With Borussia Dortmund winning the DFB Super Cup yesterday its less than two weeks away from the start of the new Bundesliga season. Reigning champions Bayern Munich open the season on August 16 against Hertha Berlin while Dortmund open at home to Augsburg. Both newly promoted sides have tricky starts with Union hosting Leipzig and Paderborn going to Leverkusen
Here are the full fixtures (PDF): https://img.bundesliga.com/uploads/sites/2/2019/06/Schedule_Bundesliga_2019-2020.pdf
Seven clubs start the season with new managers: Julian Nagelsmann left Hoffenheim to take over RB Leipzig; Hoffenheim in turn appointed Ajax assistant manager Alfred Schreuder; Gladbach who sacked Hecking replaced him with promising young manager Marco Rose from Salzburg; Schalke appoint David Wagner who was sacked by Huddersfield late last season; Wolfsburg appoint young Austrian manager Oliver Glasner who got little LASK Linz to finish 2nd in their league; Hertha promoted Ante Covic from their second team to take over from Dardai and Koln bring in Achim Beierlorzer from Regensburg
- Bayern have had a mixed summer and there is still plenty of pressure on Kovac despite winning the league. The big news of course is both Robben and Ribery left the club as well as selling Hummels back to Dortmund. In terms of incoming transfers they have signed Pavard and Lucas Hernandez to shore up the defense and promising striker from Hamburg Arp. They are still hoping to bring in Leroy Sane as well
- Dortmund have had a busy summer spending the money they got from the Pulisic and Diallo ransfers mostly going for domestic talents. Of course they bring back Mats Hummels and made Alcacer permanent but they also signed promising players such as: T. Hazard, Schulz and Brandt
- Optimism is high in Leipzig who intend to challenge for the title and they return to the CL for the 2nd time in their history; the key is they look like they will keep Timo Werner
- Leverkusen return to the CL too but were forced to sell Julian Brandt. They do however bring in Demirbay, Diaby (youngster from PSG), Amiri and Ajax left back Sinkgraven. Question of course is how they will hold up defensively under Bosz and playing in the CL as well
- Gladbach bring in ambitious young manager Marco Rose but did little in the transfer market, they lost Hazard to Dortmund and did manage to bring in Lainer from Salzburg and hope Embolo can reignite his career from Schalke
- Wolfsburg were one of the surprises last season but despite that Labbadia left the club and the new manager is a bit of a unknown in Glasner who had good success with smaller clubs in Austria. They were very busy in the transfer market, not really losing anybody of note but brining in Schlager (Salzburg), Mbabu (Young Boys), Victor (LASK) and Man City loanee Nmecha. They have some good young pieces but I can see Europe taking a lot out of them too
- Frankfurt's collapse late last season means they have to qualify for the EL (progressed past their first opponents) and missed out on the CL despite being in the top 4 for a lot of the season. The big news is them selling Jovic (Real Madrid) and Haller (West Ham) for a combined 100m euros, but it looks like they will hold onto to Rebic. As a result they bring in a ton of player, mix of experience and youth. Experienced BL campaigners like Hinteregger (Augsburg), Kohr (Leverkusen) come in along with the permanent signings of Kostic and Rode. They will hope 19 year old Serbian Joveljic from Red Star can replicate some of what Jovic did
- Bremen almost made Europe last season which was a positive step for them but they weren't active in the transfer market so far and could still be relying on Pizarro and Rashica to score goals for them. Their one big loss is Max Kruse who goes to Turkey on a free
- Hoffenheim set to be in transition mode after losing their manager and like Frankfurt sold key pieces for big fees: Joeliton (Newcastle), Demirbay (Leverkusen) and Schulz (Dortmund) but appear to be keeping Kramaric. They did bring back Rudy on loan from Schalke and signed a promising Danish winger Skov
- Stable Hertha surprised many by sacking Dardai late last season but maybe they needed freshening up, they too have been quiet in the window, the big departure is Lazaro who made a big money move to Inter Milan while they used that money to sign Dodi Lukebakio from Watford (scored double digit goals last season for Fortuna)
- Schalke hope to rebound from their horror campaign of last season where they were very much in the relegation fight until the end of the season and were lucky the bottom teams were so bad. They will do it with a new manager and something of a youth movement. With the exception of Raman, all their signings are under 21
- The next set of teams are honestly too boring to really go into Fortuna managed to survive fairly easily in their promoted season but the 2nd season is usually just as tough. Nothing of note in the transfer window with Raman being sold to Schalke while they bring in USA starting keeper Zack Steffen on loan from Man City. Mainz have really dropped off the last few seasons and have become a bottom half team. They sold defensive midfield Gbamin to Everton for big money and have replaced him with Swiss international Fernandes. They also signed Spain U21 winner Aaron Martin. Freiburg will do what they usually do, scrap to safety under Christian Streich and their only transfer activity of note is bringing in Schmid and a couple of Korean players; Augsburg too were in a desperate relegation fight last season and since the departure of Weinzierl they have not had a consistency on the bench. They lost Hinteregger and Schmid while two long serving Koreans Koo and Ji have left. Their signings are pretty diverse safe to say signing players from Brazil, MLS, Swiss league, Denmark and making Reece Oxford (fringe EPL/Championship player) permanent.
- Three newly promoted sides this season; Koln return after one year absence and really can't say too much about them as they haven't done much, don't know too much about their new signings which mostly came from abroad. Paderborn return to the BL for the first time in 5 seasons in a roller-coaster few seasons which saw them drop to the 3BL and earn back to back promotions. As expected this team is already relegation favorites and they haven't spent a single euro on transfers while losing both their double digit scorers from last season! Also all their transfers in are from the German lower leagues. Union Berlin are in the BL for the first time ever and should bring a good atmosphere to the league. They have brought in some 30+ BL veterans such as Subotic who makes his BL return, Ujah, Gentner and Schmeidebach along with signing Danish youth international Ingvartsen
Here are the full fixtures (PDF): https://img.bundesliga.com/uploads/sites/2/2019/06/Schedule_Bundesliga_2019-2020.pdf
Seven clubs start the season with new managers: Julian Nagelsmann left Hoffenheim to take over RB Leipzig; Hoffenheim in turn appointed Ajax assistant manager Alfred Schreuder; Gladbach who sacked Hecking replaced him with promising young manager Marco Rose from Salzburg; Schalke appoint David Wagner who was sacked by Huddersfield late last season; Wolfsburg appoint young Austrian manager Oliver Glasner who got little LASK Linz to finish 2nd in their league; Hertha promoted Ante Covic from their second team to take over from Dardai and Koln bring in Achim Beierlorzer from Regensburg
- Bayern have had a mixed summer and there is still plenty of pressure on Kovac despite winning the league. The big news of course is both Robben and Ribery left the club as well as selling Hummels back to Dortmund. In terms of incoming transfers they have signed Pavard and Lucas Hernandez to shore up the defense and promising striker from Hamburg Arp. They are still hoping to bring in Leroy Sane as well
- Dortmund have had a busy summer spending the money they got from the Pulisic and Diallo ransfers mostly going for domestic talents. Of course they bring back Mats Hummels and made Alcacer permanent but they also signed promising players such as: T. Hazard, Schulz and Brandt
- Optimism is high in Leipzig who intend to challenge for the title and they return to the CL for the 2nd time in their history; the key is they look like they will keep Timo Werner
- Leverkusen return to the CL too but were forced to sell Julian Brandt. They do however bring in Demirbay, Diaby (youngster from PSG), Amiri and Ajax left back Sinkgraven. Question of course is how they will hold up defensively under Bosz and playing in the CL as well
- Gladbach bring in ambitious young manager Marco Rose but did little in the transfer market, they lost Hazard to Dortmund and did manage to bring in Lainer from Salzburg and hope Embolo can reignite his career from Schalke
- Wolfsburg were one of the surprises last season but despite that Labbadia left the club and the new manager is a bit of a unknown in Glasner who had good success with smaller clubs in Austria. They were very busy in the transfer market, not really losing anybody of note but brining in Schlager (Salzburg), Mbabu (Young Boys), Victor (LASK) and Man City loanee Nmecha. They have some good young pieces but I can see Europe taking a lot out of them too
- Frankfurt's collapse late last season means they have to qualify for the EL (progressed past their first opponents) and missed out on the CL despite being in the top 4 for a lot of the season. The big news is them selling Jovic (Real Madrid) and Haller (West Ham) for a combined 100m euros, but it looks like they will hold onto to Rebic. As a result they bring in a ton of player, mix of experience and youth. Experienced BL campaigners like Hinteregger (Augsburg), Kohr (Leverkusen) come in along with the permanent signings of Kostic and Rode. They will hope 19 year old Serbian Joveljic from Red Star can replicate some of what Jovic did
- Bremen almost made Europe last season which was a positive step for them but they weren't active in the transfer market so far and could still be relying on Pizarro and Rashica to score goals for them. Their one big loss is Max Kruse who goes to Turkey on a free
- Hoffenheim set to be in transition mode after losing their manager and like Frankfurt sold key pieces for big fees: Joeliton (Newcastle), Demirbay (Leverkusen) and Schulz (Dortmund) but appear to be keeping Kramaric. They did bring back Rudy on loan from Schalke and signed a promising Danish winger Skov
- Stable Hertha surprised many by sacking Dardai late last season but maybe they needed freshening up, they too have been quiet in the window, the big departure is Lazaro who made a big money move to Inter Milan while they used that money to sign Dodi Lukebakio from Watford (scored double digit goals last season for Fortuna)
- Schalke hope to rebound from their horror campaign of last season where they were very much in the relegation fight until the end of the season and were lucky the bottom teams were so bad. They will do it with a new manager and something of a youth movement. With the exception of Raman, all their signings are under 21
- The next set of teams are honestly too boring to really go into Fortuna managed to survive fairly easily in their promoted season but the 2nd season is usually just as tough. Nothing of note in the transfer window with Raman being sold to Schalke while they bring in USA starting keeper Zack Steffen on loan from Man City. Mainz have really dropped off the last few seasons and have become a bottom half team. They sold defensive midfield Gbamin to Everton for big money and have replaced him with Swiss international Fernandes. They also signed Spain U21 winner Aaron Martin. Freiburg will do what they usually do, scrap to safety under Christian Streich and their only transfer activity of note is bringing in Schmid and a couple of Korean players; Augsburg too were in a desperate relegation fight last season and since the departure of Weinzierl they have not had a consistency on the bench. They lost Hinteregger and Schmid while two long serving Koreans Koo and Ji have left. Their signings are pretty diverse safe to say signing players from Brazil, MLS, Swiss league, Denmark and making Reece Oxford (fringe EPL/Championship player) permanent.
- Three newly promoted sides this season; Koln return after one year absence and really can't say too much about them as they haven't done much, don't know too much about their new signings which mostly came from abroad. Paderborn return to the BL for the first time in 5 seasons in a roller-coaster few seasons which saw them drop to the 3BL and earn back to back promotions. As expected this team is already relegation favorites and they haven't spent a single euro on transfers while losing both their double digit scorers from last season! Also all their transfers in are from the German lower leagues. Union Berlin are in the BL for the first time ever and should bring a good atmosphere to the league. They have brought in some 30+ BL veterans such as Subotic who makes his BL return, Ujah, Gentner and Schmeidebach along with signing Danish youth international Ingvartsen