (Bochum)
Out: Moritz (Mainz), Marica, Affelay (back to Barca?), Raffael (Gladbach), Bastos

Gladbach:
In: Raffael (Kiev, but was on loan to Schalke), Max Kruse (Freiburg)
Out: Hanke, Cigerci (Wolfsburg), Ring (Helsinki)

I think those 5 clubs are the most interesting ones for next season, if anyone wants me to add the transfers of other clubs, I'll do it, just ask. Maybe I'll add all clubs over the next weeks, if I'm bored at work.
 
Balu said:
I still believe that it'll be a close fight for the league title.
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How come?

I guess Lewandowski might not be going anywhere judging by the latest comments, but even then all this may have a negative impact on his performances for Dortmund. Then you have Gotze making the switch to Bayern and the arrival of Pep as well.
 
Bayern will win the title again. Their squad is really that good that I can't see Dormund stopping them from doing it.

I expect Dormund to do better than last year though.
 
Theon said:
How come?

I guess Lewandowski might not be going anywhere judging by the latest comments, but even then all this may have a negative impact on his performances for Dortmund. Then you have Gotze making the switch to Bayern and the arrival of Pep as well.
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I think Dortmund have a significant better squad than all other teams in the league, especially if they keep Lewandowski. As annoying as the whole transfer drama about him is, I think he will be motivated and perform as good as this season. Dortmund lost their focus in the league last year, don't think that will happen again, so I can see the games between both teams deciding the league and these games will be as close as always.

The Götze signing might be more of a problem than we all believe right now, of course it's a brilliant signing long term, but for this season, maybe not. He's injured now, won't take part in the pre-season and no one knows how much Pep will change. He might make a few mistakes, misjudge the teams in the league, he's new to german football after all. It's unlikely Bayern will play a perfect season and Dortmund will play with incredible determination.

New signings for teams at the top aren't always working out great, just look at Barca. They were clearly the best team in europe in 10/11 and signed 2 of the best players in the world in Fabregas and Sanchez. I expect Bayern to win the league, but we won't walk the league like last season.
 
Obviously Bayern are not going to have a similar season again but a lot will depend on the summer signings Dortmund will make.

I can see Schalke doing well this season, they have a fine core of German talent and might add Bochum's Leon Goretzka, who is dubbed one of the biggest talents in Germany. Would like to see him link up with Draxler, Huntelaar et all.
 
@Balu

I think that the Dortmund team might be on a special point right now and I am not sure how they will compete this season. Their success in the recent years had a lot to do with team work and riding on a winning wave - and some of it was already breaking last year. Teams can get a lot closer with loosing - like Bayern showed the recent season - or they can break.

They already showed last season that they can still do it at the "bigger" moments - then everybody still can run for it - but that they had problems to motivate for the basic stuff. So you do not know if they can turn the wheel back.
 
I think it's far too early to tell. We don't even know (or have any idea) who they are going to sign (Eriksen does not seem to be a priority, de Bruyne seems to be out of reach for good now and Isco (not sure those reports are even true) will most likely go for Real or City). Piszczek's injury will probably also be a big factor. From the looks of it they'll replace him with Sokratis, who imo is a good squad player and a decent defender, but I cant't see him having nearly the same offensive impact as the Pole.

For Bayern it's somewhat the same. Trebles can affect motivation, new coaches are always a bit of a gamble. I have no doubt that they will be strong next season, but the question is how strong.
 
@Blackwidow You're way too negative about Dortmund, imo. They still had a pretty good season in the league and if they were actually competing for the title they wouldn't have lost their concentration that often and gave games away that easily. They weren't lazy, they were a bit tired after 2 successful seasons, the Euros and the excitement of CL football midweek. But the key players (Hummels, Gündogan, Reus, Bender) are still incredibly young and will get individually better and mentally stronger every year. The loss in the CL final against Bayern and 5 weeks vacation without football will make sure that they start this season mentally fresh with a lot of determination and the team needs less rebuilding compared to the previous two seasons because Götze was less important to the team than Sahin in 10/11 and Kagawa in 11/12.

I agree with do.ob that it's hard to tell how good they will be without knowing who will sign for Dortmund. But the first team will be really strong again and they will spend some money to strengthen the squad depth, even if they miss out on their main targets, so I'm quite sure they will finish with significantly more points in the league than last season.
 
Jaap said:
Obviously Bayern are not going to have a similar season again but a lot will depend on the summer signings Dortmund will make.

I can see Schalke doing well this season, they have a fine core of German talent and might add Bochum's Leon Goretzka, who is dubbed one of the biggest talents in Germany. Would like to see him link up with Draxler, Huntelaar et all.
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Schalke have a brilliant team, if they get Goretzka and Szalai. If they find the balance between youth and experience and most of the promising youngsters make the next step, they should be really exciting to watch. And signing Hermann as assistent coach was a really smart move.
 
I think it's too soon to say how Dortmund will do next season considering that they have made no new signings so far and only sold players. Atm it looks like they are getting non of their main transfer targets, neither KdB nor Eriksen look likely atm and since the price for Bernard has been raised there also seems to be no movement on that front either.

Schalke is always a mixed bag, they can go from really good to absolute shit within a couple of games and the squad hasn't improved enough for that to change, they will compete for the CL spots I'm sure but have no chance at the title.

Leverkusen has basically lost their entire defense and needs to rebuild at the back, which is never a good thing and will probably put them back severely over the first few months, so no shot at the title for them either.

It's still between Dortmund and Bayern but if Dortmund can't pull some surprisingly good transfers out of their hat soon the title will again be Bayerns to lose even if Pep reshapes the entire team into a Tiki-Taka passing machine.

A word on Goretzka, a lot of people expect too much from him and even if he joins Schalke he won't be a starter for them any time soon he did good in the second league but was by no means outstanding and will need at least one or two years before he is near a starting spot for a first league team imo.
 
Barcelona is stupid if they let Thiago go. And Guardiola said that he will not take players away from Barcelona. Actually he is not really needed in Munich...
 
Blackwidow said:
Barcelona is stupid if they let Thiago go. And Guardiola said that he will not take players away from Barcelona. Actually he is not really needed in Munich...
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Well it's not really like Barca has a say in if he stays or not, all they can do is offer him an improved contract and hope for the best otherwise he will just hand them the 18m and leave.

On top of that if Pep really plays 3 man in central midfield you will have barely anyone to rotate on the same level for Schweinsteiger and Kroos, Thiago would offer some much needed depth in that department.

But of course I was just messing around by saying it's for Thiago, just wanted to see if I can bait some transfer muppets into outrage or cause them to panic but it seems I was to obvious. :p
 
@NoLogo
I doubt that he will play like this as it leaves only 2 places for Robben, Müller, Ribery, Götze, Shaqiri.

I do not think that system comes before the players and there is something like team chemistry and mentality, too.Van Gaal played with a 4-3-3 at Ajax, a 4-4-2 at Alkmaar and a 4-2-3-1 at Bayern. So even if Guardiola played the 4-3-3 at Barca I do not think that he has to do that with Bayern.

I think Guardiola is a smart guy - and even if he might emphasize more on ball control and passing skills - he will not castrate the strengths Bayern showed this year. He might backroll again a little and we might see a little more van Gaal again. More studied in passing combinations, an emphasizing on movement without the ball as the most important ain't to be able to pass a ball but to have more passing options.

------------------

I have the feeling that there is not only Dortmund this year. Leverkusen was close to Dortmund last year, Schalke would have if they would not have had their lapses - and there will be surprises. Bayern will not have that big gap as it is difficult to keep the concentration in all of the small matches throughout the year.
 
What ever his plans are it will be interesting to see what Bayern's game will look like next season but I just know one thing, neither Schalke, nor Leverkusen will be a real threat to you next season and I even have my doubts about Dortmund if they don't get in some good players before the season starts because it usually takes players a while to adept to Dortmund's playing style.
 
@NoLogo

I just think that a lot might underestimate the smartness of Guardiola if they think he will try to implement a new Barca at Bayern. It starts with long balls. Bayern has a couple of players that are very good at playing them very precisely - or Neuer that often can throw or kick them very well - and they have e.g. Müller or Mandzukic as target men. I do not know how often goals were started like this. Robben, Ribery and others often lure near them to get the second balls or the results - or the opponent clears them into the out. Why should I not use this even if my name is Guardiola. He did not at Barca - but Barca did not have that kind of targets.

Barca often made short corners - it is stupid to do that at Bayern...
 
Just saw this picture on reddit.com/soccer. Mindblowing stuff!

(I chose to add the link instead of posting the actual picture, because it's so long.)
 
Looks like they finally start buying players at Dortmund. According to the media Aubameyang had medical yesterday and Zorc said today, he won't deny that he's coming, but there are a few details still missing, so he can't annouce it officially yet.

I don't follow the french league at all, I think I haven't seen him play ever. Anyone around who can give some insight on the player? His stats look impressive (19 goals, 14 assists).

Also Schalke finally signed Goretzka a few days ago, he's giving his first press conference for Schalke right now. Tremendous talent. Schalke's squad is full of quality young german players. If they keep it together for a few years, they really could build an amazing team.
 
Have to say I don't get the hype around Goretzka. Watched both the semi-final and final of the u17 Euros and thought Meyer looked more talented. Goretzka's strikingly mature for his age no doubt but I've read reports of these games that he "effortlessly dictated the play" and I don't remember that at all. Technically he looked a couple of classes below Meyer and probably even a class below Stendera (who wasn't even a starter in the beginning iirc). Obviously he's the one that made the matchwinning contributions in both crucial games but that was largely down to him having a physical advantage and Stendera being a set-piece expert. Not saying he won't go on to be a starter for Germany but I can't see him ever getting anywhere near Götze's level.
 
Aubameyang is a fantastic player, if he is Lewandowski's replacement then Dortmund might actually be better off. Aubameyang not only scores a bucket load of goals, but he's also a supplier. You have to put his stats in context of the club he's at, Etienne finished 5th in Ligue 1. He' put in just over 8 thousand minutes in the last 2 seasons combined.
 
Brwned said:
Have to say I don't get the hype around Goretzka. Watched both the semi-final and final of the u17 Euros and thought Meyer looked more talented. Goretzka's strikingly mature for his age no doubt but I've read reports of these games that he "effortlessly dictated the play" and I don't remember that at all. Technically he looked a couple of classes below Meyer and probably even a class below Stendera (who wasn't even a starter in the beginning iirc). Obviously he's the one that made the matchwinning contributions in both crucial games but that was largely down to him having a physical advantage and Stendera being a set-piece expert. Not saying he won't go on to be a starter for Germany but I can't see him ever getting anywhere near Götze's level.
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I agree with everything you wrote apart from the "don't understand the hype"-part. Goretzka is playing in central midfield, so I don't see the problem with him being less technically gifted. He won't compete with Götze or Meyer. Meyer is arguably even more talented than Götze. He's a former futsal player and there's a discussion starting in germany about the importance of futsal for the technical development of youth players because of him, because he's on such a high technical level already. Hopefully he'll get a lot of playing time in Schalke's first team this season.

Thanks RedSky. I think he'll be the long term replacement for Lewandowski, probably start out playing in different positions this season - depends on who Dortmund will sign as a replacement for Götze - and will take over the starting spot up front next year when Lewandowski is gone. €13m (+2m in bonus payments) looks like a great deal then.
 
Maybe we should not underestimate Schalke. I sometimes read in the Schalkeforum and they right now believe that maybe the transfer of Peter Hermann to Schalke might have been the best transfer that could be made - especially when you listen to what the players say or the ones that watch the training sessions. Peter Hermann was the assistant of Jupp Heynckes last year and he was the one that mostly lead the training sessions at Bayern. He is doing the same at Schalke now and it seems that speed and accuracy and intensity are now a level higher.
 
Still Schalke have their mentality problem. Their whole 50 years without a title story seems to create insane pressure around the club every time they come close to the top, which eventually catches up with them and Tönnies seems to even fueling that pressure with his statements.
Also it might be a bit too early for them. Draxler needs to make another step to become an international top player, Huntelaar has been somewhat inconsistent, Meyer and Goretzka might even need 2 or 3 seasons to become consistent top players.
Before Dortmund joined the competition I could see them sneak a title based on their squad but imo Dortmund are now probably around the level (compared to the rest of the league) that Bayern had 3 or so years ago and Bayern is even ahead of them.
 
Have to say I love coming in here and reading about the German League. I don't watch it much, but you lot always have good information. Looking forward to the new season!
 
Hermann is a brilliant assistant coach, I agree. But the team isn't good enough to challenge Dortmund, let alone Bayern over 34 games. Most of their exciting players are still talents and need to make the next step, Draxler as well. They should be exciting to watch and so far it looks like they really try to build a team for the future that maybe (a very big maybe) could challenge in 2 or 3 years. Bayern and Dortmund should be so far ahead that even Schalke fans won't start dreaming about the title this season. That could help the club to develop the team without creating that insane pressure do.ob is talking about.
 
At matchday 10 Schalke was 4 points ahead of Dortmund - on matchday 22 Schalke was 12 behind. In this 12 matches in which they changed coach etc. they lost 16 points on Dortmund. At the end of the year it was 10 points. They have been better before and after.

I do not think that Schalke will be better than Bayern this year as I think the Pep-effect will give them enough drive to not be slobby - but that they will be able to challenge Dortmund or Bayer if they are not having their best season.

Why should Dortmund be so far ahead in the league - they have not been last season. Right now I do not see how they improved the squad depth - even if they do another 2 or 3 buys they will not especially as it will take time until the new players are used to the Klopp system.
 
Really interested to see how Klopp plans his team and game this season, would further showcase his managerial acumen going forward. For Bayern anything is a stepdown from their current campaign but league is an absolute priority with CL a definite possibility again.
 
@Blackwidow
You underestimate Dortmund all the time. Dortmund lost/drew so many close games last season, it won't happen again. They gave games away they dominated and should have won easily. The team is more experienced now, they will find the balance between CL and league. And most importantly they won't loose twice against Schalke this season.

It was always going to happen that the team lost a bit of focus in domestic games after two incredibly successful league campaigns. Most of the players played a big summer tournament for the first time as well and were mentally drained at the beginning of the season. That's all different now and the team has individually way more quality than Schalke or Leverkusen and the better coaching staff as well.
 
Balu said:
@Blackwidow
You underestimate Dortmund all the time. Dortmund lost/drew so many close games last season, it won't happen again. They gave games away they dominated and should have won easily. The team is more experienced now, they will find the balance between CL and league. And most importantly they won't loose twice against Schalke this season.

It was always going to happen that the team lost a bit of focus in domestic games after two incredibly successful league campaigns. Most of the players played a big summer tournament for the first time as well and were mentally drained at the beginning of the season. That's all different now and the team has individually way more quality than Schalke or Leverkusen and the better coaching staff as well.
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@Balu

You say I underestimate them. I think I see that realistically. Let's see who is right. They want to dance on both tournaments again next year - and they just do not have the squad for it. They have positions in the squad that for sure would need improvement to get them on a top level - and the bench is pretty empty. Even if they get some new players in this transfer window you never know how good and fast they can get into the system - if you look back even a Gündogan who I think is a very fast learner needed a year. The Bundesliga next year will not get easier than this year - I just do not believe that so many teams again will have so much inconsistency. But you just cannot go both tournaments with full energy - and the style they play is one that needs that energy. I have not seen much matches which they dominated all the time - I have seen a lot matches in which they started full speed the first half of an hour and when the opponent was not fully destroyed they sometimes lost the match later on. And I do not think that they have the players to change that playstyle in a way that they are dominant in the league. Götze would have been one. Reus is a great player to play Dortmund's style especially when they play against ball possession teams or teams that want to have the ball - but apart from his setpieces he is not the player that really excels when your team has to make the match or works against parked busses. Maybe there have been some tight matches that they lost unlucky - but actually there have been a couple of matches in which they were very lucky.

And - as you already remarked last year - the other teams do not play so naive against Dortmund anymore as they did the previous year.

Dortmund lived a lot of their team spirit. Events like a lost CL final can create two reactions to teams - they can grow together or they can start to break. With the Lewandowski story, Götze's leave, offers some of the others had... I think somehow that the first is not as probable to happen than the second one. Maybe it is because I have not seen that big tears and the big love to each other in the minutes after the final. I really missed that. Some deep emotions that make you believe that with it grows something like a "now we will work even harder for it"-spirit - like the one I have seen at 1999s or last year's Bayern team. Hummels' interview in the GQ today made me think the same - that it was a pity, but that he was not really sad after this loss - nothing that kept him sad very long - that he would prefer to get out of a tournament in a semi final after 5 dramatic matches more than winning it after six 1:0s...

Like I said - I might be wrong - maybe I am too much a Bayern fan to see the grandeur of the BVB - maybe I am biased. But I watch football since more than 30 years...

But maybe it is something different - 3 years ago Dortmund won the Bundesliga Championship because of passion. Since then the passion somehow switched to propaganda...
 
Blackwidow said:
But maybe it is something different - 3 years ago Dortmund won the Bundesliga Championship because of passion. Since then the passion somehow switched to propaganda...
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It didn't switch to propaganda. The media circus around Dortmund just became that big that you can miss the determination the club and players are still showing. Hummels is by the way a bad example for Dortmund's team, imo. He's such a weird character. Gündogan said he hated to loose the CL final and he never wants to experience such a disappointment again. I think that's an honest statement and more representive of the team's character than the attention seeking "new Beckenbauer" Mats Hummels who wants to sound smart in a lifestyle magazine.
 
Aubameyang to Dortmund is official now.
 
I don't understand how you can say that their bench is empty.
GK: Langerak, CB: Sokratis, FB: Sokratis, Großkreutz, 6/8: Kehl, Sahin, AM: Aubameyang, Großkreutz Hofmann St: Aubameyang, Schieber
and they seem to be looking at a couple of talents for their midfield.

Schalke and Bayern aside they are miles ahead of any other Bundesliga team in terms of depth.
Sahin in form would probably walk into any other (Bundesliga) starting XI aside from Bayern.
Aubameyang was Ligue 1's top scorer after Ibra, it looked like third place Leverkusen wanted him as their marquee signing to replace Schürrle.
Santana was a great 3rd cb for years, but really lacked in the modern qualities of a CB, so Sokratis looks like an upgrade too.

If they manage to sign a good 10 and maybe another decent prospect for their midfield they will surely have widened the gap between them and the rest of the league in terms of squad strength.

Balu said:
It didn't switch to propaganda. The media circus around Dortmund just became that big that you can miss the determination the club and players are still showing. Hummels is by the way a bad example for Dortmund's team, imo. He's such a weird character. Gündogan said he hated to loose the CL final and he never wants to experience such a disappointment again. I think that's an honest statement and more representive of the team's character than the attention seeking "new Beckenbauer" Mats Hummels who wants to sound smart in a lifestyle magazine.
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I think propaganda is the wrong word in any case, because I don't think the media circus has much influence on the player's mindset. What might very well be true is that they lacked that burning desire from their previous two seasons in last year's Bundesliga, especially after it was clear that they wouldn't be able to touch Bayern that season.
But I don't think that's surprising after winning the whole thing twice in a row, breaking a couple of records in the process. I think the kind of humiliation that came with the 25point gap might very well rekindle their flame. However I too think that they might have a hard time managing their ressources. When they signed Sahin I expected Klopp to try to add a decent possession game to their repertoire. Not necessarily for international competitions, but rather for the Bundesliga, so they'd be able to keep control of the game without going full throttle. But now it seems like wants to emphasize the pressing and transition aspect of their game even more.

Also I agree with your opinion on Hummels. I would phrase it a bit nicer, but he really seems to be trying to play the smart guy in the media. Not that he's stupid or anything, but I would take some of the things he says with a grain of salt.
 
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