Bundesliga Half Term Report

I am a bit surprised that very good posters like Blut or Chrissi and others havent posted this(If they have you have my apologies)

Best new player:
For me it's Tasci, with Schlaudraff just behind him. But Tasci became an important corner stone in Stuttgarts defense with the age of 19 and had consistantly good showings throughout this first half of the season.

Best transfer:
Definately Diego. Not much arguing about that I'd suppose. Other good transfers are van Bommel, Fritz, Boka, Pardo and Osorio. All of them really improved their teams as a whole.

Worst transfer:
This one is tough. I mean Hamburg has been pretty good at making bad transfers this year. Considering the price tag, Podolski has been quite disappointing(thanks to Magath) and Valdez should have shown more. But my personal favourite is Kießling because unlike the others he seems as if he doesn't even try. Hyped as the next Wunderkind he completely failed so far.

Best Development:
I have to say Gomez. He's been a little unlucky recently, but overall this season was/is his break through.

Best Player:
Again, I think Diego deserves this honor. He has just been the most effective player while being the most fun to watch at the same time.


Now let's see how the teams did:

1. Werder Bremen:
As (I) expected and feared, Bremen is on top of the table. But they could/should have made even more points. That's the only thing Bremen still lacks, the ability to win games by will alone, even if they have a bad day. However, I still say that Bremen will win this title but watch out Bremen ,if you slip up we will be there.
Best Player: Diego


2. FC Schalke 04:
For me one of the surprises. Unlike a lot of people, I didn't see Schalke that far up before the season. And I still don't trust their title winning ability. But the Champions League qualification should be managable.
Best Player: Pander, for his excellent return to the BL.

3. Bayern München:
I did a detail one on Bayern performances in the Bayern Munich thread.
Best player: Kahn

4. VfB Stuttgart:
For most people probably the biggest surprise. I was expecting a lot more than last season. But I'm still surprised at how well they've done. If they don't break down, an UEFA Cup spot should be no problem.
Best Player: Tough, but i'll say Gomez.

5. Hertha BSC:
Another positive surprise, especially since Hertha managed to field so many young and promising players and losing Marcelinho .Definately UEFA Cup material.
Best Player: Pantelic - tons of goals, some really nice ones too.

6. Bayer Leverkusen:
Dissappointed for most of the season, but, in typical inconsistent Leverkusen fashion, hit form towards the end and now aren't in a bad position at all. If they carry their form through to the second half of the season, i'd expect them to be able to get a finish in European spots. and they're still in the uefa cup right now.
Best Player: Castro - no one has had a remarkably great season though.

7. 1. FC Nürnberg:
For me the biggest surprise. You have to applaud Hans Maier for surprising people every time. However, I doubt that Nürnberg can continue their run. I expect them ending up somewhere in midfield of the table.

8. Arminia Bielefeld:
Another big surprise. Bielefeld seems to be able to compensate their losses every time. I didn't expect them to be relegated, but I never thought that they could be so far up in the table.
Best Player: Van Heesen

9. Borussia Dortmund:
They bought some bignames over the summer and i expected them to finish high up in the table. They have been the second biggest dissapointment so far this season. and many of the bignames, like Valdez and Pienaar, have really failed to shine. They could still make Europe if Roeber makes them play to their ability. I don't really think he will.
Best Player: Weidenfeller

10. Eintracht Frankfurt:
Very consistent in not being consistent. But I'd have expected this midfield place. Unfortunate exit in Europe though.
Best Player: the team as a whole.

11. Hannover 96:
Great recovery from Hannover. I wouldn't have expected them to get relegated before the season, but after the first couple of weeks it looked very grim. Now they are on a very good way and shouldn't have anything to do with relegation.
Best player:Enke

12. VfL Wolfsburg:
12th place is all right for Wolfsburg, but their last games were quite underwhelming. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd lose a couple of spots in the second half. Should stay clear of the relegation zone though.


13. Alemannia Aachen:
Mixed performances by Aachen. A lot of people thought of them as the first team to get relegated. Yet, I think they're capable of more.
Best Player: Schlaudraff without a doubt.


14. VfL Bochum:
This is the beginning of the danger zone. Bochum has done surprisingly well in the last couple of games. They're still in danger though. I see them quite close of getting relegated.

15. Energie Cottbus:
The fact that they aren't in a relegation spot over winter is already a big success. But they are still, along with mainz, the favourites to go down.
Best Player: the Romanians Munteanu and Radu have been the best. But i'd say Sander has done a great job with this squad just keeping them 15th so far.

16. Borussia M'gladbach:
A horror season. Heynckes, as many beleived, as forgotten how to coach a team over the years. hopefully Gladbach won't go down, but they'll have to improve massively.
Best Player: none

17. Hamburger SV:
This of course is THE biggest disappointment. Logic would dictate that Hamburg should get out of the bottom of the table, but logic doesn't seem to apply here. So I feel totally unable to predict anything here...
Best player:Van der Vaart

18. 1. FSV Mainz 05:
Another big disappointment. And I don't see a lot of chances for the disappointments to stop. Most probably getting relegated. The team just doesn't seem able to score anymore after offloading all of their offensive players before the season.

Nicely done, Bilal. You should add Bayern to your favourite teams in your profile!

What I don't get is that you put Kahn as the best Bayern player this term. He hasn't looked all that great to me. Mine would be Makaay by a mile. The guy's all over the place. Creating, giving assists, scoring. The only blunder was that chance he missed against Nuremberg. Other than that he's been a pleasure to watch - and, unlike Pizarro, he's a real team player. Second would be Van Bommel. I always appreciate his hard work.

I can't believe Hamburg are 17th!

Thats pretty bad, esp as their squad really isnt that bad

Bilal wrote:
9. Borussia Dortmund:
and many of the bignames, like Valdez and Pienaar, have really failed to shine.

If they consider Pienaar to be a "big name" it's easy to spot where it all went wrong....

Decent squad player but nothing more than that....

Axeslammer ! wrote:

Bilal wrote:
9. Borussia Dortmund:
and many of the bignames, like Valdez and Pienaar, have really failed to shine.

If they consider Pienaar to be a "big name" it's easy to spot where it all went wrong....

Decent squad player but nothing more than that....

His only use is to laugh at his dumb goal celebrations.

With Dortmund financial troubles , he is a big name.

@Effenberg
yeah I should do.
We havent defended that well this season and still 3 points behind the leaders , I give to the great man(I am very biased) but you are right about Makaay he actually is our best player.

Where are all the German posters?

Bilal wrote:Where are all the German posters?

Skiing or snowboarding I guess.

Bilal wrote:

4. VfB Stuttgart:
For most people probably the biggest surprise. I was expecting a lot more than last season. But I'm still surprised at how well they've done. If they don't break down, an UEFA Cup spot should be no problem.
Best Player: Tough, but i'll say Gomez.

That's "most people including 90% of the fans". But yeah... Pleasant surprise and you really have to hand it to Veh and Horst Heldt for having managed to pull it around and for the signings in general. Well, apart from Farnerud perhaps, but then again, he's been injured a lot. I'm a bit worried about them breaking down towards the end of the season as well, and not just because the club have a history of doing that (just look at the last few years...) but because they also didn't look too good in the last few matches.

My "man of the first leg of the season" would actually be Pavel Pardo.

German half-season review: Bundesliga fans celebrate wave of new talent
By Tom Shakhli - January 03, 2007

Tom Shakhli casts his eye over the Bundesliga at it's halfway point as German football celebrates the emergence of a new wave of young talent.
The front page of a popular German football magazine reads Die Junge Deutsche Welle, which can be directly translated as 'The Young German Wave'.
It sounds like the kind of title that one might find across the front of a music magazine, and although it is actually in reference to the new talented generation of players breaking through, it perfectly encapsulates the rock 'n roll renaissance that is currently sweeping the German Bundesliga.
The winter break has now arrived, and having gone into the final weekend with Schalke 04 and Vfb Stuttgart aspiring to claim the coveted Herbsmeisterschaft (winter championship), Werder Bremen and their superior goal difference sit proudly at the top of very congested table, with only 4 points separating the top four teams. With the team at the top of the pile going on to win the league in 9 of the last 10 seasons, the fact that three teams were competing for this good omen had occupied the sporting press throughout the past week. And the fact that for once the men from Bavaria were not in that list has made the past week, and the season to date, such a fascinating one.





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Bremen have quite simply dazzled. Jose Mourinho may have bemoaned their physical prowess after his team's Champions League defeat, however 45 goals (27 away from home) to date suggests a team with a little more than brute force in its armory. In Mirolsav Klose they possess the league's top scorer (10), and a hitman who could grace any top European side (and with his contract up at the end of next season, there is a high chance of this). Combined with new recruit Diego pulling the strings in a midfield superbly marshaled by the charismatic Torsten Frings, they can look back at a first half of the season that began with that nightmare Champions League group draw and take great confidence from the way they have performed at home and abroad.
After a surprising elimination from the UEFA Cup at the hands of AS Nancy, Schalke have been able to sustain a consistent league campaign, boasting the meanest defence in the league. Stuttgart have also benefited from an absence from European competition this year, and despite a slow start are starting to display the kind of form that has made them one of the top teams in Germany over the last few years. Leading their charge has been the strapping Mario Gomez, a player 'made for Bayern' in the words of Bayern head coach himself, Felix Magath. His 8 goals so far this season, and the more he will surely add in his exciting partnership with the fantastically named Jeronimo Maria Barreto Claudemir de Silva, could make it difficult for Stuttgart to hold on to the young German international come the summer.
The story at the bottom of the table revolves around one team: Hamburg SV. Last season's third place finish gave them a Champions League return after a six-year absence, however a disastrous first half of the season has seen them record only one league win all season. 10 draws in 17 games suggests that they haven't been totally hapless, however Hamburg have been the kings of conceding late goals, and this is something that their under-pressure manager Thomas Doll will have to work on if they are to pull away from danger and salvage something from their season. Sitting alongside Hamburg at the foot at the table are Borussia M?engladbach, who after a positive start have faded badly, and Mainz, winless since August and looking in danger of ending their three-year stint amongst Germany's elite. Refreshingly, not one of Vfl Bochum, Alemannia Aachen, or Energie Cottbus - the newly promoted teams - find themselves in the relegation zone at the halfway period.
The statistics for the first half of the season are revealing, especially when compared against the so-called big 3 leagues of the Premiership, Seria A and La Liga, least not that with an average attendance of 39,000, the Bundesliga remains Europe's best supported league. 2.7 goals per game makes it the highest scoring of the four, against 2.3 (Prem) and 2.5 (Seria A and La Liga). 50% of the games have seen over 2.5 goals per game compared with 40% (Prem), 44% (Seria A) and 46% (La Liga). And with just 25 points separating the top and bottom teams, it is also the tightest of the 4 leagues. The unpredictable nature of the league is also reflected in the home records of all the teams, with only 39% of games resulting in a home win. Compared with 51% (Prem) and 42% (Seria A) and 43% (La Liga), and it adds weight to the fact that away teams have not been coming to sit back in a 4-5-1 and settle for a draw. 1.3 goals per game by the away side, compared with 0.9 (Prem and Seria A) and 1.1 (La Liga) confirms this.
So, with more than a month to rest, recuperate, speculate and anticipate, Germany could be set for a grand stand finale to the season. However, be warned. With four wins in the last five games, Bayern have managed to haul themselves up into third place despite having already lost more times than in their entire previous campaign, and they will almost certainly be a different animal in the second half of the season. Much depends on the Owen Hargreaves situation, although all the signs coming out of the Allianz Arena indicate that he will have to wait a bit longer for his move to Manchester United, and in the process beef up a midfield that should include a fast-improving Marc van Bommel, and a Bastien Schweinsteiger who, like Lucas Podolski, should emerge re-energized from the winter break having not really woken up from a world cup hangover.
Current title odds (courtesy of bet365):
Bayern Munich 5/4
Werder Bremen 5/4
Schalke 4/1
Vfb Stuttgart 20/1
Player of the season so far: Diego, picked up from an early career slump at Porto for a bargain 4m, has lived up to his Santos potential, scoring 8 goals from midfield and playing a major part in a relentless Bremen team that has plundered an astonishing 45 goals from 17 games.
Players to look out for in the second half of the season: Mario Gomez (Stuttgart), Jan Schlaudraff (Aachen), Manuel Neuer (Schalke)

anglophileHedgehog wrote:

Bilal wrote:

4. VfB Stuttgart:
For most people probably the biggest surprise. I was expecting a lot more than last season. But I'm still surprised at how well they've done. If they don't break down, an UEFA Cup spot should be no problem.
Best Player: Tough, but i'll say Gomez.

That's "most people including 90% of the fans". But yeah... Pleasant surprise and you really have to hand it to Veh and Horst Heldt for having managed to pull it around and for the signings in general. Well, apart from Farnerud perhaps, but then again, he's been injured a lot. I'm a bit worried about them breaking down towards the end of the season as well, and not just because the club have a history of doing that (just look at the last few years...) but because they also didn't look too good in the last few matches.

My "man of the first leg of the season" would actually be Pavel Pardo.

I really wish you dont break down and qualify for Europe.

I would still give your player of the half season to Gomez though.

Bilal wrote:I would still give your player of the half season to Gomez though.

Hmm... I'm not quite sure about that. Sure, he's been great in places, but for my liking, he's been a bit too Kuranyi-esque... And Pardo has made us all forget about Zvoni Soldo already, so I'd stick my head out and say that he deserves the "title" more. Particularly if you keep in mind how disastrous Trap's experiments without Il Capitan were last season.

Anyway--hoping for the UEFA Cup place as well... Would be great to see them play on international level again. Who knows, they might meet Andi Hinkel and Sevilla. Well, if the club doesn't qualify for the CL, of course.

Agree with all of your points... here are some of my "tops and flops"

Tops:

- Bremen and their attacking minded football

- Stuttgart's transfer policy; not only Allofs seems to have a nose for talents

- the Schalke board and their decision to back up Slomka. In general, the attempts of the clubs to stick with their coaches and not sacking them after a few lost matches (more propably a result of a lack of alternatives rather than a change of mind though)

- Bayern: although playing below their best, they are still only a few points behind Bremen and Schalke, don't know how they could manage that.

- the close race at the top of the standings, be it caused by the weakness of Bayern and Bremen or the strength of Schalke and Stuttgart. You can say what you want about the Bundesliga, but at least we have a thrilling and even league...

Flops and other "complaints":

- HSV: by far the biggest disappointment; anyways, I don't expect them to be relegated, the question will be, if they don't qualify for Europe (what is likely going to happen) how many players will stay?

- Kießling: I bet Nürnberg were laughing all the way to the bank when they got 5 million € for him.

- Podolski: mehr Schein als sein, let's hope Magath makes him a starter, maybe then he can prove his class and lives up to expectations.

- the uninspiring slow pace football and ineffective backwards and sideways passing of some teams and the constant diving by some players

- the constant moaning about the financial situation of the BL (compared to the EPL, Primera Division) by Hoeness/Rummenigge and others. Improvements in areas like coaching, scouting, developing youth players, tactics etc. don't cost the earth and would also help to close/decrease the gap to other European leagues.


Biggest surprises:
Gomez, Schlaudraff, Pantelic, Neuer and after his long injury also Pander

Best transfers ("cost-benefit equation")
Diego, Pardo, Gekas, Streit, van Bommel

Best player:
Diego, but the team as a whole just works perfectly together, it's easier to shine then.

SnowBall wrote:.

- the constant moaning about the financial situation of the BL (compared to the EPL, Primera Division) by Hoeness/Rummenigge and others. Improvements in areas like coaching, scouting, developing youth players, tactics etc. don't cost the earth and would also help to close/decrease the gap to other European leagues.

Coaching (probably the quality of coaches) is one thing I hope we improve on , more foreign coaches wont do too much harm.

SnowBall wrote:Agree with all of your points... here are some of my "tops and flops"

*excellent* post

I am wholehartedly agreeing with almost everything



I do expect HSV to go down though as long as they keep Doll. The team needs a mental reboot, it doesn't matter if Doll can be blamed or not...sometimes a change for the worse will turn out for the better, because a change is the thing that's needed.....does that make any sense ?!

Just wondering how nuri sahin is doing? Does he get into the Dortmund first team?

Keano Is God wrote:Just wondering how nuri sahin is doing? Does he get into the Dortmund first team?

Sahin isn't in the starting eleven at the moment. He doesn't get much playing time and when he was plying, he was ineffective (against Bremen, he was quite good, though).

For about a year now, he's having some kind of "mini-crisis", quite normal after his fantastic first season in the Bundesliga. But it seems, he's on a good way back to old strength.

2nd season syndrome.

pity, he's so good on Football Manager

He will be back though , he's got potential.