Bundesliga 2015-16 Season

[wadistance]

Well the time is nearly upon us, and after not much fanfare last season, here’s to hoping more people get excited about the Bundesliga, post comments, adopt a team or generally just realise what a great league it is for exciting play, high goal scoring and some lesser known young talent that will one day make it big (although probably never in England).

As is every year, the question is not if, but how much Bayern Munich will win by – a question that this year does not do justice to the chasers. Wolfsburg have managed to provide a fair threat to Bayern last year, and if they hadn’t dropped a couple of silly games last season we might have had a real race.

The Foals (Borussia M’Gladbach) have made their intentions clear, heading to the Champions League for the first time in their history, as Neverkusen (Bayer Leverkusen) round out the top 4 as they usually do.

The also-rans this year feature teams which most would normally associate with top flight German football. FC Augsburg have made an impressive push up to the top ranks of German football, and will head the Europa League campaign this year, whilst two former powers, Borussia Dortmund and that other Blue Team will be looking to make up for disastrous campaigns last season.

Also reaching promotion were the Stadt’s (Ingolstadt and Darmstadt), and whether it is a fight for survival, or they prove too strong for the perennial 16th place team in Hamburg, we will have to wait and see.

As mentioned before, I encourage all to get involved, be a part, adopt a team (unless its Buyern or the Blue Team of course (just kidding)) and enjoy the best attended league in the world.

 

[Koze]

Will be getting behind Dortmund

 

[ossie_21]

Bayern will win it by at least 15pts, some of the best players from other teams will be sold & the cycle will continue. Boring.

 

[sverik25]

Have loosely followed Wolfsburg for the last few seasons not but find it hard to get into the Bundesliga because of Bayern's dominance.

 

[wadistance]

Bayern will win it by at least 15pts, some of the best players from other teams will be sold & the cycle will continue. Boring.

Not so sure it will be that easy this year. Definitely expecting Wolfsburg to challenge, having signed Max Kruse to their already strong forward line. KDB will go to another level this year, Schurrle will find his spot, and Kruse will score at least 15.

Bayern obviously have one of the strongest lineups in world football, but something has to give. I get the feeling that a few more will move by the years end - Goetze looks ready to pull stumps, Alonso might be in his last season there, and Vidal to be awarded the most Red cards this season.

The area that Bayern get away is their consistency against smaller clubs - because the Wolves are close in a 1 on 1 match

 

[Cooldude]

How will Tuchel get Dortmund to play? Obviously will be following their progress as usual

 

[ossie_21]

Not so sure it will be that easy this year. Definitely expecting Wolfsburg to challenge, having signed Max Kruse to their already strong forward line. KDB will go to another level this year, Schurrle will find his spot, and Kruse will score at least 15.

Bayern obviously have one of the strongest lineups in world football, but something has to give. I get the feeling that a few more will move by the years end - Goetze looks ready to pull stumps, Alonso might be in his last season there, and Vidal to be awarded the most Red cards this season.

The area that Bayern get away is their consistency against smaller clubs - because the Wolves are close in a 1 on 1 match

Only issue is if KDB is off to Citeh, they won't be quite as strong. I agree something will give, not at least this season though

 

[Magma]

will continue to retain a strong interest in gladbach, mostly because i believe favre is one of the best managers around and will one day manage a major club.

 

[wadistance]

How will Tuchel get Dortmund to play? Obviously will be following their progress as usual

Very fluid. He is a big proponent of building from the back but isnt afraid to change tactics quite a few times during a game. He is somewhere on the genius spectrum. If Klopp was a heavy metal band, Tuchel is Mozart.

What was interesting was to see how frustrated he was getting at times during the pre-season games when Schmelle or Pizcu bombed it long from a flank. Sahin/Castro/Weigl are going to be indispensable for his gameplan to work - and for this reason I think Bender and Großkreutz are on borrowed time. He demands a lot of skill and possession.

I would expect to see a 4-1-4-1 or a 4-1-3-2 or a 4-4-2 diamond from him with Auba/Ramos and Reus as dual forwards. I think he will rarely play a lone forward, unless the other teams play quite high

 

[TooUglyForFugly]

Soft spot for Dortmund. Will keep an eye on Leverkusen and Ingolstadt for the Aussie contingency. (although Kruse tends to be injured more often than not)

If we can talk about Bundesliga 2, then I'll follow Heidenheim for the same reason as the latter two.

 

[wadistance]

Soft spot for Dortmund. Will keep an eye on Leverkusen and Ingolstadt for the Aussie contingency. (although Kruse tends to be injured more often than not)

If we can talk about Bundesliga 2, then I'll follow Heidenheim for the same reason as the latter two.

Always down for some 2.BL talk. Funnily enough I support the team that beat us in a friendly last week (VfL Bochum)

 

[Greendogg5]

I still feel so sorry for Freiburg & Paderborn, did not deserve to go down as they certainly put up better performances than Hamburg who miraculously survived for the second successive season, surely they'll go down this time.....

Excited for Tuchel this season as he is known for being quite flexible with his tactics, he seems to be rolling with a 4-3-3 with Kagawa playing behind Reus & Auba up front & Bender/Weigl playing as a lone DM with Gundogan and Miki making up the rest of the midfield (i guess kind of like a 4-4-2 diamond). Hoping Dudziak gets his chance to supplant Schmelzer (who has frankly been a real weak link in defense), from what I've seen of Dudziak in the friendlies so far he looks great.

Darmstadt's rise has been amazing, 3. Liga (effectively 4th div if not for Offenbach's relegation punishment) to Bundesliga in consecutive seasons without significant monetary intervention!

 

[Greendogg5]

oh and wadistance , how much do you know about Passlack? I have only seen short clips but i have heard so much about being the next big dortmund star to come through the youth system, some even go as far as comparisons with Götze

 

[wadistance]

oh and wadistance , how much do you know about Passlack? I have only seen short clips but i have heard so much about being the next big dortmund star to come through the youth system, some even go as far as comparisons with Götze

I watched their game in the u/17 German championships final, and its not just him we have to look forward to. Dzenis Burnic, Jacob Bruun Larsen and Christian Pulisic are not far off his ability ... probably the strongest quartet out of any club with a youth team in Germany. Passlack may get a couple of chances at the end of this season I feel. We also have a beast of a forward in Janni Serra - absolute hulk of a bloke at 1.93m. If he develops the way he should (and so do the others), Dortmund will cause some headaches at the end of this decade.

 

[TooUglyForFugly]

Phwoar. That's a giant as far as football players go.

 

[Ashton Agar]

Bayer Leverkusen are my side, though I don't really follow them. Would probably follow this a lot more if I knew how to watch games?

 

[Greendogg5]

I watched their game in the u/17 German championships final, and its not just him we have to look forward to. Dzenis Burnic, Jacob Bruun Larsen and Christian Pulisic are not far off his ability ... probably the strongest quartet out of any club with a youth team in Germany. Passlack may get a couple of chances at the end of this season I feel. We also have a beast of a forward in Janni Serra - absolute hulk of a bloke at 1.93m. If he develops the way he should (and so do the others), Dortmund will cause some headaches at the end of this decade.

Yeah, had also heard a fair bit about Burnic.
Defence is still a major issue but if Hummels & one of Subotic/Papa can play almost the entire season, that will go a long way to resolving the problems.

 

[wadistance]

Bayer Leverkusen are my side, though I don't really follow them. Would probably follow this a lot more if I knew how to watch games?

I used to subscribe to Setanta, but I hated the english commentary, so I used rajangan (hopefully mods dont ban me for saying this) and managed to get all the games with German commentary.

The league is now shown through BeIn sports and they usually did 6 games per year - so good to get a few games. Shocking game times though - most are at 11.30pm or 4.30am (the things we do for love).

Leverkusen are a strong team - I really like Roger Schmidt, and was really disappointed that they lost Can to Liverpool. However they've recalled Kramer, Leno is playing well and Bender/Keißling are great players. We took Castro off you this year, so will be interesting to see how your new signings of Padadopolous and Tah hold up down back

 

[wadistance]

Yeah, had also heard a fair bit about Burnic.
Defence is still a major issue but if Hummels & one of Subotic/Papa can play almost the entire season, that will go a long way to resolving the problems.

I think Papa and Hummels will lock down the CB positions - there were some rumblings in Kicker magazine that Watzke and Zorc weren't happy at Klopp for starting Subotic over Papa in the Cup final.

Schmelle is now a backup player IMO, and will probably have given up his spot to Dudziak by the end of the year. With Pizcu very injury prone, I'd expect Durm to get more and more game time also.




I'm still waiting for Kaiserchief to come in and say we're shit and nothing comes close to Bayern

 

[TooUglyForFugly]

The Reus rumours are still rife. Do you expect to really lose him?

 

[Greendogg5]

I think Papa and Hummels will lock down the CB positions - there were some rumblings in Kicker magazine that Watzke and Zorc weren't happy at Klopp for starting Subotic over Papa in the Cup final.

Schmelle is now a backup player IMO, and will probably have given up his spot to Dudziak by the end of the year. With Pizcu very injury prone, I'd expect Durm to get more and more game time also.




I'm still waiting for Kaiserchief to come in and say we're shit and nothing comes close to Bayern

Who do you like at the DM position? Do you think Sahin has the legs for it?

 

[wadistance]

The Reus rumours are still rife. Do you expect to really lose him?

not this season. the only place he is going is Real Madrid, and not whilst Ronaldo owns the LM position

 

[wadistance]

Who do you like at the DM position? Do you think Sahin has the legs for it?

if we have 2 in the second line, then yep, Sahin and either Castro/Bender. But he's not strong or fast enough in a 1 out situation. He probably won't play for the first few rounds anyway, so won't have to worry about that.

We really are stacked from DM through to AM - we really need a strong holding CF (Which we havent been able to find since RL moved on) and and another world class CB to partner Hummels

 

[wadistance]

Some good friendlies coming up for a few of the bundesliga teams tonight.

Dortmund v Juventus
Augsburg v Norwich
E. Frankfurt v Fulham
Werner Bremen v Sevillia
Hoffenheim v Leeds

 

[Greendogg5]

Some good friendlies coming up for a few of the bundesliga teams tonight.

Dortmund v Juventus
Augsburg v Norwich
E. Frankfurt v Fulham
Werner Bremen v Sevillia
Hoffenheim v Leeds

Yeah, just wish it wasn't 2am haha