Bundesliga 2010/11 Preview

Michael Ballack returns to the Bundesliga

Barely five weeks after the conclusion of proceedings in South Africa, it’s time for the Bundesliga to open its doors for the new season. German football has been walking with a spring in its step since the national team’s performance in the World Cup.  That has helped raise the overseas profile of a league which is Europe’s most watched and most profitable, not to mention being very fan friendly and awash with promising young players.  Furthermore, following recent Bundesliga  performances in Europe, the league looks set to overtake Italy’s Serie A in the UEFA Co-Efficient standings, which would afford it an extra Champions League place in the near future.

Perhaps conscious of the rise of the Bundesliga, longtime Madridista Raul and Danish international Simon Kjaer chose to ignore offers from England.  Instead, they’ll feature for Schalke and Wolfsburg respectively, whilst German legend Michael Ballack will make his long-awaited return in the colours of Bayer Leverkusen.

Doubtless, they’ll all be hoping for a tilt at the title come May.  Do their sides have what it takes?  Let’s have a look.

The Championship, Champions League & Europe League Contenders

Having won eight titles from the last twelve, Bayern Munich deserve the tag of perennial title favourites and it will be hard to see them as anything other than champions this time around. With a settled squad and formation, the early part of Bayern’s season will not be characterised by coach Louis van Gaal constantly tinkering with tactics and personnel, as he did in 2009/10.

Bayern’s squad is by far the most talented in the league, teeming with world class players, including Phillip Lahm, Mark van Bommel, Bastien Schweinsteiger, Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben. Van Gaal has also shown that he is not afraid to give promising youth players a chance.  So, expect to see the likes of Diego Contento and the young Austrian, David Alaba, who starred recently in the EURO U19 Championships, feature more heavily in 2010/11, alongside the already-established Thomas Müller and Holger Badtsuber.  Toni Kroos, returning from loan at Leverkusen, will also expect plenty of match time.

Bayer Leverkusen, despite the loss of Kroos, look perhaps the best equipped to challenge the Bavarians. Runaway leaders before the winter break, they started to  fall away in February, plummeting all the way to fourth place. Most put that down to a lack of depth and experience in the squad.  Jupp Heynckes will hope to have addressed that, with the signing of Ballack, who will serve as another on-pitch leader, teaming with Sami Hyypia.

Also, the return to full fitness of Renato Augusto, in midfield, and Patrick Helmes, in attack, should offer additional competition for places, which was lacking last season.  A host of young players are pushing for places in the first team, most notably Burak Kaplan (whom Heynckes likens to Mesut Ozil), promising young Dane, Nicolai Joergensen, Marcel Risse, who is returning to the BayArena from a loan spell at Nürnberg, and Sidney Sam, signed this summer from Hamburg. If Leverkusen can keep their squad fit this season, a challenge for the title and a Champions League place look well within their reach.

McClaren and Friedrich are the impressive new arrivals at Wolfsburg

Vfl Wolfsburg should provide one of the most interesting Bundesliga stories in 2010/11. Last season was extremely disappointing for the Wolves, who went from champions to eighth place also-rans, practically overnight.  The capture of centre-backs, Arne Friedrich from Hertha Berlin and Kjaer, formerly of Palermo, will go a long way towards addressing the defensive frailties that were at the heart of last season’s slide down the table.

However, there is still work to do at the other end of the pitch for Steve McClaren, the league’s first ever English coach. Their two most talented attacking players, Edin Dzeko and Zvejzdan Misimovic, have made no secret of the fact that they want out of the club. If they are kept on board, it could mean another journey into the Champions League. If they are sold, success or failure will depend on how well they are replaced.

According to media reports, Diego could be on his way from Juventus. His signing would more than compensate for the potential loss of Misimovic.

Diego’s former club, Werder Bremen, did well to pick up third spot last season, making it their sixth podium finish in seven seasons. Can they repeat that feat in 2010/11 without Mesut Ozil? The wide-eyed wonderboy will leave a big creative whole in the Bremen attack following his move to Madrid, having racked up a far from shabby 17 assists and 9 goals in the last campaign. Losing his star playmaker is a situation to which coach Thomas Schaaf is used and he should have a replacement up his sleeve, Ozil was just such a replacement for the outgoing Diego, who, in turn, had made up for Bremen’s loss of Johan Micoud, in 2006. However, time is running out to get that man signed up and bedded in quickly enough for Bremen to be genuine challengers. Fans at the Wesrstadion may have to settle for a Europa League place this season.

Schalke will have to adapt to get the best out of Raul.

Over in the Ruhr, the Schalke 04 clubhouse has featured a revolving door during the close season.  Kevin Kuranyi, to Dynamo Moscow, Heiko Westermann to Hamburg, Rafinha to Genoa and Marcelo Bordon to Al Rayyan, are the notable players to have exited, while some high profile names such as Raul and Christophe Metzelder, from Real Madrid, along with Tim Hoogland of Mainz and young Japanese full-back, Atsuto Uchida, formerly of the J-League’s Kashima Antlers, have come in.

Can Schalke maintain its Champions League status, despite all this turnover? Much will depend on how the new signings gel and how, accordingly, the team adapts its playing style. With Raul up top instead of Kuranyi, Schalke will have to change to a shorter passing style, which will put a lot more pressure on their creative midfielders, Ivan Rakitic and Alexander Baumjohann.  Both will be required to take responsibility on a more consistent basis than they previously  have done.

There is a good deal to admire about Schalke’s Ruhr rivals, Borussia Dortmund. In Juergen Klopp, they have a talented young manager who has gone about assembling a young, hungry squad. At the time of writing, Dortmund’s squad looks to have a very solid spine with Roman Weidenfeller in goal, American ex-pat Neven Subotic and Mats Hummels at centre-back, Nuri Sahin and Sebastian Kehl in midfield and the precocious Paraguayan World Cup debutante, Lucas Barrios, in attack.

A lack of big money, however, means they may have trouble holding onto their best players. Subotic and Barrios have been eyed by big clubs from England and Spain for a while now. Perhaps feeling a little jealous, Mats Hummels has recently been seen giving old flame, Bayern Munich, his best come hither gaze. A lot, therefore, will depend on whether their squad is still intact, at the end of August. If so, a third successive finish in the top five will be the least of expectations.

The Bundesliga’s notoriously slow starters, Vfb Stuttgart, will be without two important figures for the start of the new season. Sami Khedira has departed for Madrid, and Jens Lehmann has retired from the game. Lehmann will arguably be the bigger miss. Following Khedira’s exit, Stuttgart still have the likes of Zdravko Kuzmanovic and Christians Gentner and Traesch, all full internationals, to pick from in central midfield. Lehmann’s replacement however, will be the 20 year-old Sven Ulreich. Talented but inexperienced, Ulreich has huge boots to fill in marshalling the Stuttgart defence.

Can Veh get the best out of a talented Hamburg squad?

It looks to be another season of underachievement for Hamburg SV. ‘The Red Shorts,’ aptly, if not intentionally named, do tend to see red and exhibit a short fuse, in the hiring and firing of coaches.

I don’t have much confidence that the new man in charge, Armin Veh, fresh from a disastrous spell at Wolfsburg, will buck that trend. Veh will not be helped by rumours of a divided dressing room, with goalkeeper Frank Rost being an especially difficult personality.

Hamburg do have a very talented squad, boasting internationals such as Ruud van Nistelrooy, Mladen Petric , Eljero Elia and David Jarolim. They have also bought very well, having raided Hertha Berlin for goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobny and Serb midfielder Gojko Kacar, whilst Westermann should shore up their defence following the departure of Jerome Boateng to Manchester City.

It remains to be seen however, just how well Veh will be able to galvanise the squad, having officially announced the use of a 4-2-3-1 system, which will leave both Paolo Guerrero and Petric playing out of position. It would be a brave man to bet on success for Hamburg this season.

Mid-table, But Far From Mediocre

Holtby hopes to make an impact at Mainz

Eintracht Frankfurt , Hoffenheim, Borussia Moenchengladbach, 1.FC Koeln and FSV Mainz 05 will be the most likely contenders for the ‘golden pineapple’ come May 2011, but they shouldn’t be dismissed from putting themselves in the running for the Europa League places.

For FSV Mainz 05, the season could go one of two ways:  progression or the dreaded ‘second season syndrome’. Following an excellent 9th place finish last season, they have lost influential defender/midfielder Tim Hoogland, to Schalke, and powerful striker Aristide Bance, to Al-Ahli, but, in their dugout, boast one of Germany’s most talented young managers, 36 year-old Thomas Tuchel.  New signings Haruna Babangida, from FC Kuban Krasnodar and Lewis Holtby, on loan from Schalke, promise to bring some excitement to the Bruchweg Stadion.

Eintracht Frankfurt have undoubtedly made progress under Michael Skibbe and can boast a forward line of genuine quality, further bolstered by the signing of Theofanis Ghekas, from Bayer Leverkusen, and the permanent capture of Halil Altintop, away from Schalke.  They also have high hopes for youngsters, like midfielder Sebastian Rode, signed from Kickers Offenbach, and Greek full-back Giorgios Tsavellas, late of Panionios Athens. The key for Frankfurt will be to achieve a higher level of consistency than last season, in which they were victorious against the likes of Bayern and Dortmund, but disappointed, all too often, with losses against the smaller sides.

If Borussia Moenchengladbach are to return to the upper echelons, they will have to improve their porous defence, which leaked an unacceptable sixty goals last season. To remedy this, they have signed Bamba Anderson from Duesseldorf, dubbed the best defender in Bundesliga 2, last season. Going forward, Gladbach should look very exciting, once more, with Marco Reus and Juan Arango pulling the strings in midfield, backed by another promising youngster, Patrick Herrmann. Up front, the Foals also look well set, with two new signings, Igor de Camargo, from Standard Liege and Mohamadou Idrissou, from Freiburg, accompanying Argentine Raul Bobadilla.

Podolski, ironically, must translate his international form to club level

Hoffenheim still have the nucleus of the squad, which took them to the ‘Herbstmeisterschaft’ (autumn championship) at the back end of 2008.  That core includes players of such quality as Carlos Eduardo and Vedad Ibisevic. Since early 2008, however, they have flattered to deceive, too often looking devoid of leadership and confidence. The loss of Timo Hildebrand, in goal, will further hamper their European aspirations.

For 1. FC Koeln, this could be a season of struggle. There is a feeling around the Cathedral City that coach Zvonimir Soldo is too negative, in his outlook, and doesn’t know how to get the best out of German international, Lukas Podolski. Whilst their second half, last year, was a slight improvement on the first, they were unable to secure the permanent signing of Zoran Tosic,in the offseason. Koln are hopeful that the new Croatian signing,  Mato Jajalo, from Siena, in Italy, will take up where Tosic left off. It’s a big ask, however.

The Newly-Promoted Teams

1. FC Kaiserslautern and St. Pauli will bring plenty of colour and character to the Bundesliga, this season. With large and loyal fanbases, visiting sides won’t have it easy at the Fritz Walter Stadion or the Millerntor. Supporters aside, the clubs do not share much in common, having taken different approaches in their transfer market strategies.

Kaiserslautern have dived right in to the fray, with key figures in their promotion, such as Erik Jendrisek (Schalke) and Sidney Sam (Leverkusen) moving on, to be replaced by the likes of loanees Jan Moravek (Schalke) and Erwin Hoffer (Napoli), the most notable of 11 new summer signings.

St Pauli, on the other hand, have hardly dipped their toe in to test the water. The only players of note coming in are Gerald Asamoah and Carlos Zambrano, from Schalke, the latter on loan, along with Moritz Volz, finally returning home after a long spell in England. Will that be enough to keep them out of the relegation dogfight and safe in mid-table?

In my opinion, if either side is to ‘do a Mainz’ it will be Kaiserslautern, whose squad has more quality running through it.  St Pauli will, more than likely, be facing a relegation battle.

The Relegation Battlers

Joining St. Pauli, as Bundesliga basement tenants, will be SC Freiburg, Hannover  96 and 1. FC Nurnberg. Anything more than survival, for these clubs, will be a pleasant surprise.

Each suffered a poor 2009/10 and were saved, arguably, by the ‘even worseness’ of Bochum and Hertha Berlin. Moreover, none of the trio have made any outstanding additions to their squads.

Ilkay Guendogan, a poor club's Mesut Ozil

The most likely to push on, from last season, appears to be Nurnberg, who have taken some talented players on loan, such as Mehmet Ekici (Bayern), Julian Schieber (Stuttgart) and Jens Hegeler (Bayer Leverkusen), whilst there are high hopes for their young German/ Turkish starlet, Ilkay Gündogan. The loaning of young stars is a strategy that coach Dieter Hecking adopted to good effect last season, when the likes of Maxim Choupo-Moting (Hamburg), Andreas Ottl and Breno (Bayern), contributed to a mini revival during the latter half of the season.   The late season surge allowed them to escape relegation, via a play off victory over second division Augsburg.

Phew, there you have it. If you’ve managed to follow this far, you must be an avid Bundesliga fan indeed, with your own opinions on how the season will pan out. Why not share them with us in the comment field below?