The Bundesliga makes
its anticipated return this weekend and the big burning question is can anyone
challenge Bayern Munich this season? Bayern have dominated German football for
far too long and they need a fight to win the league title. Schalke, Borussia
Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen will be hoping to challenge Bayern this season
and knock them of their very high perch. German football fans and neutrals will
hope for another, exciting, competitive season in Germany’s top flight.
However, many fans will hope Bayern are pipped to the title this season but can
any of their title rivals sustain a title challenge this season with constant inconsistencies
and an inability to beat Bayern ultimately costs them a chance at glory. The Bundesliga
is always entertaining and expect the 2018/19 season to be no different.
Bayern are complete
favourites for the title and they head into the new season under new management
after Jupp Heynecks’ second retirement with former midfielder and Eintracht
Frankfurt boss Niko Kovac taking over at a club he knows well. Kovac will be
tasked with winning everything including the Champions League and with the
talent in that squad, it is very hard to bet against them not winning the
league and German cup at least. Kovac has a strong squad still containing the
likes of Thomas Muller, Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery and Robert Lewandowski and
all will be eager to continue their supreme dominance of Germany. However,
young stars of the side like Corentin Tolisso, Kingsley Coman, Niklas Sule and
Joshua Kimmich all hoping to continue their excellent form and displays for Bayern.
Kovac has added Leon Goretzka from Schalke and he will add a different dimension
to Bayern’s already strong midfield. Bayern are overwhelming favourites for the
title but can any of their rivals possibly steal it away. Last seasons’
runners-up Schalke will be quietly confident they can sustain a title charge.
It was a wonderful first season in charge for Domenico Tedesco and he will be
desperate to continue the feel-good factor around the whole club. However, the
losses of Leon Goretzka and Max Meyer will be a blow, but Tedesco will have
plenty of faith in the talented players at his disposal including Amine Harit, Guido
Burgstaller, Breel Embolo, Matija Nastasic and Yevhen Konoplyanka. Tedesco has
flexed his muscles in the transfer window and brought in the likes of Salif
Sane, Omar Mascarell, Mark Uth and Sout Serdar. All have been good performers
in the Bundesliga. Uth adds firepower to Schalke’s attack while Serdar and
Mascarell add creativity and solidity to Schalke midfield. Sane is an excellent
addition to their backline with the defender known for pace and power and was
excellent at Hannover last season. Schalke are confident, but can they sustain
a title challenge to knock Bayern of their perch or maybe Dortmund can. Dortmund
were extremely disappointing last season despite Peter Bosz starting so
magnificently but he was sacked and successor Stoger faired no better as Dortmund
scraped into the Champions League places. Dortmund head into the new season
with yet another new manager in the experienced Swiss Lucien Favre. Favre has
an excellent record having managed the likes of Borussia Monchengladbach and
Hertha Berlin. His most recent spell was at French side Nice where he had some success
and clearly Dortmund are going to be expecting improvement and a sustained title
challenge this season. However, Dortmund have sold of several key players in
the transfer window as Favre’s revolution takes shape as figures like Andre
Schurrle, Andriy Yarmolenko, Gonzalo Castro, Sokratis and Eric Durm have left
the club this summer. Favre has been active in the transfer window to replace what
has departed with the likes of Marius Wolf, Thomas Delaney, Abdou Diallo,
Achraf Hakimi and perhaps there most exciting signing so far Axel Witsel. The
Belgian joins after an excellent world cup and will be a steel, controlling
figure at the heart of the Dortmund midfield. However, what is a concern is Dortmund
are yet to add to their strike force with Batshuayi returning to Chelsea after
his loan and now Dortmund are light up front. This a big season for Dortmund
with much more expected after a poor season and the likes of Marco Reus, Mario
Gotze, Jando Sancho, Shinji Kagawa and Christian Pulisic will have to step up
this season to give Dortmund a chance at success. In contrast, it was a much-improved
season for Bayer Leverkusen last time out and Heiko Herrlich enters his second
season in charge full of confidence that his side can upset the odds.
Leverkusen have a young, exciting team containing the likes of Leon Bailey,
Julian Brandt, Jonathan Tah, Benjamin Hendrichs and Lucas Alario. There is a real
buzz of excitement around Leverkusen this season and it’s no wonder with the
talent at their disposal and like Schalke, they will be quietly confident they can
challenge for the title but their aim for this season will be the Champions
League having missed out in the previous season.
Speaking of the
battle for Champions League football that brings us on to the ambitious RB Leipzig.
The ambition will be the Champions League season, but this season is a strange one
for the Leipzig players because of the deal that takes Julen Naglesmann to take
over at the end of the new season meaning sporting director Ralf Rangnick is in
caretaker charge for the season. However, despite this strange arrangement the ambition
to return to the top 4 will remain the same. However, the loss of Naby Keita is
a big blow but, they will be confident they can compete without him and they
will rely further on the talented Emil Forsberg who didn’t have his best season
last time out. RB Leipzig are a talented, young team and will be hoping to
impress incoming boss Julen Naglesmann with good performances and a place in
the Champions League. Speaking of Naglesmann, that brings us nicely to his
current side Hoffenheim. It has been a magnificent couple of seasons for
Hoffenheim with a place in the Champions League secured for the first time in
their history in the previous season and there is no doubt Naglesmann will want
to go out on a high. Naglesmann has built a fantastic, hardworking, talented squad
with the likes of Karim Demirbay, Andrej Kramaric, Kevin Vogt, Pavel Kaderabek
and Florian Grillitsch having wonderful seasons last time out. However, the
loss of Mark Uth to Schalke is hard to take but Naglesmann will have complete
faith in new signing Ishak Belfodil who had an excellent loan spell at Werder Bremen
last season. It will be a season to remember for Hoffenheim even if Naglesmann
is going at the end of the season. Like Hoffenheim, it was a wonderful season
last time out for Eintracht Frankfurt who won the German Cup and secured a
place in the Europa League but will enter the new season under the guidance of
Adi Hutter who joins from Swiss club Young Boys. Hutter is tasked with
continuing where Niko Kovac left off but has completely revamped the squad by
adding the likes of Felix Wiedwald, Nicolai Muller, Lucas Torro, Goncalo Paciencia
and Chico Geraldes all joining the club this summer and with the talents of
last seasons stars like Ante Rebic, Marco Russ, Sebastian Haller and Jetro
Willems. It is an exciting time to be a Frankfurt supporter and they will be
quietly confident they can sneak into the top 4 this season. Borussia Monchengladbach
are also looking to push for the top 4. It was a disappointing season for the
club under Dieter Hecking last time out and he will demand improvement this
season with a top 7 finish the bare minimum. However, the signing of Alassane
Plea for £23 million is a statement of intent that the club wants more than Europa
League football and consistency and goals were issues for Gladbach last season
and they will be determined to show they can be competitive and challenge the
top 4.
What a miserable
couple of seasons it has been for Wolfsburg. Consecutive years of struggle for
the club who were only champions back in 2009. The club has sunk down the
league in a startling fashion to a point where winning consecutive relegation
play-offs has kept them in the league. The club must improve this season and Bruno
Labbadia must improve them going into his first full season in charge.
Wolfsburg must push for at least the top half but with the squad at their disposal,
they must be challenging for the Europa League. The players have been underperforming
for too long and the club must push up this season. There is enough talent in
this squad including Max Arnold, Jakub Blaszczykowski, Yunis Malli, John
Brooks, Ignacio Camacho and Joshua Guilavogui and Koen Casteels and they will
all admit they underperformed last season. Goals were also a major issue for
Wolfsburg and they will hope new signings Daniel Ginczek and Wout Weghorst will
be the men to add the necessary firepower. Weghorst in particular joins after a
wonderful season at AZ Alkmaar where he fired them to 3rd in the Eredivisie.
Improvement will be the bare minimum expectation for Wolfsburg this season, but
the club must be challenging for Europe again, but it may take time for that to
happen. In contrast, it was a great season for Stuttgart certainly when Tayfun
Korkut took over as he guided them to 7th place in their first season
back in the Bundesliga and now they will fancy finishing there once again in
the new season and signing the likes of Gonzalo Castro and Daniel Didavi is a
sign of intent.
However, there will
be sides looking for improvement after mid-table and bottom half finishes and
these include Werder Bremen, Hertha Berlin, Augsburg, Mainz and Hannover.
Bremen were excellent during the second half of the season after a slow start
to the campaign and starting slowly is a recurring issue for Bremen, so they
will want a strong start this season and they have made good signings including
Dutch international Davy Klaasen who joins after a disappointing year at Everton
and he will be eager to prove himself. Bremen will aim for the top half and hope
to avoid the relegation battle. Hertha Berlin are also looking for improvement
after failing to live to the high expectations they set during the 2016/17 season.
They were underwhelming last season and Per Dardai will demand improvement this
season because there is enough talent in that side to challenge the top half if
not the top 7. Hertha have the likes of Saloman Kalou, Nicolas Stark, Vedad Ibisevic,
Marvin Plattenhardt and Alexander Esswein will all need to improve to allow
Hertha to push back to where they want to be. It was a comfortable first season
in charge for Manuel Baum comfortably finishing in mid-table but they will want
to push towards a top half finish. Michael Gregoritsch is their talisman and he
was sublime in his first season at the club and he will be vital to any success
they have this season. Baum will be delighted with his transfer business
bringing back fans favourite Andre Hahn who has struggled at both Monchengladbach
and Hamburg since leaving the club. Baum will be confident being back to his boyhood
club will inspire Hahn to re-discover his best form. Augsburg want a place in the
top-half and that would represent an excellent season for the club. Similarly,
Hannover would like to finish in the top-half after finishing the second half of
the season poorly. Hannover showed glimpses of quality under Andre Breitenreiter
during the first half of the season but faded badly. However, Niklas Fullkrug
is the star of this team and was brilliant for Hannover last season firing 20
plus goals and he will be confident of scoring the goals to at least see Hannover
escape the relegation battle. Hannover have added the likes of Takashi Asano
and Bobby Wood to take the burden of Fullkrug. Another side aiming for improvement
is Mainz after a disappointing season of struggle. Mainz struggled for large
parts of last season under Sandro Schwarz but did show glimpses of the talent
and quality they have. The club has lost Leon Balogun and Yoshinori Muto who
were important players in their side but have added Jean Mateta a highly rated
striker from Lyon who will be eager to prove himself in the Bundesliga. Improvement
will be high on Mainz’s agenda and certainly Freiburg can correlate with this. The
side from the black forest are regular strugglers in the Bundesliga and the new
season is expected to be no different especially since they sold off key centre
back Caglar Soyuncu and Freiburg will have to replace him as he along with Nils
Petersen were their best performers last season. They will want to improve but
I expect them to be involved in the relegation battle once again.
Finally, we come to
the promoted sides Fortuna Dusseldorf and Nuremberg. Both clubs had wonderful
seasons in Bundesliga 2 and will be confident of bringing that momentum into
the new season as they aim for survival in the new season. Dusseldorf were
magnificent under Freidhelm Funkel and he will be confident his squad are good enough
to survive but with 12 new signings they are going to take time to gel, but they
must quickly to have any chance of survival. Its not been as busy at Nuremberg with
Michael Kollner only adding players where he felt they need improving and survival
will be high on their agenda but they are going to need somebody to step and
fire the goals in for them. Kollner will hope the likes of Edgar Salli, Michael
Ishak and Adam Zrelak continue their form along with new signing Yuya Kobo
eager to prove himself in the Bundesliga. Survival will no doubt be the aim for
both promoted sides and that would represent a magnificent season for both
clubs.
My Predicted Table:
1. Bayern Munich
2. Bayer Leverkusen
3. Borussia Dortmund
4. Schalke
5. RB Leipzig
6. Hoffenheim
7. Borussia Monchengladbach
8. Eintracht Frankfurt
9. Wolfsburg
10. Stuttgart
11. Werder Bremen
12. Hertha Berlin
13. Augsburg
14. Hannover
15. Mainz
16. Fortuna Dusseldorf
17. Freiburg
18. Nuremberg
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