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The new Bundesliga season is going to kick off in 2 weeks with a real classic match, Bayern vs Hamburg.
Let's have a little season preview, i will give you my comprehensive views on the Bundesliga teams 08/09 but others are invited to write, too :smileani:.

 

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Top Teams

FC Bayern

Bayern is going into a new era with Klinsmann taking over from Hitzfeld. Klinsmann changed many things, the training facilities were completely overhauled with chill-out-area, Budda statues and so on , he has the biggest coaching staff, introducing special coaches for almost everything but what did not change (apart from Olli Kahn of course..) was the Bayern squad. Borowski and 2nd goalie Butt are the only new signings so far.
Klinsmann proved with the german NT that he is a good coach, but there is no proof yet if he can prevail as a league coach where he has his players around him every day and not only every 1 or 2 months.

Bayern for sure still has the strongest team but losing Kahn will not make things easier for Bayern. New number 1 goalie Rensing is not as good as Kahn imho, just an average keeper ( by Bundesliga standards...) and i wouldn't wonder if Bayern are in market for a top goalie in the winter. Nevertheless the squad is still good enough for the Bundesliga title but the Bayern officials were setting their sights at the CL. They didn't say that it's the target to win a CL trophy yet but Rummenigge and Hoeness often could be heard that they expecting Bayern to shine in the CL again.
Well, maybe in the group stages but to shine in the later CL stages, the squad needs 1-2 really good players imho. Bayern is esp. depending on Ribery, they should add a 2nd creative player.

player to watch out for
Podolski and Schweinsteiger : will they be able to convert the good performances they had for our NT to Bayern ?

season prediction
Depending on Klinsmann being able to successfully make the transition from a NT coach to a league coach, Bayern is still the top favorite for the Bundesliga title. But the title won't come as easy as last year.

Bundesliga : Champions
CL : quarter finals (with a lucky draw, the semis may be possible)

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Werder Bremen

Bremen lost a couple of experienced players which were not replaced yet. Tim Borowski went to Bayern, Ivan Klasnic went to Nantes, both on a Bosman free transfer. Those 2 will be missed for sure, not only that they were good players but they were also at the top of the team hierarchy. A player who will not be missed is left back Pierre Womé ( bosman free to Cologne). In central defender Prödl and midfielder Husejinovic they only signed 2 young talents up till now. But never count out Klaus Allofs, i'm pretty sure that the best Bundesliga manager will turn up with 1 or 2 big transfers as he always did in the past, main target is a top striker.
But at the moment, the Bremen squad is definitely not improved to last years team. In addition to that, both Diego and Mertesacker will miss the start of the season due to Olympics (Diego) and a knee injury(Mertesacker).

players to watch out for
Aron Hunt - can the talented attacker finally develop into a top Bundesliga player?
Diego - will his relationship with the team and the Werder fans be harmed by his unpermitted participation of the Olympics ?

season prediction

Bundesliga : Pos. 2-5
CL : 3rd after group stage

It's hard to give a prediction on Werder since they didn't transfer a top player yet. Their squad is still good, but without further improvement and after losing Borowski and Klasnic, i would say that they need a lot of luck to become 3rd. But as mentioned before, i'm expecting Allofs to do something big again on the transfer market, thus pos. 2 may be likely again. The start into the season will be hard without Diego and Mertesacker. And after the olympic tournament ( when the CL starts..) Diego may be exhausted and Mertesacker may still be missing - therefore i don't expect Werder to shine in the CL, but they will be good in the 2nd half of the season again.

 

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Top Teams II

Schalke 04

Schalke is starting into the new season with a completely new coaching staff.
Fred Rutten should kick off a new era at Schalke, they want to win their first championship after 51 years. To do so, he was granted to buy attacker Jefferson Farfan from PSV for 10 Mio, the biggest transfer fee ever spent at Schalke and his old buddy Orlando Engelaar. And if Schalke qualifies for the CL, he will be granted another 12-15 Mio to spend on new players.

Overall, the Schalke squad looks good. With Engelaar, they now also have a lot of depth in the central midfield. Farfan seems a bit overrated to me, nevertheless he is still a good player who should help Schalke. Their defence looks settled ( even without right back Rafinha who fled to the Olympics without permission..), the midfield is good ( though a player with the creativity of a Diego, van der Vaart or Ribery is still missing), the attack has a lot of depth, too.
The biggest danger to Schalkes Bundesliga campaign are the high expectations in Gelsenkirchen. Most of the fans are expecting the team to become Bundesliga champions - as always. This is not impossible, but will be very difficult.

players to watch out for
Manuel Neuer : the most talented young Bundesliga keeper ( together with Leverkusens Adler) - can he get more concistency into his performances ? If yes, he will surely be an NT candidate soon.

Jefferson Farfan : can the most expensive Schalke player pay back his 10 Mio transfer fee on the pitch ? The fans will keep a close eye on him, Schalke fans are always hypercritical with expensive young players, therefore it won't be easy for Farfan.

season prediction

Bundesliga : Pos 2-3.
CL : 3rd/round of last 16.

But Schalke still first has to qualify for the CL - if they end up in the UEFA-Cup, they will be one of the favorites to win the trophy. Concerning the Bundesliga, i'm pretty sure that Schalke will make it into the CL again. The Bundesliga title is only possible if Bayern completely fails.

 

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Top Teams III

HSV

As Schalke, also HSV is starting with a completely new coaching staff into the new season. Now Martin Jol is the commander on the bridge and he (like Klinsmann) brought a huge staff of assistant coaches with him.

There was not much activity on the transfer market so far, squad players like Miso Brecko and Mario Fillinger left the team, the contract of Juan Pablo Sorin was resolved. Young winger Jonathan Pitroipa and left back/midfielder Dennis Aogo, both from Freiburg, are the only new signings so far. Pitroipa really looked promising in the pre-season.

The main question is, if van der Vaart will stay for another season. Real Madrid is after him but appearantly, they don't want to pay a decent transfer fee. A ridiculous 6 Mio offer was rejected and thrown into the dustbin by the HSV management, Real's response was that they will not do any further attempts to sign vdV this year. Some rumors said that vdV already signed a pre-contract with Real for the 09/10 season when he can leave HSV for 1,5 Mio €.

The current HSV squad is good but not as good as the Schalke oder Werder squads. The transfer policy of manager Beiersdorfer was to sign young but talented players which should develop into top players at Hamburg. Unfortunately only very few players managed to do that, at the moment, there are way too much talents and too few really experienced players in the squad. Beiersdorfer also did some severe mistakes on the transfer market which cost us a lot of money without any return, prime examples are Sorin and Zidan but there are also a couple of 2nd tier players who were not very expensive from the transfer fee but also did not develop as intended. The result is that there is no more money available to reinforce the team, we first have to sell players.

players to watch out for
Jonathan Pitroipa : In the pre-season, he was excellent so far. He is the type of player who is drawing the fans into the stadium - lightning fast winger with spectacular dribblings who also can score. The question is if he can make the transistion from Bundesliga 2 to Bundesliga 1.

Vincent Kompany : Can one of the once most admired talents in european football finally develop into a real Bundesliga player? Maybe the expectations in him were too high, but overall he is nothing but a big dissapointment so far. Chosing the Olympics over HSV doesn't help to make it into the starting team. Jol is already quite angry about that and it seems that he won't be a starter when he returns.

season prediction

Bundesliga : Pos 3-5 ( with vdV), Pos. 5-8 ( without vdV or a proper replacement )
UEFA-Cup : round of last 16 - quarter finals.

Since the transfer period did not end yet and it is still not sure if vdV will stay or other players will be sold or bought, it is very hard to make a prediction. With vdV, HSV is still among the top teams. Schalke and Werder have better squads but if everything runs perfect and vdV stays, a CL spot is possible. Without vdV ( or a proper replacement...), HSV must watch out not to end up somewhere in the Bundesliga midfield.

 

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Top Teams IV

Wolfsburg

After years of being an uninspiring Bundesliga midfield club which sometimes even was in danger to relegate instead of reaching international football as intended, the Volkswagen management decided that something has to be done to upgrade the status of their football team. So they signed Felix Magath as coach and handed him a huge transfer purse in 2007. Magath installed a completely new team and suprisingly managed to take this new team into the UEFA-Cup.

For the current season, he was allowed to spend even more money. Magath continued his overhaul of the squad and to the surprise of the football world, he lured 2 italian World Champions into the boring town of Wolfsburg, central defender Andrea Barzagli and wing back Christian Zaccardo. Other transfers include Nuernbergs attacking midfielder Zvjezdan Misimovic, Belenses left back Rodrigo Alvim and a couple of talented young players.

Though it is not an offical target yet, the Volkswagen management is clearly setting their sights on Champions League football with their huge investments into the team and Magath ( a personal friend of Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn) seems to be the right man to handle this pressure.

The team looks very competetive : The attack is good with Grafite and Dzeko, in the midfield they have some good and experienced players ( e.g. Marcelinho, Josue) and a couple of young hotshots like winger Dejagah, CM Gentner and AM Misimovic. The best part of the team is clearly the defence with the italian signings but there are other good players, too.

players to watch out for
Grafite - can the brazilian striker approve the good performances of his first Bundesliga season ?
Cristian Zaccardo - can the 14 Mio € signing please the huge expectations the Wolfsburg management and the public has in him ?

season prediction
Bundesliga : Pos. 3-5
UEFA-Cup : quarter finals at least

With huge amounts of money, Wolfsburg has created a very good new team which should contend for a CL spot. The only question mark is with all the new players, how long it will take for Magath to find his ideal formation on the pitch. Since teams like Schalke and Werder didn't undergo a complete overhaul like Wolfsburg did in the past 2 years, they still should have the edge over the 'Wolves'. In order to reach a CL spot, everything must run perfect for Wolfsburg but the direct qualification for the UEFA-Cup seems quite likely at the end of the season.

 

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top teams V

VfB Stuttgart

Stuttgart wants to end up higher in the table after ending at pos. 6 after a dissappointing season as reigning Bundesliga champions.

There was pretty much activity on the transfer market in Stuttgart. Captain Fernando Meira was sold to Galatasary (!) and replaced with Khalid Boulahrouz but apart from this exchange in the defense and the signing of Jens Lehmann on a bosman free transfer from Arsenal, no top players were signed or left the club. Should be interesting what former Leverkusen and Hannover playmaker misfit Jan Simak can do for VfB. This transfer was quite astonishing, Simak played a good season in Bundesliga 2 for Jena and his drinking and night club days are over but it must be questioned if he is the player who can lead a team like Stuttgart into the CL. Stuttgart is also interested in Spurs Kevin Prince Boateng, seems that the VfB now wants to sign some players which are well known for not being easy to handle as a reaction to last years season when the coach thought that there was often too much harmony in the squad even after a loss.

Overall, Stuttgart still has a good squad but it is questionable if they can really break into the top 3. The attack is pretty competitive, the midfield looks still good but the defence is only average imho, esp. after losing Meira.

players to watch out for

Mario Gomez - can he find back into a successful track after his horrible Euro ? I'm pretty convinced that he can. Although many people were laughing about him and his performances at the Euro, he is still a top striker for me. I don't know what was wrong with him in Austria and Switzerland. He played so brilliant in the Bundesliga season but he completely choked for our NT. Maybe it's just a lack of experience and also the 25 Mio offer from Bayern might have taken away his concentration on the pitch. It would be too bad if this guy also ends up as a Bayern player in 1 or 2 years.

Khalid Boulahrouz - can he make a successful comeback in Germany after 2 horrible years for Chelsea and Sevilla where he spent most of his time on the bench ? He had a good Euro and showed that he did not forget how to defend on a high level, nevertheless Fernando Meira for me is a clearly better player which he cannot fully replace. Of course Meira had a bad season at Stuttgart but over the last 6 years, he always was among the top 5 Bundesliga defenders. But Boulahrouz with his pace and good marking and tackling skills on the ground should be a good partner for Delpierre who will reign the air. I wouldn't partner him with inexperienced Tasci who has similar skills to Boulahrouz though...

season predicition
Bundesliga : Pos. 4-7
(UEFA-Cup : round of last 32/16)

As already mentioned, Stuttgart has a good team, but it is not enough to break into the CL imho. The possible addition of Kevin Prince Boateng won't change this. They should contend for the UEFA-Cup. Stuttgart can still qualify for this years UEFA-Cup campaign as well, they won the first round in the UI-Cup against russian team Saturn and now are facing FC Györ from Hungary in the UEFA-Cup qualifiers.

 

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Top teams VI

Bayer Leverkusen
After Bayern, Schalke and Hamburg the 4th of the top teams which got a new coach ( Michael Skibbe was fired after Bayer completely missed the qualification for european football at the end of 2007/08...) - Bruno Labbadia who came from Fürth ( Bundesliga 2). As a player, he played for almost all big german clubs ( HSV, Werder, Bayern, Kaiserslautern, Cologne...) and he was labeled as one of the best young coaches in Germany.

Leverkusen temporarily looked like a certain CL candidate in the season when they played fine attacking football but the team totally went off the track in the last stage of the Bundesliga championship.

In the upcoming season the club will show a new face not only on the coaching position. Barbarez did quit his career after his contract was not prolongued, Carsten Ramelow also ended his days as an active footballer and Bernd Schneider is still out indefinitely after his back surgery, maybe he is also going into his last season as a pro.

Bayer signed some young and inexperienced but very talented players in brazilian attacking mid Renato Augusto and center back Henrique, ivory coast left back Djakpa. Also joining the club is german nt forward Patrik Helmes from Cologne. Apart the players already mentioned they lost Paul Freier to Bochum, Papadopulos went back to the Czech Republic and Callsen-Bracker went to Gladbach. Of the latter players, no one will be really missed i guess...

Overall, Bayer has a very young and talented but inexperienced squad. Time will tell how good esp. the young brazilians are. With Schneider still out and a central defense which proofed to be quite shaky in the last season, an immediate impact of Helmes, Renato Augusto and Henrique is needed for Bayer to qualify for Europe.

players to watch out for[/n]

Renato Augusto : Bayer had to pay 10 Mio € for just 60 % of the transfer rights for a player which is labled as one of the top talents in brazilian football. Can he already handle the immense pressure which will rest on him ?

Rene Adler : Will he become Germanys new number 1 ? Along with Schalkes Manuel Neuer he is for sure the most talented german goalkeeper but unlike the Schalke player he was performing on a top level over the entire last season.

season prediction

Bundesliga : pos. 5-9

The outcome of the 08/09 season for Bayer Leverkusen will depend on how fast the new signings and the new coach can adapt to Bundesliga football. The past season showed that Bayer Leverkusen needs reinforcements in the defense and in the creative zone of the midfield. Though the new players are all said to be extremely talented, i have my doubts if they can show their talent on a regular basis. With a lot of luck, Bayer can reach direct qualification for the UEFA Cup but a position in the upper midfield seems more likely for me at the moment.

 

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midtable-teams I

Hannover 96
In Hannover, they dream to reach qualification for a european competetion. Last season it looked for a long period of time that such a qualification is possible, at least UI-Cup, but the team failed to reach pos. 6. Nevertheless it was Hannovers best season since being promoted to Bundesliga again in 2002.

Hannover coach Hecking often stated that Werder Bremen is his role model how he likes to play football, he wants his team to play fast and direct attacking football. To accomplish this goal, Hannover signed attacker Jan Schlaudraff from Bayern and finnish striker Mikael Forssell from Birmingham City. Other signings include Karlsruhe and swiss international central defender Mario Eggiman and a couple of younger talents.

Overall, the current Hannover squad looks much stronger than last years team since only disappointments like Lauth and Hashemian left the club but all important players are staying.

players to watch out for
Jan Schlaudraff - can he find back into track after his horrible season with Bayern ? If he can, he is a possible candidate for the german NT as well.

Robert Enke - he is the main contender with Leverkusens Rene Adler for the number 1 spot in the german nt goal.

Season predicition

Bundesliga : Pos. 6-9

Hannovers current squad looks better than last years team. But i think it's still not enough for a UEFA-Cup spot, nevertheless i'm awaiting some good performances by the team and attractive football.

 

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midtable-teams II

Eintracht Frankfurt

Eintracht had a season with ups and downs last year but unlike to prior years, they didn't had any relegation trouble this time and played very solid overall.

On the transfer market, they signed some interesting players like Steinhöfer, Korkmaz and Bellaid. From Schalke, CM Zlatan Bajramovic joined Eintracht on a bosman free transfer. If he manages to stay injury free, he should be a major reinforcement for the team.
With Sotirios Kyrgiakos, the Eintracht only lost 1 starter, all the other players which left the club were more or less benchwarmers.

Eintracht also managed to prolongue the contract of striker Ioannis Amanatidis and CM/defender Chris, two of their best and most important players. Only brazilian midfielder Caio who was signed in the last winter for club record transfer fee is still a cause of problems - he came back from the summer holidays with more than 6 kg of overweight ( indeed a noticable amount for just 4 weeks of vacation... :rollani and continues to annoy the Eintracht managing staff...

Coach Funkel and his staff will aim to achieve a better position than in 07/08 for the upcoming season.

players to watch out for
Martin Fenin - can the young and very talented czech striker show his great skills on a regular basis? In the past season the winter signing completely disappeared for about 3 months after scoring 4 goals from the first 2 matches only to find his form back at the end of the season again..

Caio - can Eintrachts record signing get rid of his overweight and finally become a reinforcement for the Eintracht ?

season prediction

Bundesliga : pos. 7-10
Eintracht will play a solid season without relegation trouble again. It won't be enough for one of the top spots though but if Eintracht manages to keep its squad together and even bring in further reinforcements, they may evolve into a UEFA-contender - but not yet this year.

 

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midtable-teams III

Hertha BSC

Last year, Hertha started a complete overhaul of their squad. New coach (Favre) and about 20 players out and in. The overhaul is continued this year, though compared to last year there are less popular names among the players leaving the club, only brazilian NT midfielder Mineiro and striker misunderstanding Andre Lima are noticable.
Hertha bought 3 more or less unknown brazilians ( CDs Kaka and Rodnei, CM Cicero ), striker talents Chermiti and Domovychiyski joined from tunisian top club Etoile and from Levski Sofia, left back Stein was signed from relegated Rostock.

Herthas aim according to sports director Hoeness is to reach a UEFA-Cup spot. Hertha was granted a shot at the UEFA-Cup already this year because they were top in the Bundesliga fair play table. The UEFA-Cup qualification is still ongoing but it seems to be sure that Hertha will make it.

players to watch out for

Patrik Ebert - can the talented right midfielder make it into the german NT and develop into a leader for Hertha ?

Marko Pantelic - can Herthas top striker justify his giant wage demands ( he asked for 5 Mio € per year to prolongue his contract..) with good performances on the pitch ?

season prediction

Bundesliga : pos. 10-7
(UEFA-Cup : round of last 32)

I find the upcoming Hertha season really hard to predict. They signed players who are more or less completely unknown to me. Favre looks like a decent coach with great tactical awareness and the Hertha squad contains many talented yet inexperienced players. Thus i predict another season with many ups and downs, i don't think that the current squad will already manage a direct qualification for the UEFA-Cup.

 

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midtable-teams IV

Teams like Cottbus, Hoffenheim and Bochum will follow later

Borussia Dortmund

With Jürgen Klopp, the BVB fans are enjoying their 4th coach within the last 3 years.
At the moment, there is again a big euphoria in and around Dortmund, mostly because of Jürgen Klopp who is for sure the biggest media darling in german football, even ahead of our NT players.

But Klopp proved in Mainz that he is not just full of hot air but also a decent coach. The question is if the Dortmund squad is decent enough to fulfill the big hopes the BVB fans (again) have for the new season and if Klopp can handle the media in Dortmund which is much more agressive than in Mainz.

Dortmund overhauled their central defense by signing 2 new CD's, 19 year old Neven Subotic who must be regarded as one of the biggest central defender talents in the Bundesliga and who already played under Klopp in Mainz and brazilian Felipe Santana who completely failed to fulfill the expectations in the pre-season, he needs more time to adapt. Oldie Wörns was given the boot as were WB Philip Degen and CD's Amedick and Brzenska.
Ever injured ex german international wingback Patrik Owomoyela was signed from Werder, playmaker Tamas Hajnal came from Karlsruhe but the biggest surprise was the recent swap of BVB top scorer Mladen Petric against Hamburgs Mohamed Zidan + aprox. 4-4,5 Mio €...

After a horrible 07/08 season in which the BVB still qualified for the UEFA-Cup due to the german cup final participation, aim for the new season is 'to do a lot better than last year and play attractive football' - the BVB officials are shunning the word 'UEFA-Cup' for a reason.

players to watch out for
Neven Subotic/Mats Hummels - both players are just 19 years old and thus are forming the youngest CD pair in the league. Both are extremely talented and it will be interesting if they can establish themselves as starting CD for an entire season or if oldie Robert Kovac must jump in sooner or later. Hummels still belongs to Bayern and will return after this season, probably a new Philip Lahm story.

Mohamed Zidan - can he finally find back into track after joining the club of his beloved former Mainz 05 coach Jürgen Klopp - the only coach under which he was able to perform in the Bundesliga...?

season prediction

Bundesliga : pos. 6-8
UEFA-Cup : round of last 32/16

I think that the BVB will do a lot better under Klopp than they did under Doll last season. It won't be enough for direct UEFA-Cup qualification though.
Despite his annoying media appearance, Klopp is a modern coach with great tactical knowledge and a very good motivator whose teams play attractive and fast football. The question is if the inexperienced central defense can perform over a complete season. At a first glimpse, HSV does benefit more from the Petric-Zidan swap but Zidan can be an excellent attacker as he proved under Klopp in Mainz, nevertheless Dortmund is a different team, he won't be the only star there and must learn to work for the team.

 

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Relegation cancidates I

Karlsruher SC

Last year Karlsruhe was one of the big surprises, they had a season without any relegation trouble and even spent a lot of time in the UEFA-Cup ranks despite having a squad with no big names and almost no money to reinforce the team after promotion.

There was not much activity on the transfer market this season, with playmaker Hajnal (to Dortmund) and defender Eggiman (to Hannover) 2 of the most important players left the team. They were replaced by Antonio da Silva from Stuttgart and Tim Sebastian from Rostock.

Ede Beckers men have a reputation for playing good and fast counter attacking football. It must be questioned if these counter attacks will still work out this year without playmaker Hajnal, da Silva doesn't have the same quality in my opinion. Aim for the season is to avoid relegation.

players to watch out for

Christian Eichner - last season one of the best left backs in the Bundesliga. Good overall footballer who is good in going forward and can kick dangerous crosses into the box area. Can he develop into a NT candidate ? He started good into the season by hitting the game winning goal against Bochum.

Season prediction

Bundesliga : Pos 12-16

I don't think that Karlsruhe can repeat the success of the last season when they didn't had any relegation trouble and stayed in the upper half of the table over almost the entire season. Without Hajnal and Eggiman, things won't be easy this year. I suppose that Karlsruhe will have to battle against relegation until the end of the season but considering their good coaching and team spirit, odds are good that they can avoid relegation again.

 

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Relegation Candidates II

Vfl Bochum

Bochum had a very good 07/08 season. Like Karlsruhe, Marcel Kollers boys never were in serious relegation trouble, though they didn't occupy one of the upper spots in the table but they always had a good cushion of points to the relegation zone.

Koller (like most coaches of smaller teams) tried to play fast counterattacking football as well. Striker Stanislav Sestak emerged as the top player with 13 goals and 9 assists.

Bochum was pretty active on the transfer market this season, with right wing Freier and striker Hashemian they added to players to their roster which played at Bochum before but overall, no big names were either bought or sold.

Their biggest problem is the goalie position. Last season, Lastuvka completely failed to convince and was sold to Donezk after just one season. But also his replacement, portugese keeper Fernandes who came from PAOK in Greece must prove now that he has the quality to succeed in the Bundesliga. I have some doubts but i may be wrong.

Bochums biggest loss is probably the departure of general sports manager Stefan Kuntz ( former german NT player...) to Kaiserslautern where he became president. Kuntz did a really good job in Bochum by undigging players like Sestak or Gekas ( the season before...).

The aim for the season is to stay out of the relegation zone.

players to watch out for

Stanislav Sestak : can he repeat his success of the last season and score again in double digits ? If yes, the bigger clubs will hunt him in the next summer.

Daniel Márcio Fernandes : Can he solve Bochums problems on the goalkeeper position ?

season predicition

Bundesliga : Pos. 12-16

My prediction is pretty much the same as for Karlsruhe. This season, Bochum will have to battle harder against relegation than last year. Nevertheless, i still see good chances for them to stay in. Marcel Koller is a very good tactican for me and they have some experienced players who are used to relegation battles and can get the job done under pressure...

 

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relegation candidates III

Arminia Bielefeld

Bielefeld is heading into its 5th consecutive season in the 1st Bundesliga, their longest spell in topflight football since the 80's. Last season they had to battle against relegation until the last day of the season.
In Bielefeld, it's quite usual to have trouble in the club between the coach, the president and the sports manager, so last season they first fired their coach Ernst Middendorp ( a true legend ...) who was replaced by former Aachen coach Michael Frontzeck and a couple of weeks later they also fired sports director Saftig - i have doubts that this helped to secure the league, but they are still in...

Most noticable concerning the transfer market activity is that they lost their former longtime no. 1 keeper Matthias Hain to St. Pauli, attacker Sibusiso Zuma went back to South Afrika ( to Sundowns FC) while former Schalke and german international left midfielder/winger Jörg Böhme ended his career. They signed a couple of more or less unknown players ( at least unknown to me...), attacker Chris Katongo from Broendby is probably the most noticable one of them...

Aim for the season is to avoid relegation.

players to watch out for
Artur Wichniarek - he had a good start into the season scoring 3 times in 2 matches. The former polish international striker is probably the best Bielefeld player.

season prediction

Bundesliga : Pos. 15-18

In my opinion, it will be really hard if not impossible to avoid relegation for Arminia this time. They still have some experienced players who know how to handle relegation battles, but the squad is totally missing top players who can really make the difference. And i don't rate coach Frontzeck very high. He relegated with Aachen 2007 and imho this will happen to Bielefeld this season, too, only a miracle can prevent this.

 

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relegation candidates IV

Energie Cottbus

Cottbus is a team which is used to battle relegation in the Bundesliga. Last season, they secured their place in the topflight already on matchday 33 with a win against Hamburg.
But the situation didn't change this year - until a new Abramovic comes in and floods the club with his money, they will always be one of the strugglers. Nevetheless on their homeground backed by their fanatic fans, Cottbus is a very nasty team to play against.
During the season, they exchanged the coach, Petrik Sander was replaced by slowenian coach Bojan Prasnikar already on matchday 6.

There was some activity on the transfer market but no big names came in or left.

Aim for the season is to avoid relegation.

players to watch out for
Vragel da Silva - will Bundesligas biggest thug, esp infamous for his intended ellbow hits, continue to bully his opponents ? How many matchdays will he be suspended this time ?

season prediction
Bundesliga : Pos. 15-18

Cottbus will have to battle against relegation until the last matchday of the season. When compared to Bielefeld, i still would give them the edge because of their intimidating home support and because of their coach who seems to be a very clever guy. Nevertheless the question is if there are enough teams who are worse than Cottbus so that they can stay in.

 

[Rothose]

promoted teams I

1899 Hoffenheim

Hoffenheim was in the Regionalliga 2 years ago, after 2 consecutive promotions they have now entered the Bundesliga.

Hoffenheim are labeled as 'german Chelsea' because their owner like Abramovic is a billionaire, german software company SAP co-founder and former CEO Dietmar Hopp.

But Chelsea and Hoffenheim cannot be compared.
Hoffenheim was Hopp's childhood sports club where he did athletics. Hopps idea is not to buy superstars, he wants to create a longterm perspective, therefore he is also heavily investing in the youth divisions and infrastructure of the club. A new stadium is being built, Hopp hired some of Germanies finest football coaches also for the youth divisions ( which paid off, Hoppenheims under 17 youth teams became german champions...) but despite the broad investments into all parts and divisions of the club, the main focus is clearly on the senior football team.

But also here Hopp is rather buying young top level talents instead of experienced players. I would like to mention strikers Demba Ba, Chinedu Obasi , the brazilian division with striker Wellington and midfielders Carlos Eduardo, Luis Gustavo and defender Andreas Beck here, all younger than 23 years and all blessed with a lot of talent.
The team is coached by Ralf Rangnick, an excellent german coach who almost won the Bundesliga with Schalke 3 years ago, his only weakness is that he cannot handle the media but in small town like Hoffenheim, this is not a problem at all.

players to watch out for

Carlos Eduardo - he was regarded as one of brazilians best talents in 2007 and one of the best players in the U20 world cup with a perspective to join the senior NT sooner or later. He is a really fine playmaker with typical south american strengths ( dribbling, vision, passing..).

Chinedu Obasi - a fine striker who really shined for Hoffenheim last season in Bundesliga 2 ( alongside his striker mate Demba Ba). At least in Bundesliga 2 it seemed that he has all the talent to join a top team sooner or later, he needs time to mature though..

Season prediction

Bundesliga : Pos 8-12

Hoffenheim is currently leading the league with 2 wins from 2 games. I'm pretty sure that they won't have any relegation trouble. They have so much talent in their squad and in Rangnick the right coach who can handle this talent and the young players. It is quite obvious that there is a new football giant in the making. The young squad only needs to build experience, the talent for a top spot in the league is already there and the funding to keep these talented players and add further reinforcements is available, too. In 2 years this team will compete for the UEFA-Cup or even the CL for sure...

 

[Rothose]

HSV
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season prediction

Bundesliga : Pos 3-5 ( with vdV), Pos. 5-8 ( without vdV or a proper replacement )
UEFA-Cup : round of last 16 - quarter finals.

Since the transfer period did not end yet and it is still not sure if vdV will stay or other players will be sold or bought, it is very hard to make a prediction. With vdV, HSV is still among the top teams. Schalke and Werder have better squads but if everything runs perfect and vdV stays, a CL spot is possible. Without vdV ( or a proper replacement...), HSV must watch out not to end up somewhere in the Bundesliga midfield.

Too bad but my prediction came true. It seems that we now lost it all, even if there is still a slight chance to go into the new Euro-League because Moenchengladbach must at least secure a point against BVB to be sure to stay in the Bundesliga ( provided that we win in Frankfurt which is very unlikely considering our last performances....).

We sold our best players but didn't replace 'em at all.
vdV gone, Neves in, Neves flopped, Neves sold again.
De Jong sold with no real replacement.
Kompany wasn't one of our key players last season but he was still better than the injury prone Alex Silva who missed half of the season due to torn muscles...
Overall it was a miracle that we made it so far but in the Cup competitions, we were kicked out immediately by the first real opponent.

What a bad transfer policy :frustrat: .

 

[Rothose]

I completely disagree. Your squad is much stronger than last season...

You got right of basically your top star and brought in lots of players that contributed.

You are wrong, mate.
Look at our stats : We conceded much more goals than last season, this is a direct result of the sale of de Jong (who could only play 7 matches anyway because he was injured in the first half of the season). De Jong was a key player in our system and he helped so much that the central defenders didn't come under pressure. I'm 100 % sure that Diego would never have been able to shine in the 2nd UEFA-Cup semi like he did if De Jong was on the pitch.

And vdV - though he could not be considered to be a playmaker - was the player who scored and created most of our goals. Petric replaced his goals but neither his creativity in the midfield nor his ability as a set piece taker.

Of course Jansen, Petric and Aogo were good transfers but it was by far not enough because esp. in the midfield and central defense, we didn't get back the quality we lost. Jol already said in August that he needs a decent replacement for vdV to be successful, he didn't get one at all.

 

[Rothose]

Well, on the other hand Trochowski was 3 times the player he used to be when you had vdV this season for example. You cannot purely compare the players left with those that came. And the money for de Jong is still there to be used.

Well, not really. Trochowski's stats in his HSV career :

2005/2006 Hamburger SV 32 matches, 5 goals, 5 assists
2006/2007 Hamburger SV 26 matches, 2 goals, 5 assists
2007/2008 Hamburger SV 32 matches, 1 goal, 7 assists
2008/2009 Hamburger SV 32 matches, 5 goals, 8 assists

So overall, he just has 3 more assists than in the 05/06 season so far. Considering that he is now the PK taker and the no. 1 set piece taker (this business was done by vdV before), his stats aren't really improved at all.