Yet again, Bayern Munich was able to win the Bundsliga title, making it five years in a row.
After having some trouble in the first half of the season, they ran away after the winter break and never looked back.
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Information for Bundesliga Fans in the US:
FOX Sporst will keep broadcasting the Bundesliga and here are some important links.
Fox Sports Bundesliga
Bundesliga.com
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Overall it was a season of surprises, besides Bayern winning the title, given that newly promoted RB Leipzig finished second and even left Borussia Dortmund behind them.
People knew that they weren't a normal promoted side, but finishing second wasn't really expected of them.
It was also a season of surprises because most teams that played in Europe couldn't really keep up in the league and weren't able to repeat their success of past seasons.
Because of that, Hoffenheim will be playing in Europe for the first time ever and try to qualify for the Champions League in the playoffs.
Cologne will be back in Europe for the first time in 25 years, after striker Anthony Modeste willed them to fith place nearly on his own.
Hertha and Freiburg will round out the european spots, also showing that both newly promoted sides were a benefit for the league as Leipzig and Freiburg will participate in Europe, at least as long as UEFA doesn't ban Leipzig given their dealings with RB Salzburg of Austria.
The dissapointments of the season are clearly Wolfsburg, Schalke, Gladbach and Leverkusen.
Neither of those teams were able to qualify for Europe and Wolfsburg even had to play in the relegation playoffs to avoid being relegated in the 2nd Bundesliga. All of that even though they've got a top 3/4 budget within the league.
Bayern did "struggle" a bit in the league, showing that they're not as focused as they were under Guardiola. Though, in the end the quality assembled in that squad was just too much for the rest of the league.
Still, their big goal of winning the CL wasn't achieved, again, as they were beaten by Real Madrid, also thanks to Bayern not keeping their cool and playing one men down in both matches.
Incoming:
Niklas Süle(Hoffenheim)
Sebastian Rudy(Hoffenheim)
Kingsley Coman(Juventus) had been loaned before
Outgoing:
Medhi Benatia(Juventus)
Holger Badstuber(unknown)
Philip Lahm(retirement)
Xabi Alonso(retirement)
Leipzig is, without a doubt, the most controversial side to ever participate in the Bundesliga.
After being formed not even ten years ago, they were able to make it to the Bundesliga thanks to the backing of Red Bull and really didn't care too much about that 50+1, bending it all over, rule usually applying to the clubs of the league.
This was the reason they had to deal with a lot of scrutiny during every away game, with that match at Dortmund being the worst of them all and something no one should have to endure.
Though, on the pitch they showed a crazy pressing game that also included fast paced offense and created many chances.
If UEFA doesn't rule them out, they'll be playing in the CL next season and will have to show if they're able to play this style with those extra games and pressure being on them.
Incoming:
Yann Mvogo(Young Boys Bern)
Outgoing:
Davie Selke(Hertha)
Rani Khedira(unknown)
After losing Hummels, Mikki(not trying to type his name here) and Gündogan Dortmund had to rebuilt their squad and find other ways to make it happen.
Overall, finishing third, only losing in the quaters of the CL(after that horrible attack of the team bus) and winning the cup was a pretty good season.
Though, manager Thomas Tuchel seemed to not really work internally for the club and their decision makers and because of that was let go after the season.
BVB tried to get former Gladbach and Hertha manager Lucien Favre as his replacement but Nice is said to have nixed that deal which forced Dortmund to look somewhere else.
According to some source their new manager will be Peter Bosz, who led Ajax Amsterdam to the Europa League final.
Incoming:
Ömer Toprak(Leverkusen)
Mahmoud Dahoud(Gladbach)
Outgoing:
Adrian Ramos(Dangdai)
Another surprise team of the season was Hoffenheim. Led by 29 year old manager Julian Nagelsmann they were able to play a very consistant season with good offensive minded football and were able to reward themselves by finishing 4th and playing CL playoffs next season.
Like with most Bundesliga sides, their good season made some of their players attractive to other teams and they'll now have to replace Niklas Süle and Sebastian Rudy, who left the club to join Bayern Munich.
Incoming:
Florian Grillitsch(Bremen)
Kevin Akpoguma(Düsseldorf)
Outgoing:
Niklas Süle(Bayern)
Sebastian Rudy(Bayern)
Permin Schwegler(Hannover)
25 years after playing in Europe Cologne will finally be able to do so again. Thanks to Anthony Modeste scoring goals for fun and a very organized defense, they were able to hold on and qualifiy for Europa League.
Though, keeping Modeste will be really tough and if they do lose him they'll have a hard time replacing that production. On top of that, they'll have to show they can manage those extra games and Thursday-Sunday rhythm with a squad that has been playing 1st Bundesliga for only three years now.
Incoming:
-
Outgoing:
Neven Subotic(Dortmund)
After last season's mediocre second half to the season, Hertha was able to do a better(not great) job this time arond and finished in 6th place which will put them in the europa league directly.
Pal Dardai has shown that he's able to play a brand of football that works in the league and has his team play better than the individual parts would make you believe.
Incoming:
Davie Selke(RB Leipzig)
Matthiew Leckie(Ingolstadt)
Outgoing:
John Anthony Brooks(Wolfsburg)
Samy Allagui(St. Pauli)
Just two years after being relegated from the Bundesliga Freiburg came storming back into the Bundesliga and finished with a brilliant 7th place.
Manager Christian Streich showed once again why he's so highly regarded within the Bundesliga and managed to get the most out of his players.
Like everytime, next season will be tough, given that some players(Grifo, Philip, Soyuncu etc.) had a great season and will leave Freiburg.
Incoming:
Pascal Stenzel(Dortmund)
Florian Niederlechner(Mainz)
Outgoing:
Vincenzo Grifo(Gladbach)
This one wasn't a great season for Gladbach. Playing well in the cup competitions(CL + round of 16 EL, semifinal german cup) they never really found their way in the League and finished 9th, the worst finish in six seasons.
This can clearyl be attested to a pretty poor first half of the season(17 points from 17 games) and loads of inuries that never allowed the team to get into a rhythm.
Incoming:
Vincenzo Grifo(Freiburg)
Mickael Cuisance(Nancy)
Julio Villalba(Cerro Porteno)
Outgoing:
Mahmoud Dahoud(Dortmund)
Andreas Christensen(Chelsea)
Everything looked to be on the way up when Schalke brought in sporting director Chrisian Heidel(Mainz) and manager Markus Weinzierl(Augsburg) last summer.
Though, given to a terrible start of the season(losing first five games in the league) they never were able to get back on track and finishehd 10th in the league.
The team also didn't play anything close to insipiring football(like most of the past seasons) and Weinzierl will be under big pressure to deliver this season.
Heidel also has a tough task making decisions on the team this summer. Konoplyanka(which they had to sign after the number of games he played) never had a shot under Weinzierl and has openly criticesed the manager. Max Meyer has stated that he won't sign an extension and only has one year left on his deal. Sead Kolasinac will go on a free while midfielder Leon Goretzka also has just one year left on his deal, doesn't seems to be interested in signing a new one and has been heavily linked with a move to Bayern Munich this or next summer.
Incoming:
Nabil Bentaleb(Tottenham)
Even Konoplyanka(Seville)
Outgoing:
Holger Badstuber(unknown)
Klaas Jan Huntelaar(Ajax)
Dennis Aogo(unkonwn)
Abdul Rahman Baba(Chelsea)
Both teams had been the biggest dissapointments of the season. Leverkusen at least managed to get out of the CL group stages and stay up without ever being a clear danger of being relegated.
Wolfsburg, on the other hand, just played a terrible season and showed that a team of individuals won't get you anywhere in modern football.
We also get to welcome Stuttgart and Hannover back to the Bundesliga, after their one year hiatus in the 2nd Bundesliga.
This also means that there's no single team that people can actually write off as a pretty clear favourite to be relegated next season.
There you go, this is the discussion thread for the Bundesliga during the 17/18 season.
It should be an interesting one given the surprises of last season and with Gladbach, Schalke, Leverkusen and Wolfsburg certainly focused to get back to Europe, while the surprise teams of last season certainly won't go away willingly.
Let's have fun and discuss the heck out of the upcoming Bundesliga season...
