Bundesliga review part 2. the new one :)

[supercrystal7]

The Bundesliga teams have done well, but Schalke let them down. Di Mateo is really making me look foolish, but I still think we will see what he can do after the January break. Qualifying from the group is going to be very tough. They probably have to go and beat Maribor away, which as today shows won't be easy. Touch and go with them.

Bayern were impressive today, especially considering the players they were resting. Rafinha still not good enough. Ironically considering how people say the Bundesliga is so weak, but apart from Madrid; a fully fit Dortmund are probably the biggest threat to Bayern.

Schalke always seems to win the matches you think they will not - and they loose the matches which you think they should easily manage. Somehow I have a sympathy for them (do not tell my brother who is a big Schalke fan who drives through Germany or Europe to watch a lot of their matches) that I do not have for Dortmund or Leverkusen.

Alaba picked up a medial collateral ligament injury - more they know tomorrow morning - and will be out for the rest of 2014.

Shame to see Alaba injured. I wonder if Pep will revert to a 4-2-3-1 with Schweinsteiger coming back.

Martin Samuel a journalist here was making stupid arguments about the Bundesliga. Even claiming that Bayern would not win the Premiership, because they lost 1 game against Chelsea,which they should have won in 2012.

 

[Maldeika]

The Bundesliga teams have done well, but Schalke let them down. Di Mateo is really making me look foolish, but I still think we will see what he can do after the January break. Qualifying from the group is going to be very tough. They probably have to go and beat Maribor away, which as today shows won't be easy. Touch and go with them.

Bayern were impressive today, especially considering the players they were resting. Rafinha still not good enough. Ironically considering how people say the Bundesliga is so weak, but apart from Madrid; a fully fit Dortmund are probably the biggest threat to Bayern.

Schalke always seems to win the matches you think they will not - and they loose the matches which you think they should easily manage. Somehow I have a sympathy for them (do not tell my brother who is a big Schalke fan who drives through Germany or Europe to watch a lot of their matches) that I do not have for Dortmund or Leverkusen.

Alaba picked up a medial collateral ligament injury - more they know tomorrow morning - and will be out for the rest of 2014.

Shame to see Alaba injured. I wonder if Pep will revert to a 4-2-3-1 with Schweinsteiger coming back.

Martin Samuel a journalist here was making stupid arguments about the Bundesliga. Even claiming that Bayern would not win the Premiership, because they lost 1 game against Chelsea,which they should have won in 2012.

Yes, he blames Bayern for Dortmund failures. Funny. I guess if you are a fan of a club that has done so much right in the recent years to get success you just get used to things like that. Actually you cannot even make things right. And if you looses it even gets worse. Being good and being blamed for that is probably better than being bad and being blamed...

Especially when it comes to that Götze or Lewandowski buys. Bayern would have been damn stupid if they would not have been in the race for them.

I doubt that he has watched many matches of the Bundesliga or even knows enough of the league or clubs to make a judgement. He might look at the UEFA cooefficents. Honigstein had an article on ESPN today about the performances of the EPL clubs in Europe the recent seasons - it is not just City. Being good in the EPL just does not mean anymore that you have the things to be good in Europe - it was like this 5 years ago.

http://www.espnfc.us/german-bundesl...league-in-danger-of-falling-behind-bundesliga

 

[supercrystal7]

Dortmund killed themselves with stupid decisions. They still have a small chance of saving themselves if they win the CL. Then Reus will probably stay as will the other players. They can get rid of a lot f the rubbish they have bought in recent years and spend the money on world class replacements. Unlikely, but still possible.


Even without looking at the Premier League teams in Europe the decline has been fairly obvious just watching the games. From about 2004-2009 the Premier League was the strongest in the world. We had a lot of the best managers in the world like Ferguson, Hiddink, Mourinho, Benitez and Wenger. Perhaps more importantly we had a fantastic crop of English players at their peaks during that period. The foundation for most top leagues is usually the quality of players they produce. At the time England could boast players like Scholes, Beckham (abroad), Lampard, Gerrard, Terry Ferdinand, Campbell, Rooney, Ashley Cole, Hargreaves and Woodgate. Behind them we had other very good players like Bridge, Carrick, Brown, King, Carragher, Joe Cole etc. There was quality to go around and homegrown players tend to stay in England. At the moment we only have Rooney as a world class player and maybe only Walcott in the level below that. Consequently we have struggled in the CL for some time and Chelsea doing a Greece does not change that.

At the same time the Bundesliga has been producing so many quality players that there is an abundance to go around. Some of the smaller teams have good managers, but since there are so many good players being produced teams can get a hold of them easily.

Bayern really can only be matched by Madrid and even then I think Bayern are strong favourites unless thye have a lot of injuries or Pep goes crazy again. Apart from that Dortmund are the only team that can challenge them, which says a lot. Bayern would clearly win every league, because the depth and quality of their squad is unmatched by even Madrid, though the latter might beat them in a one off game.

That being said the Bundesliga needs to keep producing wonder players for it's current quality to continue. The other clubs like Dortmund, Schalke, Hamburg and Wolfsburg need to take advantage of this time and make the right steps.

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

Schalke always seems to win the matches you think they will not - and they loose the matches which you think they should easily manage. Somehow I have a sympathy for them (do not tell my brother who is a big Schalke fan who drives through Germany or Europe to watch a lot of their matches) that I do not have for Dortmund or Leverkusen.

I’m fairly new to this website, but I’ve been a City season ticket holder since 1979 and watch a lot of Bundesliga games.
It started off as a hobby when City weren’t in Europe, but I’m trying to watch a game at every Bundesliga venue. It always fascinate me that most German football fans compare us with the plastic clubs such as Leverkusen, Wolfsburg, and Hoffenheim. when in reality, City probably have more in common with the well supported, but yoyo Fortuna Dusseldorf

Last season I saw:

Bayern 3 Monchengladbach 1
Hamburg 1 Hoffenheim 5
St Pauli 0 Sandhausen 0
Fortuna Dusseldorf 1 Paderborn 6
Leverkusen 2 Augsburg 1
Monchengladbach 4 Frankfurt 1
Union Berlin 0 Karlsruher 0
Hertha 3 Werder Bremen 2
Hanover 3 Nurnberg 3 (Nurnberg leading 3-0 at half-time.
Dortmund 2 Augsburg 2
Hamburg 0 Shalke 3
Shalke 0 Mainz 0
Stuttgart 1 Hertha 2
Frankfurt 0 Werder Bremen 0

This season I’ve seen.
St Pauli 1 Ingolstadt 1
Bochum 1 Darmstadt 1 (Bochum equalized with the last kick of the game)
Mainz 2 Augsburg 1

I’ve done a few more grounds in previous seasons so I’ve only got Cologne, Freiburg, Paderborn, Hoffenheim and Augsburg to go in the Bundesliga.


Alaba picked up a medial collateral ligament injury - more they know tomorrow morning - and will be out for the rest of 2014.

Shame to see Alaba injured. I wonder if Pep will revert to a 4-2-3-1 with Schweinsteiger coming back.

Martin Samuel a journalist here was making stupid arguments about the Bundesliga. Even claiming that Bayern would not win the Premiership, because they lost 1 game against Chelsea,which they should have won in 2012.

Yes, he blames Bayern for Dortmund failures. Funny. I guess if you are a fan of a club that has done so much right in the recent years to get success you just get used to things like that. Actually you cannot even make things right. And if you looses it even gets worse. Being good and being blamed for that is probably better than being bad and being blamed...

Especially when it comes to that Götze or Lewandowski buys. Bayern would have been damn stupid if they would not have been in the race for them.

I doubt that he has watched many matches of the Bundesliga or even knows enough of the league or clubs to make a judgement. He might look at the UEFA cooefficents. Honigstein had an article on ESPN today about the performances of the EPL clubs in Europe the recent seasons - it is not just City. Being good in the EPL just does not mean anymore that you have the things to be good in Europe - it was like this 5 years ago.

http://www.espnfc.us/german-bundesl...league-in-danger-of-falling-behind-bundesliga

 

[Maldeika]

I do not really think they need wonder players. You have to see that the youth programme started really about 2003 or 04. Currently the first years that could take fully advantage of it in their teenager years get just out of talent age. To get out this odd really talented player or the world class player it needs more than just talent - you need personality and mentality. Often they do not even go the "normal" paths. But that programmes bring a load of very good players who have a very high technical and tactical level. Technically probably not as high as the spanish are - but the Bundesliga is more physical.

What surprises me most is the technical level the second and third league has gotten - there is very young squads with a lot of dropouts of the academies of the bigger clubs.

Results of today:

The table looks like this tonight...

Dortmund has to win against Gladbach tomorrow if they do not want to spend the two weeks of the international break on the last rank...

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

As stated on my earlier post, I saw a few German games last season.

For me, Augsburg were the surprise package, after narrowly avoiding the drop the previous year.

Very impresswd with them at both Leverkusen (2-1 defeat) and Dortmund (2-2)

 

[deafmanstevo]

I see Bayern are hammering everybody. It will just be the City way if we beat them!!!

 

[Maldeika]

As stated on my earlier post, I saw a few German games last season.

For me, Augsburg were the surprise package, after narrowly avoiding the drop the previous year.

Very impresswd with them at both Leverkusen (2-1 defeat) and Dortmund (2-2)

There is some that surprise this season. With Gladbach and Wolfsburg you could even count - it is more that others underperform. But Augsburg is still doing great, Mainz much better than you would have thought after they went out of the Europa Cup Qualifiers and lost the first cup round, Cologne and Paderborn (more if Paderborn) who just went up from 2nd Bundesliga.

 

[supercrystal7]

Big game for Dortmund today. A win today and they can still finish 2nd. I am shocked that Loew picked Reus. He clearly needs a rest and it's not like Germany need him in the up coming games.

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

As stated on my earlier post, I saw a few German games last season.

For me, Augsburg were the surprise package, after narrowly avoiding the drop the previous year.

Very impresswd with them at both Leverkusen (2-1 defeat) and Dortmund (2-2)

There is some that surprise this season. With Gladbach and Wolfsburg you could even count - it is more that others underperform. But Augsburg is still doing great, Mainz much better than you would have thought after they went out of the Europa Cup Qualifiers and lost the first cup round, Cologne and Paderborn (more if Paderborn) who just went up from 2nd Bundesliga.

I saw Paderborn win 6-1 in Dusseldorf last season. Tremendous pace on the counter attack as I recall.
I went to the Mainz-Augsburg game the other week. Friendly fans, but a strange walk to the ground, through what appeared to be a farmers field.
The same weekend I saw Bochum equalize with the last kick of the game against Darmstedt.

Only got 5 bundesliga grounds to go, and probably doing Hoffenheim in a couple of weeks.