2014-15 German Bundesliga Discussion Thread

[Det the Threat]

After beating down the rest of the league for most of the season, Bayern won yet another title and claimed it as early as March, something no other team did before.

They were even able to to win the German cup against Dortmund, winning yet another double.

So hats off and congrats to them.




Now let's take a look at the upcoming season.



Bayern won the league and the cup but losing that semifinale against Madrid the way they did left a bad taste in their mouths. Therefore Pep Guardiola will be allowed to add some more of his players.

Incoming:
Robert Lewandowski(Striker/Borussia Dortmund)
Sebastian Rode(Midfielder/Eintracht Frankfurt)

Outgoing:
Daniel van Buyten(Defender/?)
Lukas Raeder(Goalkeeper/?)



After losing that champios league final and Mario Götze to Bayern, they had quite some trouble with injuries and will now have to waive goodbye to Robert Lewandowski.
They'll try to compensate that with a deeper team and intend to keep Marco Reus for at least another season.

Incoming:
Adrian Ramos(Striker/Hertha BSC Berlin)
Ciro Immobile(Striker/Juventus)
Dong-Won Ji(Striker/back from loan to Augsburg)

Outgoing:
Robert Lewandowski(Striker/Bayern Munich)
Marvin Duksch(Striker/loan to Paderborn)
Manuel Friedrich(Defender/?)



Schalke started the season pretty badly and had some injury problems. Though, they managed to play through them and found out that their youngsters are usefull and able to play at the highest level.

Incoming:
Sidney Sam(Winger/Leverkusen)
Fabian Giefer(Goalkeeper/Düsseldorf)

Outgoing:
Timo Hildebrand(Goalkeeper/?)
Tim Hoogland(Defender/?)
Lars Unnerstall(Goalkeeper/Düsseldorf)
Anthony Annan(Midfielder/?)



After playing a very good first half of the season, Bayer nearly blew it away and needed the help of part time manager Sascha Lewandowski to at least finish fourth and have a chance to qualifiy for the champions league.

Incoming:
Wendell(Left Back/Porto Allegre)
Josip Drmic(Striker/Nuremburg)

Outgoing:
Sidney Sam(Winger/Schalke 04)
Jens Hegeler(Midfielder/Hertha BSC Berlin)



After winning the Bundesliga title a couple years ago, Wolfsburg was known to not spend those Volkswagen millions correctly and hardly made any noise. Though, since installing Klaus Allofs as manager and hiring Dieter Hecking as their coach, they've been able to form a very good team.
Now they'll certainly try to make a push for the champions league spots, hardly missing out this past season.

Incoming:
Aaron Hunt(Midfielder/Werder Bremen)
Sebastian Jung(Right Back/Eintracht Frankfurt)

Outgoing:
Jan Polak(Midfielder/Nuremberg)
Tolga Cigerci(Midfielder/Hertha BSC Berlin)



After having experienced international football for the first time since the 1990's, Gladbach missed out during the 12/13 season, finishing just short of those places.
After signing Raffael, Max Kruse and loaning Christoph Kramer, Gladbach played a brilliant first half of the season but couldn't keep it up. Though, they still managed a 6th place finish, now having a chance to qualify(EL Playoffs) for the Europa League for the second time in three years.

The upcoming season will be a tough test, given that Gladbach will need to replace Marc Andre ter Stegen, who finally joined Barcelona, and the best free kick taker in the world in Juan Arango.

Incoming:
Yann Sommer(Goalkeeper/FC Basel)
Fabian Johnson(RB, LB, LW, RW/Hoffenheim)
Andre Hahn(Winger/Augsburg)
Ibrahima Traoré(Winger/Stuttgart)

Outgoing:
Marc-André ter Stegen(Goalkeeper/FC Barcelona)
Juan Arango(LM/Club Tijuana of Mexico)
Lukas Rupp(Midfielder/SC Paderborn)
Elias Kachunga(Offensive Allrounder/SC Paderborn)



Mainz was able to pull of yet another great season, showing that they belong in the Bundesliga and are even able to make a run at the european spots.
This time they finished seventh and will start qualifying for the Europa League durint the 3rd round of qualifying.

Though, they'll have a tough task ahead of them given that they lost their coach(Thomas Tuchel), will most likely without Eric Maxim Choupo-Mouting and don't have a lot of money to built a squad able to sustain playing three competitions.

Incoming:
Nikita Rukavystya(Striker/FSV Frankfurt)
Chinedu Ede(Striker/Kaiserslautern)

Outgoing:
Zdenek Pospech(RB/?)
Bo Svensson(Defender/?)
Malik Fathi(LB/?)



After a two year hiatus in the 2nd Division, Cologne will be back in the Bundesliga and hopes to become a permanent Bundesliga site.

Incoming:
Mergim Mavraj(Defender/Greuther Fürth)
Pawel Olkowski(Right Back/Gornik Zabrze)
Dusan Svento(Left Back/Red Bull Salzburg)
Kevin Vogt(Midfielder/Augsburg)
Slawomir Peszko(LW/Parma)

Outgoing:
Adil Chihi(Winger/?)
Kevin McKenna(Defender/?)

[5DOM]

Please update the thread title to include "Bayern three-peat". Thanks

[DD12]

League is over probably in december.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[truth18]

BVB!

[Foye]

I see, the trolls are back in business here.

Nice thread Det.

[Point forward]

Bayern is the overwhelming fav to win it all, they will win 20 games on individual talent alone. Dortmund maybe has a shot if they crash out of the CL early (=> focus all energy on BL). I expect Schalke, Wolfsburg and Leverkusen to slug it out for the lower CL seeds, and I don't expect them to be good / consistent enough to seriously attack Bayern.

That being said, I am afraid / curious what RB Leipzig will do in the 2. BL. They are a young, hungry team with a big chip on their shoulder. I could see them becoming Hoffenheim 2.0.

[Foye]

That being said, I am afraid / curious what RB Leipzig will do in the 2. BL. They are a young, hungry team with a big chip on their shoulder. I could see them becoming Hoffenheim 2.0.

That's why I alway say we need 20 teams in the Bundesliga.
Leverkusen, Wolfsburg, Hoffenheim are company teams. Bayern basically is a DAX team and Hannover 96 will soon invest more as well. If you add Leipzig there's another team gone from the league.

One of Freiburg, Augsburg, Mainz or Frankfurt might soon drop out of the league despite doing a good business.

And teams like Lautern, St. Pauli, Düsseldorf, 1860, Fürth or Nürnberg will have even less chance to get back in.

I don't like this development at all. Might as well make the 3rd league an 18 team league and the Bundesliga a 20 team league.

[Maex]

I really like what Dortmund is doing. They finally seem to find a good mix between cheap squad players, high profile players and nice replacements.

With Ginter reportedly joining before the World Cup and Ramos, Immobile, Ji they have replaced Lewandowski and filled the holes in the squad. Additionally it is more than unlikely that they will have another injury driven season like the last one. Would me wonder when Dortmund is not back in the competition.

Defense: Hummels, Subotic, Sokratis, Ginter, Piszczek, Durm, Schmelzer, Großkreutz

Midfield: Gündogan, Bender, Sahin, Kehl, Jojic, Mkhitaryan, (Ginter)

Offensive: Reus, Kuba, Aubameyang, Ramos, Immobile, (Großkreutz)

That seems like a really nice team.

Schalke is also doing a very good business. They have a young and highly talented squad and (again) got rid of their Deadwood. They have an astonishing high number of talents 23 and below (Draxler, Matip, Papadopoulos, Matip Ayhan, Kolasinac, Max, Kirchhoff, Goretzka, Meyer, Sane). They will still struggle to integrate them all properly and might have a bit inexperienced team. Also that KPB tries to force his way into the #10 position is not a good sign. That's also the position where Meyer and Draxler excel. They are the team with the highest upside for sure. I am sure you can expect some serious international contention from them in 2-3 years.

[Foye]

Schalke's team is very balanced but they need to add another good experienced player. Preferably a defensive midfielder. A Mark van Bommel type would fit perfectly. One that can conduct the team on the pitch if Keller fails to do it from outside the pitch again lol. You don't find these type of players on trees these days, though.
Someone like Montolivo or Inler might help but not sure whether Schalke would be able to buy them. Since Montolivo is out a few months he probably isn't an option anyway.
Nigel de Jong might be cheaper but not sure if he is the perfect fit. Not enough of a leader.

They could also use a better player than Uchida at RB, too, although that is only a minor cause of concern.

Then again word from Schalke officials is that nothing major will happen in the offseason. Seems kinda dumb since they could really use another leader for that young team.

[tac45]

if everybody is heathly and bayern is able to get motivated again by pep, they will win it.. again. but i still like what bvb is doing and if gladbach can handle the triple threat with DFB pokal, Bundesliga and Europe League, they will have a good position rising up

[Foye]

Armin Veh is interested in Lord Bendtner again.

[truth18]

Reus will lead us to the promised land.

^anyone can quote me on that if they want to. It does sound unfounded in any real logic, but for some reason, I think Bayern will struggle (whatever that even means for them after last year) and we will take advantage.

I'm predicting a competitive Bundesliga with most major teams improving nicely. Honestly, I think Pep is in over his head and going to end up playing FIFA 15 style, terrible football that could only work for those Barca teams because they bought into a system the individual players understood far better than the manager. The Bundesliga is different and I'm sure he will make several controversial personnel decisions as well as experiment with some horrid formations for Bayern. The older players are a year older too. That's something I suppose.

This may piss people off, but Pep is sort of the Spoelstra of high level football imo. He gets exposed next year.

Klopp is going to tear up the league this year. Immobile is extremely hungry, and hopefully is coming off a great world cup.

Perhaps I'm crazy and delusional. I believe we can win the league, if not another decent trophy.

Edit: lol. Could not have timed that post better. Case in point:

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football ... einsteiger

[truth18]

League is over probably in december.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Damn, who did Fenerbache pick up? Gl with the Cup then.

[Foye]

I bet Cesc to Bayern is done already.

[Det the Threat]

Like I said yesterday, Gladbach is going all in on Choupo-Mouting and offered him a deal that he just needs to sign.

Though, we'll face competition from Schalke, Roma etc. and it will be interesting to see what team he chooses.

[truth18]

I bet Cesc to Bayern is done already.

He better get ready and fit enough to play against the Bundesliga defenses. And Pep better play a real man's formation lest he wants to wear out his entire team of scoring midfielders and run into trouble on the counterattack.

Mandzukic and Bastian are going to have a field day in the EPL. Two unique players that Bayern needed at least one of imo. Cesc is great but he isn't going to have the impact his name would have you think imo.

[Foye]

Schweinsteiger needs to get healthy before he can.dominate again

[Andi Obst]

I hope Dortmund don't have to deal with so many injuries again. When they're healthy they're a great team and could make things a little more interesting this season.

Personally, I can't wait to see the all new Hertha team!

[El Turco]

I bet Cesc to Bayern is done already.

He better get ready and fit enough to play against the Bundesliga defenses.

oh boy

[Foye]

Deutsche Bank seems to be willing to invest in Dortmund.

Could be good for Dortmund.