2013-14 German Bundesliga Thread: Bayern Champs Again

[cgf]

Just took a look at the U19's dealio given all of the awesome kids down there, Werner, Meyer, Brandt, Oztunali, Goretzka, Zelalem, Gnabry, Mukhtar, Green, Dudziak, Stark, Palacios, etc. And realized that they're in a group with spain and denmark in elite qualifying round...sweet...

At least the U21's should be through, even though the U19's may be a more talented team if they played head to head at full force.

[kakaman]

Błaszczykowski with ACL tear, his season over, and most likely BVB's season as well

[cgf]

Hentelaar just scores goals.

[Foye]

Błaszczykowski with ACL tear, his season over, and most likely BVB's season as well

Pretty much. Subotic done for the season. Kuba done for the season.
Still unclear when Hummels can come back. And Gündogan's back we don't even need to talk about.
On top of it players like Piszcek or Schmelzer are still worlds away from their top form after recovering from injury.

[Foye]

Can't wait for the day Hamburg gets relegated. Such a pathetic team.

[kakaman]

Błaszczykowski with ACL tear, his season over, and most likely BVB's season as well

Pretty much. Subotic done for the season. Kuba done for the season.
Still unclear when Hummels can come back. And Gündogan's back we don't even need to talk about.
On top of it players like Piszcek or Schmelzer are still worlds away from their top form after recovering from injury.

Priority #1 should be begging Kagawa to come back

[cgf]

Why? AM is still their deepest position.

[Foye]

Priority #1 should be begging Kagawa to come back

#1 priority should be bringing in a replacement for Lewandowski. Right after that they need to buy a CB that can stay healthy and play well at the same time.

[cgf]

Can't wait for the day Hamburg gets relegated. Such a pathetic team.

Missed this earlier but I'd get a kick out of it to. And if it leads to the end of their silly supervisory board then maybe they can even start being run like less of a circus.

It'll be interesting whether bvm can squander the actually interesting talent he's been given, with Lasogga, VdV, Calhanoglu and now Ola John they have a dangerous front 4, and Badelj is a good passer in midfield to get them the ball. But they leak goals like crazy, Westerman is painfully mediocre, jansen is hit or miss, diekmeier and lam on the right are just meh and Jonathon Tah, while possibly their biggest talent at any position, is still too inexperienced to hold it all together on his own. Adler being hurt exacerbates the problem and them not having anybody to secure things from the midfield just makes it worse, but that defense is just so bad.

If they hold onto their first league status, make those loanees permanent, change their structure to eliminate the (Please Use More Appropriate Word) board and find a good coach, then it may actually not be that hard to turn that team into a european class team again...but things would really have to start going right for them come seasons end and they'd have to push the HSV+ thing through, especially if the estimates on what that would be worth are even close to accurate.

Biggest thing though is freeing the team from the board so it can be run with a coherent plan. Then the question becomes if whoever's running it can find the right coach, Slomka seems like he'd be a good fit, and bolster them in back and find a holder who can actually defend and play.

[Foye]

Can't wait for the day Hamburg gets relegated. Such a pathetic team.

Missed this earlier but I'd get a kick out of it to. And if it leads to the end of their silly supervisory board then maybe they can even start being run like less of a circus.

It'll be interesting whether bvm can squander the actually interesting talent he's been given, with Lasogga, VdV, Calhanoglu and now Ola John they have a dangerous front 4, and Badelj is a good passer in midfield to get them the ball. But they leak goals like crazy, Westerman is painfully mediocre, jansen is hit or miss, diekmeier and lam on the right are just meh and Jonathon Tah, while possibly their biggest talent at any position, is still too inexperienced to hold it all together on his own. Adler being hurt exacerbates the problem and them not having anybody to secure things from the midfield just makes it worse, but that defense is just so bad.

If they hold onto their first league status, make those loanees permanent, change their structure to eliminate the (Please Use More Appropriate Word) board and find a good coach, then it may actually not be that hard to turn that team into a european class team again...but things would really have to start going right for them come seasons end and they'd have to push the HSV+ thing through, especially if the estimates on what that would be worth are even close to accurate.

Biggest thing though is freeing the team from the board so it can be run with a coherent plan. Then the question becomes if whoever's running it can find the right coach, Slomka seems like he'd be a good fit, and bolster them in back and find a holder who can actually defend and play.

They have talent but their tactical level is often worse than a 3rd league team. You can't have three players (Lasogga, vdV, Calhanoglu) standing up front not defending at all.

Also, it's hard to imagine how Westermann ever made the NT.

[ATL Boy]

Błaszczykowski with ACL tear, his season over, and most likely BVB's season as well

Pretty much. Subotic done for the season. Kuba done for the season.
Still unclear when Hummels can come back. And Gündogan's back we don't even need to talk about.
On top of it players like Piszcek or Schmelzer are still worlds away from their top form after recovering from injury.

Priority #1 should be begging Kagawa to come back

I approve this message.

[kakaman]

Priority #1 should be begging Kagawa to come back

#1 priority should be bringing in a replacement for Lewandowski. Right after that they need to buy a CB that can stay healthy and play well at the same time.

Striker and CB are the two hardest positions to replace currently. Better shore up the midfield with talent because you never know what will happen with injuries.

[cgf]

Nah, if they can get shinji back on a loan or cheap price like they did Sahin then great. Otherwise they need to first spend their money on Costa/Doumbia/Mitroglu/Dzeko/Mandzukic to replace Lewa, then they need to go hard after Matthias Ginter to provide depth at CB and the 6, and then they can play with what's left to bolster the depth in attack, although I think they should spread it out over a few kids, like Mitrovic and Halilovic, instead of just one Shinji. I do hope they take a serious look at Doumbia because I think he'd be an absolutely perfect fit for Klopp. He might be even faster than Reus and Aubameyang, and is used to doing the hard work running off the ball and pressing and combining with other guys on the fly. With a year left on his contract they should be able to get him for a reasonable price from CZKA.

Then they'd have the depth to survive even if they faced another injury crisis as crazy as this one.

[Point forward]

The thing is that Dortmund does not overpay for players: they did it in the early 2000s and almost went broke. I bet that Klopp doesn't go for an established superstar, but rather get some "upside" guys like Volland, Ginter, Ramos, Halilovic etc. Also, I still expect Mkhitaryan and Aubameyang to get better, they started off hot but were disappointing since then.

[Captain_Obvious]

Priority #1 should be begging Kagawa to come back

#1 priority should be bringing in a replacement for Lewandowski. Right after that they need to buy a CB that can stay healthy

Umm, Socrates?

and play well at the same time.

Never mind

[cgf]

The thing is that Dortmund does not overpay for players: they did it in the early 2000s and almost went broke. I bet that Klopp doesn't go for an established superstar, but rather get some "upside" guys like Volland, Ginter, Ramos, Halilovic etc. Also, I still expect Mkhitaryan and Aubameyang to get better, they started off hot but were disappointing since then.

They did pay handsomely for Mkh and Auba, so shelling out for one striker like Doumbia, Costa or Mitroglu would fit the MO. Especially since Doumbia for example will be on the last season of his contract and so not require much over-payment.

[Point forward]

The thing is that Dortmund does not overpay for players: they did it in the early 2000s and almost went broke. I bet that Klopp doesn't go for an established superstar, but rather get some "upside" guys like Volland, Ginter, Ramos, Halilovic etc. Also, I still expect Mkhitaryan and Aubameyang to get better, they started off hot but were disappointing since then.

They did pay handsomely for Mkh and Auba, so shelling out for one striker like Doumbia, Costa or Mitroglu would fit the MO. Especially since Doumbia for example will be on the last season of his contract and so not require much over-payment.

I basically agree, but don't forget they only spent 28M for Micho and 13M for Auba when they (reluctantly) got the 37M from the Götze transfer, so effectively they only spent 4M. I still expect a Volland or Doumbia, but not necessarily a Dzeko.

[cgf]

Yes but they were also still working free of their debts last summer, this summer those concerns are gone and they are free to spend a much higher portion of their profits, while still banking a hefty chunk of change. I think Costa and maybe Dzeko are unlikely, but at the same time, not completely unreasonable. Even if I'd personally love for it to be Doumbia tasked with replacing Lewa as they would become an even faster team.

[Foye]

Leverkusen wants Guardado. Should be better than Boenisch.

Sadly, Ebert to Mainz won't happen according to our manager. Would've been a really cheap but talented player to replace Nicolai Müller who will likely go to Leverkusen in summer.

[Foye]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN0RQvE_S3Y[/youtube]

Admit it cgf you were rioting in Stockholm.