2023-24 German Bundesliga Discussion Thread

[Baphomet]

Discuss the upcoming 23/24 Bundesliga season here. Current holders are Bayern.

[Foye]

German national team is such a joke.

Dominated by 35 y/o Cuadrado.

[-Luke-]

That's worse than during the Ribbeck years. Heartless team, clueless coach.

[Foye]

That's worse than during the Ribbeck years. Heartless team, clueless coach.

Can seems to be a center back now. The guy doesn't defend well, plays sloppy passes and it is clear that he does not have the instincts to be a CB. He lost Dortmund the championship playing that position. And now (because it has worked so well) Flick is testing him there, too.

I'll go that far to say CB is possibly the most difficult position on the pitch because every mistake done by a CB is usually a chance for the opponent to score. Often you have to know what the opponent is going to do before he is actually doing it. And all your short passes need to come with precision.

[Foye]

German U21 team starting the EC today.
Our boy Nelson Weiper is the only player from 2005 nominated in the German squad.
Hopefully, they will give him some minutes.

[Foye]

God the U21 team is dreadful, too.

Can’t even hit penalties.

[Foye]

Wow. Really exciting news. We just signed a backup goalkeeper from the 3rd league!!!/sarcasm off

[Baphomet]

Any thoughts on Micky van de Ven? Looks like Spurs are in talks to sign him.

[Foye]

Any thoughts on Micky van de Ven? Looks like Spurs are in talks to sign him.

I don't follow Wolfsburg like at all but he played literally every minute at Wolfsburg but one game and was measured in the top 10 fastest players in the league last season.

I think he will be a good signing.

[Foye]

So seems like we might sell Barreiro if he doesn’t renew his contract.
I‘d hate that. He is my favorite player on the squad.

Tom Krauss could be the replacement.

[Foye]

Looks like we are going to sign Sepp van den Berg from Liverpool at CB.
Played just 9 games at Schalke due to injuries last season.

Lets hope he is less injury prone this year.

[Foye]

Krauß (DM), van den Berg (CB) and Batz (Backup GK) signed.

IMO we have the following holes in the squad:
- LB Backup.
Caci is the clear starter but need a good replacement in case he is injured.

- Left footed CB.
Our CB rotation could still use an upgrade over Hack and Leitsch (both unreliable). Otherwise we have to play with three right footed CBs again and hope nobody gets injured.

- CM if Barreiro leaves (I hope not)

- OM backup
Barkok has not been very convincing last season as backup for Lee), a loan for someone like Oscar Bobb from ManCity II would be nice as backup until Paul Nebel returns from Karlsruhe next year.

- ST
We have two starters with Ajorque and Onisiwo. Weiper and Gruda as youngsters behind getting spot minutes. Burkardt ist unfortunately injured for nobody knows how long. Burgzorg has not shown anything. Sell Burgzorg and bring another guy in (loan only - no reason to occupy spots for Weiper and Gruda long-term)

Don't think we are going to fill all these holes, but at least two or three need to be fixed and we'll have a good squad.

Exciting season ahead for Mainz.
Looking forward to the progress Weiper and Gruda make throughout the season.
Gruda is the most technically gifted player I have seen come out of Mainz 05 youth academy since Schürrle.
Weiper has a goal scoring instinct. Those two are hopefully going to run wild on the league sooner than later once their body catches up with their skillset.

Difficult start to the season:
Cup @Elversberg
League @Union Berlin, against Frankfurt, @Werder Bremen

Need to be at 100% right when the season starts to get results.

[Foye]

Dortmund spending the Bellingham millions on Sabitzer, Bensebaini and Nmecha.

Good luck competing for 2nd place again...

[Foye]

Ouedraogo is pretty neat.
17 years old immediately scored and involved in the 2nd goal in his first 2nd league game.

[Foye]

Testing against Burnley today.

[Foye]

3:0 victory.

Caci, Kohr and Gruda with the goals.

Gruda has been the best player in the preseason.

[Foye]

Bayern must be really desperate for a new striker. Offering 100 mil. for 30 y/o Harry Kane.
That would probably look like a poor deal two years from now.

Wildcards of the season for me:
- Gladbach: New coach, lost Stindl, Bensebaini, Thuram and Hofmann.
- Frankfurt: New coach, lost Ndicka, Sow and Kamada. Might lose Muani and Lindström. Signed lots of new players.
- Leipzig: Lost Nkunku, Szoboszlai, Laimer and Gvardiol (four of the five best players - crazy), signed lots of new players.
- Heidenheim & Darmstadt: Promoted (most likely bottom feeders)

[Foye]

Cup games today.

Against 2nd league opponent Elversberg.

First game of the season is always difficult. Hopefully we can go through.

[-Luke-]

Oh boy, that's going to be a long season...

[Foye]

Oh boy, that's going to be a long season...

First game of the season is always tough but Bremens defense doesn’t exactly seem to be quality.

Kohr as CB for us due to injury of Hanche-Olsen. Could be a long 90 minuted for us today.

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