Bundesliga 13/14

Balu said:
Because when his football finally works, it will be even better (at least I hope that's the case ;) ). As long as 60minutes trying his stuff and 30minutes playing the old way is enough to win games, I'm fine with it. I doubt it will work all season, at one point "his 60minutes" need to work as well.
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His football has never been "better". Not even at Barcelona. The way you played last year was sheer beautiful. I've never been a fan of Tiki Taka and I think it's a mistake to try and get Bayern to play that way.
 
Godfather said:
His football has never been "better". Not even at Barcelona. The way you played last year was sheer beautiful. I've never been a fan of Tiki Taka and I think it's a mistake to try and get Bayern to play that way.
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I agree, but what can I do other than hope he'll prove us wrong.
 
And that is why I hate Robben. One of the biggest diver in world football, but at the same time with extreme quality. If he would be mediocre I could just ignore him. Beautiful goal.
 
Next sendoff. One of the Freiburg players is going out for flipping a bird at the referee :lol: . They will likely finish the game 9 vs. 10. This marks the 7th red card in five games today.
 
Today was really crazy with all those red cards. :lol:

Really bad start for Schalke so far only one point out of three games and if they fail to qualify for the CL I think Keller is likely to be the first manager who gets sacked this season, maybe not directly after that game but probably as soon as they have found a replacement.
 
amolbhatia100 said:
How was gotze today?
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Some nice play every now and then, obviously needs some more time to find his way into the team and to get to 100%. Thiago mostly invisible throughout the game, he may find it more difficult than Götze to find his spot.

Ribery amazing again. Robben better in second half with Müllers support and when Nürnbergs resistance tired.

Surprise so far is Boateng who actually looks more solid than Dante.

Some here compare the current style to the van Gaal times. This is true to some extent, but while vG actively *required* the players to hold position and pass, pass, pass, Pep wants a much more fluid movement without holding positions. Sometimes, as under vG, the players chose the safe pass back instead of doing something risky, but this is down to the team, the coach and his system not yet being a real unit. Under van Gaal, it *was* the gameplan.
 
I know that there are major differences to van Gaal's ideas. I only said it looks like back then, because more often than not we have possession for possession's sake and not for creating chances.

A few things are incredibly annoying, for example the way Guardiola tries to use our fullbacks. We play with inversed wingers who cut inside and interchange positions all the time, yet our fullbacks move inside as well and act like central midfielders instead of adding width. I have no clue how that could ever work.
 
To be quite honest compared to last season you guys look a bit boring but I don't know if it's due to the new playing style from Guardiola or due to the fact that the team still doesn't really get how they are supposed to play. Last season you played by far the best and most exciting football with only Dortmund coming close to that and that only on their best days but this season has been a bit dire from Bayern so far, but it's still early so that might very well change after a few more months.
 
NoLogo said:
To be quite honest compared to last season you guys look a bit boring but I don't know if it's due to the new playing style from Guardiola or due to the fact that the team still doesn't really get how they are supposed to play. Last season you played by far the best and most exciting football with only Dortmund coming close to that and that only on their best days but this season has been a bit dire from Bayern so far, but it's still early so that might very well change after a few more months.
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Probably both, but I doubt we could repeat last season anyway, so being less exciting than in a once in a lifetime year isn't really a problem.
 
And the first manager to be fired this season is ... Bruno Labbadia. Stuttgart lost the first 3 games in the league and the first leg in the EL playoffs at Rijeka. Yesterday's loss at Augsburg means that Stuttgart probably will again have to fight against relegation and will therefore most likely again massively underachieve in the league. He probably would have already been gone after last season, if his team didn't make it to the cup final and qualified for the EL even though they lost to Bayern.

I really don't understand why former Bayern players still get jobs as managers in the league. Can't think of anyone who played for Bayern and became a great coach for decades (with Beckenbauer the only exception and he wasn't really a coach and probably really can turn shit into gold if someone convinced him to touch it). Bayern tried it twice with Lerby and Klinsmann and both were absolute disasters.

And some more news at Bayern, looks like Martinez is injured and might need surgery as well. If true our incredible squad depth in midfield really isn't that impressive anymore after Tymoshchuk left, we sold Emre Can and Gustavo and Thiago and Martinez are out with injuries for months.
 
Balu said:
And some more news at Bayern, looks like Martinez is injured and might need surgery as well. If true our incredible squad depth in midfield really isn't that impressive anymore after Tymoshchuk left, we sold Emre Can and Gustavo and Thiago and Martinez are out with injuries for months.
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:lol:

It's strange really. United have been well-stocked in defence for a few seasons, yet the inevitable injury crisis that we have faced has mostly been in that area. Bayern, for all their midfield riches, face the same. At least you have Kroos and Schweinsteiger to call upon. We had to resort to playing Carrick at CB, simultaneously weakening our midfield as well as defence in one go.
 
Balu said:
And the first manager to be fired this season is ... Bruno Labbadia. Stuttgart lost the first 3 games in the league and the first leg in the EL playoffs at Rijeka. Yesterday's loss at Augsburg means that Stuttgart probably will again have to fight against relegation and will therefore most likely again massively underachieve in the league. He probably would have already been gone after last season, if his team didn't make it to the cup final and qualified for the EL even though they lost to Bayern.
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Yes! I got him as my second choice as the first one to go this season in my betting group with my team mates, just behind Torsten "I´m a bit like Jürgen Klopp" Fink. Never really rated Labbadia. Truly an average coach.

I really don't understand why former Bayern players still get jobs as managers in the league. Can't think of anyone who played for Bayern and became a great coach for decades (with Beckenbauer the only exception and he wasn't really a coach and probably really can turn shit into gold if someone convinced him to touch it). Bayern tried it twice with Lerby and Klinsmann and both were absolute disasters.
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I don´t think that this only applies to Bayern. Most of former high profile players failed to make the cut as coaches. If I had to name one person, who I could see making it, it would be Stefan Effenberg. He is one of the few experts in German television that I truly rate and seems to have deeper knowledge about the game. He is currently linked with Schalke as successor of Keller, who is on his way out.

And some more news at Bayern, looks like Martinez is injured and might need surgery as well. If true our incredible squad depth in midfield really isn't that impressive anymore after Tymoshchuk left, we sold Emre Can and Gustavo and Thiago and Martinez are out with injuries for months.
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Thats brutal, but now imagine having injuries of two such classy players without having the depth like Bayern. Now, that would be scary.
 
So Labbadia is gone and Keller will probably be next if he doesn't manage to turn their fortune around soon and it's not looking good with a number of key players either injured or having serve a ban for at least the next Bundesliga game. Maybe this fact will save his ass for now since it's not really his fault that there are so many injured players in the squad right now. It's really amazing but everything imaginable that can go wrong goes wrong for Schalke atm if they miss out on the CL this season it will also throw them back financially.

Leverkusen on the other hand is already in great form I have to say Sami Hyypiä really does a great job with that team and is able to take off where they left last season on a good run despite having to replace a fair amount of players.

Same goes for Dortmund, they really look hungry after that last season without a title and have performed quite well even against very defensive opponents that they struggled quite a lot against last season.

I think Bayern, Dortmund and Leverkusen are really the three teams that will compete for the Bundesliga title this season but I guess Dortmund and Bayern will probably be the two teams it will be decided between this season Leverkusen has always chance... grabbing the second place. :D
 
No one should expect Schalke to get a point from the next two league games. If the team performs in the CL playoff game and they qualify, Keller should get the chance to turn it around after the games against Leverkusen and Bayern. If he gets a point or more from those 2 games, great. If not, the 4th spot is still possible. At least, that's my opinion. It doesn't make sense for them to fire Keller after starting to rebuild the team and buying mostly young talents. They really should try to reduce the wage bill and then it's not a big problem, if they miss out on CL football this season. But it's Schalke and Draxler is already talking like he's some brilliant established world class player who's responsible for carrying the team to titles and therefore thinks he has to talk about the need to buy great players, when he hasn't done anything in his career yet apart from a few brilliant games. I like their team and they have a brilliant future, but I'm sure they'll feck it up as usual.

And there's no way Leverkusen will compete for the title. They look great so far and probably will finish comfortably 3rd but that's really all they can achieve, imo.

I really hope Fink stays at Hamburg for a while, would love to see them go down in their 50th league season. They became such an incredible annoying club.
 
Hamburg is really amazing. Seldom have I witnessed a club where so many idiots are "at work". It's a complete lunatic asylum.

Concerning Schalke. Of course fourth is always possible for them it's still a long season and nothing is lost yet but there is something just not right with this team. I also think they should get through the season with Keller simply because getting a really good replacement now will be difficult. Non the less do I feel that if they want to really become the third force in Germany they need a better coach then Keller. Tuchel would imo be the best candidate for that job but I'm not sure if he wants to leave Mainz for Schalke next summer.
 
Godfather said:
Van der Vaart alone manages to make me dislike Hamburg.
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But there's so much more to dislike at that club, van der Vaart is a good start, but you miss the good parts if you stop there.

NoLogo said:
Tuchel would imo be the best candidate for that job but I'm not sure if he wants to leave Mainz for Schalke next summer.
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Tuchel's next step could be really important for the league, I wouldn't be surprised if he turns one of the big underachievers into a consistent top club like Klopp did with Dortmund. But he said several times that he won't leave Mainz before his contract is up, which is in 2015, so I doubt he'll join Schalke before that. Until then a lot can happen.
 
Balu said:
No one should expect Schalke to get a point from the next two league games. If the team performs in the CL playoff game and they qualify, Keller should get the chance to turn it around after the games against Leverkusen and Bayern. If he gets a point or more from those 2 games, great. If not, the 4th spot is still possible. At least, that's my opinion. It doesn't make sense for them to fire Keller after starting to rebuild the team and buying mostly young talents. They really should try to reduce the wage bill and then it's not a big problem, if they miss out on CL football this season. But it's Schalke and Draxler is already talking like he's some brilliant established world class player who's responsible for carrying the team to titles and therefore thinks he has to talk about the need to buy great players, when he hasn't done anything in his career yet apart from a few brilliant games. I like their team and they have a brilliant future, but I'm sure they'll feck it up as usual.
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Yeah, Schalke is a strange club. Their fruitless efforts to finally claim the league title is haunting them. There is never any calm in the club. As soon as something goes wrong for a short time they change (although I also don´t see Keller as the right choice either). In the last decade they had 14(!) coaches (some like Rangnick or Stevens were there more than once). How do you want to build something there under these conditions? Given their current extremely young but talented squad, they actually have the right man in their own club: Germany´s best youth coach Norbert Elgert, but even he would probably never given the time to really come effective there, because there is no patience among the officials and the fanbase. Instead they spout nonsense at the beginning of the season like seriously challenging for the title or being on the same level as Dortmund.


And there's no way Leverkusen will compete for the title. They look great so far and probably will finish comfortably 3rd but that's really all they can achieve, imo.
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I do personally think that Leverkusen is a bit underrated in Germany, but we don´t need to kid ourselves. This season is going to become a two horse race once again. Dortmund and Bayern are simply too far ahead in terms of squad strength and finances for a third team to really become a challenger.

Both favourites had good starts result wise. They did not play breath taking football, but this was to be expected. In difference to the Übersquad of Bayern, Dortmund´s start was not dead certain, because they used to start seasons slowly under Klopp. This is infact the best start they ever had under him. Their start looked easy on paper, but infact Dortmund always had more trouble vs. smaller very defensive sides and won their titles in the big games. They have two of the most extreme (Braunschweig, Augsburg) out of the way. Aubameyang and Sokratis look like true upgrades and Mkhitaryan will also become crucial the more game time he gets. The most pleasant surprise for me was Nuri Sahin so far, who looks more and more like the player he used to be. This also lessens their dependency on Gündogan, which weakened them in the last season.


I really hope Fink stays at Hamburg for a while, would love to see them go down in their 50th league season. They became such an incredible annoying club.
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Nah, if Hamburg goes down, I lose my most favourite laughing stock in the league. I probably have never seen so much delusion packed into one club. The sweetest point for me will probably always be, that they could have gotten Klopp in 2008 but declined in the end, because according to them Klopp was not the right man for a big city club like Hamburg. What a brilliant decision this turned out. But thats Hamburg. So much potential and so much incompentence.
 
Sphaero said:
I don´t think that this only applies to Bayern. Most of former high profile players failed to make the cut as coaches. If I had to name one person, who I could see making it, it would be Stefan Effenberg. He is one of the few experts in German television that I truly rate and seems to have deeper knowledge about the game. He is currently linked with Schalke as successor of Keller, who is on his way out.
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Effenberg - no. I do not think he really is coaching material. He is too selfcentered for it - a to big Ego. And he thought himself already too big to start with a smaller team like Bayern's U23. I just do not think it will work.
 
Is gundohan injured? Didn't play the other day. And I agree that sahin looks very good.
 
Bayern is playing in 25 minutes in Freiburg. The game is part of next weekend's matchday but is played early because of the UEFA Supercup against Chelsea on Friday.

Starting line-ups:
Freiburg:
Baumann - Sorg, Diagne, Ginter, Günter - Schuster, Fernandes - Schmid, Laprevotte - Guede, Freis

Bayern:
Neuer - Rafinha, Dante, van Buyten, Contento - Schweinsteiger - Müller, Kroos, Shaqiri, Götze - Pizarro

Guardiola is rotating a lot, especially in defense with 3 new players, only Dante remains in the team. Pizarro gets his first start in the league as a striker. I'm a bit worried that Schweinsteiger is playing too many games and was hoping that maybe Kirchhoff would start instead of him. With Thiago and Martinez out with injuries, he has to play a lot but he's still not 100% fit himself.
 
70% possession to Bayern. He really does love the possession does Guardiola. 0-1 to Bayern at HT, Shaqiri with the goal.
 
Oh oh, this does not look too good for Schweinsteiger. Was subbed off just now. An injury for him would mean a desaster for Bayern and reduce their mega midfield to something pretty ordinary.
 
RedSky At Night said:
Hows Kerk getting on? Came on at the 60th minute... playing well?
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Had a good heading chance iirc.


Gündogan is supposedly out for another four weeks at least. Luckily Sahin seems to be back in shape again and thus the offensive CM is probably their best position both in terms of first team and depth.



Freiburg with the equalizer 5 minutes before full time!!!
Nice goal and Freiburg is the kind of team you just have to like, but Bayern really should've had this game in the bag ages ago.
 
Bayern with the first feck up of the season. 1-1 away at Freiburg, who equalized with 4 minutes to go. It really seemed like a Football manager simulated game - Bayern had many opportunities to double their lead but missed them all with some arrogant finishing and, of course, credit to Baumann for his saves. Freiburg hit the post before scoring in the 86th minute. Great cross from the right and I think the substitute Hoffler scored for the hosts.

You gotta say though, Guardiola is at fault here with his constant rotations. He left Ribery and Robben out and Bayern didn't win.
 
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