Bundesliga 2016/17

BlueCelery said:
Why did Gladbach get battered so easily against City? They're normally a better side than that.

Raffael is one of my favourite players & Thorgan Hazard has been on fire this season.
Click to expand...

They're significantly worse away from home and they haven't been 'that' great recently, they lost to Freiburg just the weekend before. Bremen is just utter shit right now so they make every team look amazing.

Twigginater said:
Because the rest of the league isn't the quality of the Prem.

Edit: and City worryingly look amazing.
Click to expand...

Bad timing to bring up that debate now that City is proving what a lot of people have said for years: The supposingly amazing quality depth of the PL doesn't exist and Barca, Real, Bayern would just spank Hull, Bournemouth etc. the same way they do it with teams in their own league.
 
We play Bremen midweek, so I hope they don't sack Skripnik in the meantime. They look abjectly terrible this season, but a new coach could energise them at exactly the wrong time.
 
Gibt es auch einen Club, der Dich besonders beeindruckt?

Süle: "Manchester United ist ein Traum, seitdem ich mit zwölf Jahren bei einem Austausch dort war und bei einem Ausflug, auf den Rasen gehen durfte. Ich bin schon ein bisschen verliebt in das Stadion. Insgesamt ist England natürlich reizvoll, weil die körperbetonte Spielweise zu mir passt. Das wäre schon cool, aber jetzt habe ich meinen Vertrag hier ja erst mal verlängert."

----------------------

I was just looking for an interview as he said something similar some minutes ago in the "Aktuelles Sportstudio"... - and I found one from November 2015. Interesting.

-----------------------

A somewhat free translation:

Do you have a favourite club?
Manchester United is a dream since I have been there with 12 years with an exchange program and was allowed to walk on the pitch during a trip to Old Trafford. I am a little bit in love with the stadium. England would be very interesting as the playing style with more body contact matches well to my strengths. It would be cool, but right now I recently have made a new contract (with Hoffenheim).
 
Blackwidow said:
Gibt es auch einen Club, der Dich besonders beeindruckt?

Süle: "Manchester United ist ein Traum, seitdem ich mit zwölf Jahren bei einem Austausch dort war und bei einem Ausflug, auf den Rasen gehen durfte. Ich bin schon ein bisschen verliebt in das Stadion. Insgesamt ist England natürlich reizvoll, weil die körperbetonte Spielweise zu mir passt. Das wäre schon cool, aber jetzt habe ich meinen Vertrag hier ja erst mal verlängert."

----------------------

I was just looking for an interview as he said something similar some minutes ago in the "Aktuelles Sportstudio"... - and I found one from November 2015. Interesting.

-----------------------

A somewhat free translation:

Do you have a favourite club?
Manchester United is a dream since I have been there with 12 years with an exchange program and was allowed to walk on the pitch during a trip to Old Trafford. I am a little bit in love with the stadium. England would be very interesting as the playing style with more body contact matches well to my strengths. It would be cool, but right now I recently have made a new contract (with Hoffenheim).
Click to expand...

How good is he?
 
gofelx said:
"Even if we're not winning any of the next 8 games, Viktor Skripnik will be our manager" - Frank Baumann after the 6-0 away defeat against Bayern

Still got some time left :D

Cannot get any enjoyment out of Bremen losing though, we've been way too crap as well.
Click to expand...

Skripnik sacked :D

Let's see if it has an impact on Bremen.
Süle is a good talent, but probably not ready for a big club yet and I like that he agrees with that and stays at Hoffenheim despite some good offers.
 
Pyroblazer said:
Skripnik sacked :D

Let's see if it has an impact on Bremen.
Süle is a good talent, but probably not ready for a big club yet and I like that he agrees with that and stays at Hoffenheim despite some good offers.
Click to expand...

BVB, Wolfsburg and Leverkusen were interested this summer as was Klopp. Chelsea has offered 30 million EUR some weeks ago.

With this guys you never know where the ceiling is. But he seems to know that he still has a lot work to do.

I have not really watched him until now - I watched a German football show yesterday evening where he was the guest and he mentioned United and I then googled for a written interview about the topic - and found the above quoted sentences from a year ago.
 
Balu said:
It's always difficult to tell who fits best, but someone like for example Hasenhüttl at least has the potential to become a quality manager and might be worth the risk. There's almost every year an interesting young upcoming manager in the Bundesliga, who could be worth the risk. I get that you want a bit of stability, but I'm not sure if Labbadia can really offer that. Wouldn't be surprised if the team collapses under him similar to how it happened at all his previous clubs and then you're forced to change the manager again anyway.
Click to expand...

Breitenreiter was one of those "interesting" managers last year, the guy looked completely clueless managing a bigger team than Paderborn. Labbadia at least knows how to deal with the media well, something a lot of managers are not used to when they're managing small clubs where there's much less pressure.
I remember when everyone was praising Nürnberg when they got Alois Schwartz at the beginning of the season. The guy did an amazing job at Sandhausen but the environment is certainly different in Nürnberg. He'll be sacked in the next 2 weeks.

This "collapse" under Labbadia is also more a myth than anything else. After he left Hamburg and Stuttgart respectively, it went downhill for both teams. Stuttgart reached the cup final and lost 2-3 against Bayern with him, 3 games into the new season he gets sacked. Again I'm not saying he's a great manager or anything but I certainly wouldn't get rid of him in favor of Gisdol or someone.
 
gofelx said:
Breitenreiter was one of those "interesting" managers last year, the guy looked completely clueless managing a bigger team than Paderborn. Labbadia at least knows how to deal with the media well, something a lot of managers are not used to when they're managing small clubs where there's much less pressure.
I remember when everyone was praising Nürnberg when they got Alois Schwartz at the beginning of the season. The guy did an amazing job at Sandhausen but the environment is certainly different in Nürnberg. He'll be sacked in the next 2 weeks.

This "collapse" under Labbadia is also more a myth than anything else. After he left Hamburg and Stuttgart respectively, it went downhill for both teams. Stuttgart reached the cup final and lost 2-3 against Bayern with him, 3 games into the new season he gets sacked. Again I'm not saying he's a great manager or anything but I certainly wouldn't get rid of him in favor of Gisdol or someone.
Click to expand...
Well yeah, it's a risk. Though Breitenreiter got relegated with Paderborn and then moved on. It was weird how he was bigged up as a possible manager for a top 5 club despite his failure in the Bundesliga. I personally still rate Gisdol, even though he is flawed and I wouldn't necessarily see him as a future top 5 manager either. I'd like to see him getting a shot at a bigger club though because his style of play is interesting.

I wouldn't say this 'collapse' under Labbadia is a myth either. The fact that it went downhill after he left doesn't necessarily speak for him. Both times the squad he left behind looked mentally drained and tired and both times the quality of the squad got worse each year during his spells at the clubs. Obviously that's not just his fault and he had to deal with some pretty bad DoFs, but at least partly he should be blamed for it in my opinion.
 
@Balu

We should not forget which clubs Labbadia was coach of. The environment is not very healthy for coaches at both Stuttgart or Hamburg.
 
Blackwidow said:
@Balu

We should not forget which clubs Labbadia was coach of. The environment is not very healthy for coaches at both Stuttgart or Hamburg.
Click to expand...
It was the same at Leverkusen.

Maybe there's a reason that since he left Leverkusen 7 years ago he only worked for the two 'big' clubs in Germany with the worst record of appointing managers.
 
Balu said:
I wouldn't say this 'collapse' under Labbadia is a myth either. The fact that it went downhill after he left doesn't necessarily speak for him. Both times the squad he left behind looked mentally drained and tired and both times the quality of the squad got worse each year during his spells at the clubs. Obviously that's not just his fault and he had to deal with some pretty bad DoFs, but at least partly he should be blamed for it in my opinion.
Click to expand...

Well he certainly wasn't helped by the Sporting directors:

„In Stuttgart haben wir zu meiner Zeit den Etat (für die Gehälter der Mannschaft) um 20 Millionen Euro gesenkt, von 60 Millionen auf 40. Trotzdem sind wir zweimal ins internationale Geschäft eingezogen.“ Irgendwann brach das Kartenhaus aber zusammen. Der VfB rutsche ab, weil Leistungsträger verkauft werden mussten. „Am Ende hat das keinen mehr interessiert.“ Labbadia musste gehen.
Click to expand...

I can imagine how infuriating it must be when the expectations for the manager are sky high and meanwhile you have to cut 1/3 of the budget and let go of all your good players. I'm pretty sure it wasn't his intention to spend 2m on players in total for the whole summer while selling for almost 5 times as much.
 
gofelx said:
Well he certainly wasn't helped by the Sporting directors:



I can imagine how infuriating it must be when the expectations for the manager are sky high and meanwhile you have to cut 1/3 of the budget and let go of all your good players. I'm pretty sure it wasn't his intention to spend 2m on players in total for the whole summer while selling for almost 5 times as much.
Click to expand...
I know all that. It doesn't really change that I don't rate his tactical nous nor his man-management. Both became evident in his previous spells as manager and I'm not convinced that he has learned much from it. He's an okay choice, not the manager to take you forward and consistently back in the Europa League, let alone CL.

It's also a bit misleading to use Stuttgart's lucky cup run in 12/13 as a great achievement like Labbadia tries to do in that quote. They didn't play a Bundesliga team till the semifinal, when they got to play at home against Freiburg. Surely that's one of the easiest draw a cup finalist ever had. Their overall performances that season were simply underwhelming.
 
I think Labbadia is a mediocre coach, nothing more nothing less, so Hamburg have to ask them what they want to achieve in the mid term. Are they looking for a couple of years of stability to consolidate their finances, then sticking with Labbadia would probably a safe(ish) choice, if they want to challenge the top third then imho they have to look elsewhere.
 
do.ob said:
I think Labbadia is a mediocre coach, nothing more nothing less, so Hamburg have to ask them what they want to achieve in the mid term. Are they looking for a couple of years of stability to consolidate their finances, then sticking with Labbadia would probably a safe(ish) choice, if they want to challenge the top third then imho they have to look elsewhere.
Click to expand...
I think it's really difficult to get that stability because the gap between relegation and midtable is so, so small and a few bad results bring back the chaos almost instantly. You have to challenge for the top third to avoid getting dragged in a relegation fight. That save looking midtable region doesn't really exist anymore in my opinion. Just look at last season, Hamburg was in the end only 5 points away from the relegation playoff spot. That's nothing and that's as save a midtable season as you can expect. I can't think of a club that finished savely in midtable for 3 years running without either qualifying for Europe or struggling to avoid relegation at least once.
 
I really really dislike Ayketin´s refereeing. He actually does not make that many huge mistakes, but his line of refereeing is just so inconsistent. In this match he started really nitpicky only to be very lenient with some serious tackles a few minutes later. How are the players supposed to adjust their behavious on the pitch that way?

Overall the game is a pretty boring affair. Schalke is this season really poor at creating meaningful chances and Embolo while very talented is still incredible raw and not ready to carry an offense by himself.
 
Damien said:
Geis not even in the squad today. Injured or just fallen that far down the pecking order?
Click to expand...
There were no news about him being injured, against Nice Weinzierl already chose Kolasinac over Geis, to see out the game.
It is incredible how quickly he went off the radar, but Bentaleb and Stambouli are playing so well, that it is going to be a very difficult season for Geis. They bring the much needed physicality, Schalke's midfield was lacking last season.

Sphaero said:
I really really dislike Ayketin´s refereeing. He actually does not make that many huge mistakes, but his line of refereeing is just so inconsistent. In this match he started really nitpicky only to be very lenient with some serious tackles a few minutes later. How are the players supposed to adjust their behavious on the pitch that way?

Overall the game is a pretty boring affair. Schalke is this season really poor at creating meaningful chances and Embolo while very talented is still incredible raw and not ready to carry an offense by himself.
Click to expand...
Yes Embolo will still need some time, he is better suited to the striker role, but even there he does not manage to get into good scoring positions that much. But the attitude is right and his talent can already be seen in glimpses.

By the way I am falling in love with Bentaleb.
 
simi said:
By the way I am falling in love with Bentaleb.
Click to expand...

I am falling in love with the 2 goals for Hertha.
But you are right, Bentaleb and Strambouli (?) are adding stuff your squad really needs.
 
Oh well, maybe there is hope for Geis after all. Stambouli and Bentaleb giving away the ball way too easy and it's 2:0 Hertha. They do counter very well and defend well as a unit. What a rough start to Schalke's Bundesliga season.
 
Yes! I was never so happy, that i was wrong about my team. I thought we would really struggle at the start of the season and instead we are almost the only team that actually challenges Bayern. :D
But Schalke made some horrible mistakes today, so i'm not sure how much this win means.
 
Cspx0zAW8AAtEPA.jpg

Cspx1atWgAALXz6.jpg
 
I just don't get what's going on at Schalke. You think they finally have a good director of football with Heidel, a good manager with Breitenreiter and a really strong team on paper and yet they look completely shit atm.
 
I thought Schalke looked great when they played against us and midweek in the EL against Nice. Today not so much.
 
NoLogo said:
I just don't get what's going on at Schalke. You think they finally have a good director of football with Heidel, a good manager with Breitenreiter and a really strong team on paper and yet they look completely shit atm.
Click to expand...
Schalke looked completely shit against Frankfurt, but since the addition of Bentaleb and Stambouli in midfield played pretty well against Bayern and Nice. The performance today wasn't that bad either, they were on par with Hertha for most of the game, but two mistakes by Stambouli and Bentaleb were punished to maximum effect by Hertha.

Now after losing 3/3 in the Bundesliga, the pressure is on, but I am still hopeful that this season will turn out alright. In my opinion Heidel did some good business, the squad has much more depth, Baba and Bentaleb improve the first eleven significantly and I have high hopes for Konoplyanka and Embolo. I am not so sure about Naldo, he has been shaky at times and played some shocking passes. But it is great to finally have Nastasic back after his long long injury, he compensates us for the loss of Matip and already looks like he never missed a day.
Long term I am hoping for a CB partnership of Nastasic and Höwedes, with Coke/Caicara at RB.

The biggest challenge for Weinzierl will probably be the decline of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, he has been of great importance for Schalke in recent years, but by now he lost so much pace, that he is dispossessed way too easily. Hopefully Embolo steps it up soon, otherwise there is a concerning lack of goalscoring ability on the team.

I cannot judge on Weinzierl yet, the results aren't good, but so far I am satisfied with his team selections and substitutions and considering his legacy at Augsburg, he certainly deserves time.
 
The problem for Schlacke is: Yeah they need time and probably Weinzierl will make this team work, but if things going on like Leipzig, Gladbach, Leverkusen or us get a go while they are struggling, they will be far behind the CL spots. And they desperately need finishing on one. If not, Heidel will have more problems in getting things sorted out and raise the potential of the club.
 
Balu said:
I think it's really difficult to get that stability because the gap between relegation and midtable is so, so small and a few bad results bring back the chaos almost instantly. You have to challenge for the top third to avoid getting dragged in a relegation fight. That save looking midtable region doesn't really exist anymore in my opinion. Just look at last season, Hamburg was in the end only 5 points away from the relegation playoff spot. That's nothing and that's as save a midtable season as you can expect. I can't think of a club that finished savely in midtable for 3 years running without either qualifying for Europe or struggling to avoid relegation at least once.
Click to expand...

That's why i wrote safe-ish, because while I agree with you it also means that the consequences if a coach experiment blows up in your face are that much higher than before.
 
NoLogo said:
I just don't get what's going on at Schalke. You think they finally have a good director of football with Heidel, a good manager with Breitenreiter and a really strong team on paper and yet they look completely shit atm.
Click to expand...

First of all I don't really think that their team is necessarily strong on paper. I'd say their defense looks pretty solid, but their attack is very mediocre and not just compared to Bayern and Dortmund, I'd say Leverkusen and Gladbach are at least one level above them in that regard too. Huntelaar has been past it for years, Embolo is not a midfielder and completely out of his depth in the Bundesliga, Meyer is not a dominant player who can orchestrate attacks and EMCM is more of a striker in my book, Konoplyanka might be a step in the right direction, but I haven't seen enough of him yet. I think they also lack a midfield general, who organizes their build-up - I guess Stambouli/Bentaleb are supposed to help there.

Aside from Frankfurt I wouldn't say that they played terribly, I think you can see some improvement on the pitch compared to past seasons, especially against the ball, but their biggest problem is that their attack is so very impotent against organized defenses, they don't have the quality for a dominant approach and they lack the pace for a counter attacking approach - most teams probably won't give them tons of space anyway..


Three defeats in three matches certainly puts them under a bit of pressure and cologne in their current form can be quite dangerous too. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.
 
Last edited:
Lots of interesting matches on tuesday and wednesday.

Di 20.09. 20:00

Wolfsburg - Dortmund

Ingolstadt - E. Frankfurt

Darmstadt - Hoffenheim

Freiburg - HSV

Mi 21.09. 20:00

Bayern - Hertha

Leverkusen - Augsburg

Schalke - Köln

Bremen - Mainz

Leipzig - Gladbach

Bayern vs Hertha, both teams with 3 wins out of 3 so far. Our team absolutely needs to improve by one or two levels from the Ingolstadt game to win that one.

Wolfsburg vs Dortmund - can't see WOB being anything than miserable in this game. Dortmund is rolling and has huge depth in the offense right now, only Schürrle will probably be out.

Schalke vs Köln could be already the end for yet another promising manager at Schalke. I expected them to sit in the top 3 right now instead of the relegation spots.
Their team is easily good enough to compete for the european spots, the question is if they can find a way out of this low form, and a Köln in good form might not be the right opponent to pick up new confidence.

With Bremen the only question seems to be by how many they will be battered this time.
 
i came here to say that raphael guerreiro is about to become my favourite footballer.
 
Any news on Kohr's injury? Rodriguez should be banned for fecking 10 or something for that tackle, disgusting cnut.
 
Kostur said:
Any news on Kohr's injury? Rodriguez should be banned for fecking 10 or something for that tackle, disgusting cnut.
Click to expand...
From what I heard not as bad as first feared. An ugly flesh wound but apparently no damage to the bones.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.