Götze's Faust: Bundesliga 13/14/15

http://i.imgur.com/AQex6GT.png?1

idk where pandemic has got to

Looking forward to seeing how Salihovic scored a penalty and got a straight red in the space of sixty seconds.

arjen robben ✓

nice to see that guardiola has found a use for the miserable looking fellow who is still one of the very best in the world in his position

So Bayern dropped their first points of the season yesterday, conceding a late equaliser away at Freiburg. A much changed line up with Van Buyten, Rafinha and Contento in for Boateng, Lahm and Alaba. Gotze given his second start in a row, no Robbery so Muller/Shaqiri on the flanks instead, and Pizzarro at CF. Baumann made a couple of key one-on-one saves in the second half to keep the deficit at only one before Freiburg snatched their goal. Not a disaster for Bayern given the changes...and yet..

From the 4 games I've seen of them so far, early days caveat etc, the addition of an extra attacking player has actually resulted in Bayern looking far less dangerous/exciting than they did last season. In fact the only part of the team functioning at a high level is Ribery and Robben. Schweinsteiger playing as the single deep lying midfielder both comes too deep to collect the ball to start attacks when it could be left to Dante to play in the full backs, and also as the attack develops he is often too far forward to help defensively should Bayern be broken on. A work in progress I guess, and Bayern are using far more long balls/passes than I would have expected under Pep. With Martinez and Thiago already injured , Schweinsteiger picking up a knock last night, and Gustavo sold I hope that Pep doesn't expect Kroos to deputise there all on his own vs Chelsea. Maybe a double pivot with Lahm (all that practice in MF during pre-season paying off!)

Moving on to Dortmund, 9pts out of 9 so far. Gundogan has only played half of one game so far and even then he was playing out of position imo as a #10. Not sure Klopp is gonna get away with expecting Grosskreutz to play 1/3 of the season as a RB while they wait for Piczcek to recover from surgery. Reus has looked tremendous so far this season, Aubameyang will kill teams especially in the last 20 mins or so if Dortmund have the lead in games. Mkhitaryan has looked p assured so far and Hofmann has been a revelation off the bench scoring goals, winning penalties. Then again I was somewhat impressed with Leitner off the bench for Dortmund last season and was expecting good things from him on loan at Stuttgart but he has stunk the place up so bad that they've already sacked the manager!! RIP Labbadia.

Have suffered through all 3 games of new boys Eintracht Braunschweig and while well organised and hard working etc etc I'll be surprised if they score more than 25 goals this season, relegation a formality I think.

Michael B made a good post about Schalke elsewhere. They have been truly wretched and Keller will more than likely be out before the new year if not the international break! Jones has been strangely subdued in MF though he got a red card last night so maybe he is still alive. Huntelaar lasted a game, and scored a brace, before getting injured again. At least new signing Szalai will get a run in the first team. Draxler is the real deal but still finding his feet as a #10 after playing on the left for most of his 100+ games for Schalke. The defence is still a disaster. Joel Matip gave one of the most incompetent CB displays I have ever seen in their opening day 3-3 with Hamburg. He was promptly dropped for the 2nd match vs Wolfsburg and replaced by Santana. Schalke lost 4-0 and Santana was possibly even worse. Max Meier has looked good when called upon tho.

Mainz have also gotten maximum points thus far but I've only seen one of their games and it was against Stuttgart, so who knows. Nicolai Muller looked the business drifting in from the right flank however.

The other team with max points is Leverkusen, now under sole control of the other Big Sam(my).
Probably the team that has excited me most this season. Move over Robbery it's time for SamSon! Heung-Min Son has arrived to take the place of Chelsea CF Andre Schurrle on the left, and in combination with Sydney Sam on the right and Kiessling in the center forms one of the more devastating counter attacking forward lines I've seen in a while. Their play on Saturday against what I think is a p good Gladbach side was an absolute joy.

Other than that Hoffenheim look surprisingly okay and for mizzell's sake I'll pass over Hamburg with nothing more than a horrified shudder.

Well, that post was stupidly long.

About time tbh, wb. I watched Dortmund-Bremen the other night, thought it surprisingly poor fare actually. Probably just early-season stretching though, both sides looked like they were going through the motions a bit, not really going for the jugular at all (well Dortmund did at least, not sure Werder could've got at them even if they were playing at full pelt).

Mostly I end up watching the crowds though. The yellow wall is always something to see. Dunno how much longer the epl can wing it, most every league west of Lowestoft or east of Scilly puts on a better show.

nice to see u back

how do u rate kiessling? i have hardly ever watched him, sort of wrote him off as another reasonably talented but not international class german #9 in the kuranyi fashion, and part of that pre-2008 generation that lahm schweinstegier and l-pold apart never amounted to much

I think Jogi Low is of the same opinion! In a team that dominates possession and is often faced with massed defences I don't think he would fare all that well. He is entirely suited to end-to-end p open games where neither team is particularly scared of the other, which perfectly suits Leverkusen's stature I guess. So he needs a certain amount of space to operate but he does use that space v well and clinically when afforded it. Useful in the air as well.

is he fast

Max Kruse worth keeping an eye on imo. V intelligent movement and nice all round game, could sneak into the national squad for the World Cup. He's 25 though so perhaps should have made the break through earlier. Klose has dominated a generation and a half!

xp Mobile enough but not notably fast no, which makes his style more unlikely I guess. Definitely not a speedster relying on balls in behind pushed up back lines. He actually reminds me of first season at Liverpool Stan Collymore. I mean that as praise btw.

a lot depends on how mario gomez does at fiorentina

they just signed 'new boksic' ante rebic but he will maybe play wide, if at all

I'll pass over Hamburg with nothing more than a horrified shudder.

;_;

so sad to lose Son, don't think I'll be able to enjoy him playing with Leverkusen. I guess it's good they are saving money rather than spending it to be so poor... No there's nothing good about it.

Stuttgart 6 Hoffenheim 2 had a couple of nice goals from Maxim.

Mkhitaryan has just got his first for Dortmund.

And his second.

draxler mostly played left during the first half of schalke/leverkusen with boateng as withdrawn forward behind szalai (idk him at all, seems like a big not terribly finessed but not terrible #9)

otherwise heung min son looked like leverkusen's best attacking player by some distance

didn't see the rest of it

Lol Telegraph reckons Arsenal are "tracking" Gundogan and Reus, but apparently they would cost £20m each!! Try doubling that I would think.

http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/transferrekorde-international/transferrekorde/transfers_2013_default_default_default_alle_alle.html

the gotze release clause looks even more ridiculous in that context

and mario gomez is towards the end somewhere between wanyamaa and carroll

Some of those figures look dubious to me but Aubameyang to Dortmund for about £11.5m should be one of the best transfers of the summer. He has mostly been used as an impact sub so far but has fitted into the system well.

12
Marouane Fellaini
Man Utd

28.500.000 £

14
Isco
Real Madrid

26.500.000 £

how good do you think gotze is pandemic? there were rumours that guardiola wanted neymar but a lot of people think gotze is comparably talented

Bojan's down as Roma-Barcelona, is that a mistake? I kinda hope Ajax haven't blown their budget on him tbh.

they had to exercise their buyback clause then loaned him straight out to ajax

Gotze is a tricky one, the year he was out injured and Dortmund won the second of their back to back titles Kagawa replaced him and excelled. The year prior I didn't see him play. Last season he had some excellent games in Europe combining particularly well with Reus. Still think he's as close to a sure thing as you'll likely to get but v intrigued as to what this season will bring with Bayern, he's looked like a guy struggling to find his role in his few appearances so far. Can see why Pep would have preferred Neymar in that he would be radically different to any player Bayern currently have whereas Gotze is a small variation on what they've got. I had thought that Pep might use Gotze as a false nine quite a bit this season but I'm not sure he's robust enough or a good enough finisher for it to work.

Aubameyang was one of the 4 players from Ligue 1 I was unfamiliar with that really stood out for me
last season. The others being Payet (who LFC should have got for the RWF role that I guess Aspas/Moses are set for) Ochoa and Valbuena.

Who's Payet?

Dmitri Payet played for Lille last season, attacking right footed wing forward. Moved to Marseille this summer.

hamburgs defence is so bad

that was typed before the reus goal which was just absurdly easy

Dortmund's has been bad as well. So good going forward but can't defend set pieces at all.

they have a very good defence, they can be forgiven

subotic seemed to be carrying an injury and hummels is still a little absent minded

papastothopoulos should be a fair upgrade on santana as third choice

Mkhitaryan was sublime, and Reus wasn't too far behind. Bayern strangely unfun to watch lately but Ribery is so good right now.

http://sportbild.bild.de/SPORT/bundesliga/vereine/fc-bayern-muenchen/2013/10/06/wiesn-besuch/fg/FC_20Bayern_20Muenchen_20Attends_20Oktoberfest_202013__34890737__MBHF-1381063218,templateId=renderScaled,property=Bild,height=349.jpg

While Aubameyang is a self-confessed fan of Thierry Henry, George Weah and Hernan Crespo (he sports a "Crespo For Life” tatoo on his left arm), he names Ronaldo as his biggest role model in the game.

respect

http://www.mtnfootball.com/content/Pierre-Aubameyang.jpg

eh pretty shit actually

Mkhitaryan was fucking magnificent tonight. His turn and pass for Lewandowski's 2nd goal, Dortmund's 4th, was sublime. Can't wait to see him and Gundogan in the same midfield.

the level of fitba intelligence in bayern is astonishing

they could field an entire second midfield (thiago, schweinsteiger and gotze) better than anything in the epl

disgraceful isn't it?

here's the traitor's goal
http://giant.gfycat.com/LittleQueasyBlueshark.gif

this is the highest quality game i have seen in a while

lol atypical robben goal

getting a bit embarrassing now

this is scoreline-doesnt-reflect-game stuff

difference is dortmund need to have all the big ppl playing and have lewy on sharp form whereas bayern can miss their two most important players of the last half decade and still be incredibly fluid and lethal

http://i.imgur.com/xcIfUar.png

guardiola's words about this are amusingly aggro

love that even as the perceivedly most innocent of the squad alaba still had thirty-one accusers

schism with lahm would be some juicy stuff tho jeff

nice goals by this man
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMWIgrN1C5s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN55U6lYqOk

Stuttgart were garbage against Schalke yesterday. Went down 0-3. Jermaine Jones scored an absolute belter mind you. Schalke looked okay but Szalai was absolute waste at CF. Don't know when Huntelaar is due back.

10 mins in Bayern already 2-0 up vs Cologne. Schweini and Ribery. Absolutely battering them with an ultra attacking formation which is kinda

-----------------Neuer--------------------

--------------(halfway line)--------------

-----------Boateng-----Badstuber----------

-Rafinha-----------------------------Alaba

-------------Schweinsteiger---------------

--------Muller---------------Gotze---------

Robben-------------------------------Ribery
-----------------Lewandowski---------------

Not sure I can remember seeing them play with just one actual central midfielder before. They look so switched on when I'd assume they must be bored of all this by now.

Didn't see that coming.

hah, yeah, last touch of the half. Bayern were v v intense and immense for 15 mins then coasted the rest of the half, lets see if that goal wakes them up again.

I'm not really sure about Lewandowski in this team. Over the half season plus so far he hasn't looked as effective as he did at Dortmund, although that may just be because he isn't required to be.

Ooh Neuer, you magnificent bastard. So close to 2-2.

And again.

Robben pulls a Soldado at the other end.

Ujah has bullied Boateng and Badstuber a bit tonight.

Ribery to Robben, header in the corner. Think he's top scorer in the league now, wonder if he's ever done that before?

Rapid counter. 4-1.

that lineup looks like an attempt to keep the five star forward players happy, lewandowski still probably grinding his teeth about not getting to play a champions league tie in a polish(ish) city

Muller kinda looked lost tonight (Alonso is on now). Would like to know what Pep considers to be his optimal line up assuming Thiago and Martinez and Lahm are ever fit again at the same time. Feels like an age since I've seen Thiago play.

Wolfsburg from 3-2 down to 5-3 up in five minutes. Dost with two of them. Still over half an hour to go.

Dortmund were superb on Saturday vs Schalke, like the last 2 years never happened. Well brilliant as far as creating chances goes, not so brilliant at taking them considering I counted 6 one-on-ones with the keeper that they failed to convert before finally opening the scoring. Ran out 3-0 winners.

Schalke were beyond awful.

Indeed seems like Dortmund is recovering well, though definitely benefitting from inept competition during the last four games. Will be interesting to see them against a decent team and having to put up with going behind. If Reus stays healthy they may even end up 6th/7th...

Having said that, this Batman/Robin mask shit is indefensible and should be punished with direct relegation.

Btw, after several years of having no 'offical' Bundesliga match reports anywhere on YT, tabloid Bild provides hq summaries for some time now:
http://www.youtube.com/user/BildBundesliga

de bruyne puts wolfsburg one nil up. they are so much fun to watch this season. schurrle dropped to the bench after his woeful midweek showing, the excellent vierinha shunted frwd from rb to rw.

de bruyne wins a pen, 2 nil, sets up the third, all over.

bayern/pep got owned by gladbach/favre today at home. Terrific all round performance especially xhaka/kramer axis in the middle and patrick herrmann on the right. Won 2-0 with a lil help from Manuel Neuer. If Bayern chase the game like that in the CL against p much any of the teams left in it they'll get crushed on the counter.

http://gfycat.com/HonoredJaggedHookersealion

Outside football

Lewandowski was chosen to be on the cover of FIFA 15 Polish version next to Lionel Messi.[66]

just need a gladbach win v frankfurt for an accumulator so i am turning it on for the last 15 mins to shout at them

bollocks. cheers favre u conservative bastard

they break quick and in numbers but i was kinda expecting them to control and work from the middle more. xhaka's not getting a move to atleti playing like that

hermann had the only real bit of penetration but chipped it into the keepers hands

http://www.bvb.de/var/ezdemo_site/storage/images/bvb.de/menu/mannschaften/profis/kevin-kampl/1409816-15-ger-DE/Kevin-Kampl_autogrammkarte.jpg

Lewandowski better be fit for Barca tie or Bayern are in trouble. Comfortably beaten by Leverkusen y'day- nice free kick from Calhanoglu and nice Brandt (not quite a physical cartoonist) finish after storming Bellarbi run.

So this Saturday sees the last day of the regular season in Bundesliga. Bayern won the title at a stroll (yawn) but immediately below them in the other CL places it was p interesting with a couple of v fun to watch teams and one stone cold ruthless counter attacking machine. Even Bayern were puzzling, still not convinced they're at the level of the team that finished Heynckes last season, although Robben was well on his way to a season for the ages (non Ronaldo/Messi category) until his injury.

Wolfsburg going to finish a worthy 2nd with a v attacking (only 8 goals fewer goals scored than Bayern), slightly anarchic game eg Vierinha a right winger playing RB. Hope they keep Beast Mode Kevin de Bruyne and his record making 20 assists who has been a joy to watch the entire season.

Leverkusen in Roger Schmidt's first season will be 4th with his Bielsa lite system with added Calhanoglu wonder free kicks. Managed to comfortably overcome a below par season from Kiessling.

Gladbach in 3rd with their brand of low risk ruthless counter attacking. Speedster Patrick Hermann on the RW back in form after 2 below par seasons (so much so that the guy I thought would be the signing of the season Andre Hahn hasn't been needed much), Max Kruse as the nominal CF who spends an awful amount of time drifting towards the left wing more interested in assists than goals, Raffael as a striker/#10 hybrid doing whatever he likes to good effect, even Eden Hazard's little brother has looked useful in cameo appearances. They'll miss World Cup Final concussion victim Christoph Kramer when he goes back to Leverkusen at the end of his loan but in typical style have already acted by signing Lars Stindl from Hannover ready for next season.

At the bottom of the league nothing has been decided with one game to go. The bottom 2 will be relegated with 3rd from bottom facing a 2 leg play-off vs the 3rd from top team in Bundesliga 2 which will be either Darmstadt, Karlsruher, or Kaiserslautern. Theoretically any of the bottom 6 could still be automatically relegated although goal difference means Hertha Berlin should be safe from finishing in the bottom 2.

13 - Hertha Berlin P33 Pts35 GD-15
14 - Freiburg P33 Pts34 GD-10
15 - Hannover P33 Pts34 GD-17
16 - Stuttgart P33 Pts33 GD-19
17 - Hamburg P33 Pts32 GD-27
18 - Paderborn P33 Pts31 GD-33

Paderborn host Stuttgart on the final day.
Hannover host Freiburg (a draw should leave both safe I think)
Hertha Berlin travel to Hoffenheim.
Hamburg welcome Schalke.

With apologies to Mizzell I kinda hope Hamburg go down as they were lucky to survive last time, I hate their sodding clock which ticks through the time they've spent in Bundesliga without relegation, and they feel like the club that gets the least amount out of their available resources. Lucky for them that they face De Matteo's dreary bunch of underachievers on Saturday (one performance against Real Madrid aside).

Rudnevs, on for the injured Lasogga, misses a sitter for Hamburg. 0-0 30 mins in. Paderborn 1-0 up against Stuttgart atm.

Schalke are so mediocre. Di Matteo is lucky if he's still the manager come the start of next season.

Stuttgart equalize vs Paderborn.

Huntelaar wide with a good chance.

Olic 1-0 Hamburg after a terrible corner

Stuttgart and Paderborn going down atm

Freiburg in the play off place. Hamburg completely safe. Bah.

2-0 Hamburg. Schalke you bunch of frauds.

Stuttgart have scored so Hamburg would be in the playoff again if this stays the same.

Stuttgart take the lead. I think that means Paderborn and Freiburg down and Hamburg in the play offs. Freiburg need and equaliser in the last 15 mins against Hannover to send Hamburg down.

xp

Augsburg heading for the Europa Lge atm which is p cool

Freiburg concede a 2nd.

Huub Stevens subs a sub to bring a defender on. Embarrassing.

Porto levels of time wasting here by Stuttgart

Stuttgart stay up after winning their last 3 games. Freiburg pull one back but too late surely. Paderborn down.

Freiburg down.

Ingolstadt and Damstadt promoted. Hamburg will face Karlsruhe in the play off.

Darmstadt http://www.espnfc.co.uk/german-bundesliga/10/blog/post/2466233/darmstadt-and-their-improbable-rise-to-the-bundesliga

Has been a good year for small clubs getting promoted - Gazelec Ajaccio in France, Frosinone in Italy, Girona in Spain, Bournemouth in England - though that one is less unexpected.

does darmstadt have a twelfth man

a joke that had to be made.

hamburg one nil down at home to karlsruher in the first leg of their play-off after 20 mins

Never in doubt HSV. FFS.

Kudos to the Bundesliga players who voted Roberto di Matteo to a landside victory in 'worst manager of the season award' in kicker's poll. De Bruyne got best outfield player, Neuer best keeper.