Wasn't impressed with Bernat so far, but we'll see. Wolfsburg really wanted Lukaku and they still need a striker. I'd say, yes they are capable of qualifying for the CL. It's really close between Leverkusen, Wolfsburg and Gladbach for the 4th spot in my opinion, difficult to tell what team will make the biggest step. Bayern and Dortmund should be the top 2 again and I can't see Schalke falling out of the top 4, way too much talent in the team.
Have you seen one of the games? How's Wendell doing, never heard of him before but Leverkusen are usually really good at finding quality players in South America.
Roger Schmidt said:
Ffs, you could have at least included the link to the German article. You don't expect me to read some strange google translation into English instead of the German original, don't youI haven't seen any of their games. Roger Schmidt loves him though:
Google translator.
Ffs, you could have at least included the link to the German article. You don't expect me to read some strange google translation into English instead of the German original, don't you
I edited it with it included!
Where did you watch him play? Are you actually following Augsburg's pre-season games or Augsburg's second team? I've read his name a few times, but if I'm not mistaken, he never played for any of the German youth nationalteams. I don't think I've ever seen him play.
Of course it's a dig. He's his usual disrespectful idiotic self. There's no need to bring up another competition to make the point, that it's difficult to predict in which position Chelsea will finish the season. He clearly does it for a reason. I don't mind if you agree with him, but there's a reason why he brought it up, and it's damn petty.
Because it is an obvious dig at guardiola and while probably not intentionally, the league itself. It would have been somewhat similar to if guardiola before the start of last season said that no premiership team will win the cl. He would have had a point (with barca, Madrid, Bayern being considered the best teams and with Dortmund just coming of their strong campaign. There was also the fact that the premiership teams were dire in the cl the season before.) and in the end he also would have been right. Premiership fans still would still have been upset about what he said and found it to be ignorant, arrogant and insulting, even though he would have facts to back up his claim and would have been right in the end. He knew that what he said would be taken badly by people and he still said it, even if its true.
That's an excellent example.
I think you are being a bit harsh, although i agree that his dig towards wenger was petty and needless and also just wrong. Wenger is certainly not a specialist in failure. But tbf, for top clubs there is only the cl and the league and nothing else. For a big club, the cup is only something to celebrate if it was won as part of a double with the league or cup double with the cl. The league and cl are the priority and mourinho challenged for both (in the league until the last few games and semi-finals of the cl). He did not have the best of seasons, but he certainly did not have a poor one. Only by his own ridiculously high standards did he have a poor one. If I had to choose between the two, I would rather my club replicate chelseas season and not arsenals. If mourinho fails to win again next year he will be sacked while if wenger fails, the same old same old will happen where he stays on and promises to win it next year. Mourinho is under much more pressure than wenger and it has been like that for pretty much his whole career.
So you rather have your club finish 3rd and win feck all than finish 4th and win the FA Cup?
Yes, because Chelsea were closer to winning the league and much closer to winning the CL. Madrid winning the cup and finishing 4th would be an absolute disaster and the team and coach would slaughtered by the media. I see much more positives to take from chelseas season (their big game record for example) and I think they have much more to build on. Overall I don't care about the cup and neither do most fans of clubs like barca, Bayern, united etc. Madrid had to beat barca and atletico in their last two cup wins and still nobody cared. In 10/11 the team was criticised for winning nothing major (Madrid won the cup that year beating barca in the final) and in 13/14 the cup was seen as something to go along nicely with the cl in addition to the fact that it was barca that the team beat in the final. If all Madrid won last year was the cup and they lost in the final then it would have been seen as a poor season and the media would have called for carlos head (unfairly I might add). Like I said, there are more positives to take from chelseas season than arsenals and if I had to say which of the two will be closer to challenging for the league and the CL next season I would have to pick Chelsea. Cups are nice to win, especially if you have to beat one of your rivals in the final but they are a lower priority for top clubs than challenging for the league and the CL, let alone winning them.
The interesting question is if Bayern (and to a lesser extent Dortmund) can keep up playing 80+ points seasons. I still don't buy into this 'the Bundesliga is overall too weak to hurt them' argument. Both clubs raised the bar in terms of consistency and determination for every single game in the past 4 years, that's what lead to these crazy records just as much as the quality in the teams. Crazy squad depth in comparison to earlier decades helps of course as well, but more than anything it's about determination. Bayern's jump from 73 points in 11/12 (after 67, 70 and 65 in the 3 seasons prior to 2011/12) to completely insane 91 !!! points in 12/13 isn't explainable through our squad quality. And overall the other German teams also improved during that time, having a record 7 teams in the knockout stages of European competitions in 12/13 and a record 4 teams in the knockout stages of the CL in 13/14 is proof of that. Schalke is right now in 9th place in UEFA's 5 year club coefficient ranking, yet people will tell you on the Caf that they're constantly shit in Europe when the exact opposite is true. And while we looked like we could keep that up last season, I still doubt it and the massive drop in form after securing the league title early suggests as well that the mental part of the game is more important than ever, even more after a successful World Cup tournament for so many of the players.
