Bundesliga was fantastic today. Caught the last 15 of Dortmund b Frankfurt and Monchengladnach v Freiburg and then most of Bayern v Leipzig. Great soccer.
Bundesliga 2020/2021
- Thread starter Shwafta
- Start date
Dortmund fired Favre.
I’m seeing chatter among Dortmund fans that they would like to see Jesse Marsch take over.
I’m seeing chatter among Dortmund fans that they would like to see Jesse Marsch take over.
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About time for them. That much young talent and potential was being drained under Favre. I've seen the Marsch rumors as well, would be nice to see him at a big club like BVB. I think they would do well with talent like Reyna, Haaland, and Sancho up top.
He'd be reunited with Haaland too, right? Hopefully BVB can rise up to a more consistent level not seen since Klopp left.
EDIT:
Shwafta how do you feel about this?
About time for them. That much young talent and potential was being drained under Favre. I've seen the Marsch rumors as well, would be nice to see him at a big club like BVB. I think they would do well with talent like Reyna, Haaland, and Sancho up top.
He'd be reunited with Haaland too, right? Hopefully BVB can rise up to a more consistent level not seen since Klopp left.
EDIT:
Still processing ,but overall I think it's good. Don't get me wrong, Favre is a great coach. But he lost the locker room and clearly wasn't good at motivating the team. In the beginning it looked great, but over time you could just tell he wasn't the right fit. He didn't take us to that next level. Tuchel, for example, took us to heights, and though his playstyle wasn't the greatest, he did manage to get us crazy points tallies with not as good of a team. Favre has done just about the same, but with way better players - players that should be challenging Bayern for the title year-in, year-out. This year we should have been at the top right now, but for some unknown reason we lost to three teams we should have. Marsch would be an amazing fit, he plays exactly like Dortmund play. He's great at motivating. Obviously would be weird from his time at Red Bulls, but as a coach I think he's excellent, and I'll support him wherever he goes. (as long as it's not back to RB. heh.)
...However, I do doubt we'll sign him. Let's see how the temp coach does, who was Favre's assistant.
Now, on one hand I love seeing Schalke suffer. On the other hand, I don't want to see them relegated, but it's starting to look inevitable rather than a yearly joke.
Bayern had a chance to be overthrown by Leipzig, but Dortmund did the deed. Woop woop! I'm liking life under Terzic.
It was great to see Dortmund get back to looking like their old selves.
Another game was notable for Americans. Schalke had gone 30 straight without a win. A 19-YO American, Matthew Hoppe, got the start at striker and notched the first hat trick by an American in the Bundesliga. Not Pulisic, not Reyna, not Sargent or Johannsson - Hoppe.
Another game was notable for Americans. Schalke had gone 30 straight without a win. A 19-YO American, Matthew Hoppe, got the start at striker and notched the first hat trick by an American in the Bundesliga. Not Pulisic, not Reyna, not Sargent or Johannsson - Hoppe.
Happy to see them look like they might avoid relegation, sad to see that they couldn't tie or beat Berlin's record ;( Would have been such a fun stain to have on them
At the half way point I'm rather pleased with my predictions.
Biggest outliers here right now are Hertha and Stuttgart - I think the rest will end up relatively where I put them.
...I will say I was SPOT on with mainz/schalke pain in my ending commentns there
Apparently an altercation with angry fans after the game too, sad to see. Unfortunate too that the biggest/best BuLi rivalry is on hold (BVB v. Schalke).
Fuming Schalke ultras attack players with eggs and fireworks after Bundesliga relegation
ARSENAL flops Sead Kolasinac and Shkodran Mustafi were among the Schalke stars attacked by a mob of their own fans on Tuesday night. Kolasinac returned to his former club on loan in January, while …
www.thesun.co.uk
So what happened - not in this incident but how did they go from Champions League 2 years ago to relegation? Did the pandemic somehow screw up their roster? Bad decisions? Bad luck? AOTA?Fuming Schalke ultras attack players with eggs and fireworks after Bundesliga relegation
ARSENAL flops Sead Kolasinac and Shkodran Mustafi were among the Schalke stars attacked by a mob of their own fans on Tuesday night. Kolasinac returned to his former club on loan in January, while …
Even prior to the pandemic, they were having major financial issues. I don't know what the cause of that was, but that's why they sold a bunch of players (including McKennie) and didn't bring anyone else in.
The article claims they "ranked 16th in Europe for revenue in 2020." Now between you and The Sun, I trust you more, but this is also not the sort of thing they tend to sensationalize and make up.
Yes and no. They are run poorly, it's similar to what happened at Hamburg except much quicker. Sign players to huge contracts but the players don't play for the shirt and don't care. Get stuck with huge salaries and can't do much about it. The McKennie sale was already after the whole thing started as well. Now they're left in a position where they're not even sure they can come back up next season, and a lot of fans were worried they might not get BL2 license.
The fans are rightfully mad bc the players have been playing with no heart or soul and are constantly seen post-game during relegation season smiling, exchanging shirts with opposition, laughing etc. and that angers them. Let me get a paycheck and leave. It's crazy, because Schalke is the best worst team ever. How can a bunch so highly rated do SO badly? This is how.
Incredibly poor roster management and coaching. McKennie essentially kept them from being relegated last year. His loss showed the flaws in the rest of the roster. Although, maybe the pandemic did destroy the team. They were actually pretty good up until February/March of 2020. After the pandemic restart they went on an incredible streak (nearly one calendar year, post pandemic) of not winning.
2019-2020 Season
2020-2021 Season
Not showing the remainder of the 20-21 season doesn't do justice to how terrible they were even AFTER that win:
Their top goalscorer is an american teen that was promoted to their first team from the regionalliga (4th tier) bc they were so bad.
Between fans who just follow the biggest players and don't care what team they play for, players who don't have loyalty (and why should they if fans don't), and the growing preference for tournaments over regular season success all over, I'm starting to think a major shake up is coming. I don't see how the current system -- not just in soccer but top level league sports generally -- can sustain itself. To be clear, I'm not predicting the entire system collapses, but it is going to reconfigure somehow. More and more,
- people don't want to watch anything but the best players on the best teams, preferably in knockout play
- regular season success is severely discounted,
- where regular season success still matters (eg most European soccer leagues) an exceedingly small number of teams hold a death grip
- and big teams care more about growing fans worldwide than serving their local core base
I know a lot of people don't really care for the Bundesliga, but if you are reading this, I encourage you to watch some of the battles in the upcoming few weeks because my lord there is about to be one of the most heated
1) Europe qualification battles
2) Relegation battles
you'll see in a long time.
Let's start off with Europe, which has twofold fun situations about to occur. First, let's look at the standings (relevant teams included):
There are two separate, yet highly entertaining battles here.
1. CL Qualification: Two of Dortmund, Frankfurt, Wolfsburg and Leverkusen are going to miss out on champions league. Of those three, Frankfurt have the easiest run-in, with both Wolfsburg and Dortmund playing Leipzig (2nd place) - so it's likely that Wolfsburg and Dortmund will fight for the final spot. This is further complicated by:
2. Europa League Qualification: One of Dortmund, Wolfsburg, Leverkusen, and Frankfurt will qualify here. Plus, Leverkusen plays Dortmund on the final matchday so depending on results prior to the final matchday, that could be a crucial UCL matchup. As well, final matchday sees Union Berlin meet Wolfsburg which could also have similar implications for Berlin's 6th place chances (For the Uefa Conference League - which would be Union's first European appearance ever, in their second ever season in the Bundesliga). Finally, if Monchengladbach win tomorrow they're also in that race for Europa league, and it's going to be incredible.
Now let's go to what's shaping up to be the most fascinating relegation battle in some time (probably since 14/15) with currently 7 teams still within the realms of relegations.
First, let's count the obvious: Hertha is on 28 games played. If they win the catch-up games, that would put them on 35 points. However, here's the run-in:
Hertha:
Mainz, Freiburg, Arminia, Schalke, Koln, Hoffenheim.
Koln:
Freiburg, Hertha, Schalke
Arminia:
Monchengladbach, Hertha, Hoffenheim
Bremen:
Leverkusen, Augsburg, Monchengladbach
Augsburg:
Stuttgart, Bremen, Bayern
Mainz:
Hertha, Frankfurt, Dortmund, Wolfsburg
Hoffenheim:
Schalke, Arminia, Hertha
As you can see, a lot of these teams play each other in the coming weeks, with Hertha playing 4 / 6 fellow relegation candidates, Koln playing 1, Arminia playing two, Bremen playing one, Augsburg playing one, Mainz playing one, and Hoffenheim playing 2.
I don't know exactly how it's going to play out, but my prediction is going to be one of Augsburg and Bremen end up in the relegation spots. I mean, just look at their remaining schedule vs their points total. No way they get many, if any, points out of that run. It's highly unlikely that both go down, and I think the other to go down will be Koln or Arminia. It's going to be a bumpy ride!
1) Europe qualification battles
2) Relegation battles
you'll see in a long time.
Let's start off with Europe, which has twofold fun situations about to occur. First, let's look at the standings (relevant teams included):
There are two separate, yet highly entertaining battles here.
1. CL Qualification: Two of Dortmund, Frankfurt, Wolfsburg and Leverkusen are going to miss out on champions league. Of those three, Frankfurt have the easiest run-in, with both Wolfsburg and Dortmund playing Leipzig (2nd place) - so it's likely that Wolfsburg and Dortmund will fight for the final spot. This is further complicated by:
2. Europa League Qualification: One of Dortmund, Wolfsburg, Leverkusen, and Frankfurt will qualify here. Plus, Leverkusen plays Dortmund on the final matchday so depending on results prior to the final matchday, that could be a crucial UCL matchup. As well, final matchday sees Union Berlin meet Wolfsburg which could also have similar implications for Berlin's 6th place chances (For the Uefa Conference League - which would be Union's first European appearance ever, in their second ever season in the Bundesliga). Finally, if Monchengladbach win tomorrow they're also in that race for Europa league, and it's going to be incredible.
Now let's go to what's shaping up to be the most fascinating relegation battle in some time (probably since 14/15) with currently 7 teams still within the realms of relegations.
First, let's count the obvious: Hertha is on 28 games played. If they win the catch-up games, that would put them on 35 points. However, here's the run-in:
Hertha:
Mainz, Freiburg, Arminia, Schalke, Koln, Hoffenheim.
Koln:
Freiburg, Hertha, Schalke
Arminia:
Monchengladbach, Hertha, Hoffenheim
Bremen:
Leverkusen, Augsburg, Monchengladbach
Augsburg:
Stuttgart, Bremen, Bayern
Mainz:
Hertha, Frankfurt, Dortmund, Wolfsburg
Hoffenheim:
Schalke, Arminia, Hertha
As you can see, a lot of these teams play each other in the coming weeks, with Hertha playing 4 / 6 fellow relegation candidates, Koln playing 1, Arminia playing two, Bremen playing one, Augsburg playing one, Mainz playing one, and Hoffenheim playing 2.
I don't know exactly how it's going to play out, but my prediction is going to be one of Augsburg and Bremen end up in the relegation spots. I mean, just look at their remaining schedule vs their points total. No way they get many, if any, points out of that run. It's highly unlikely that both go down, and I think the other to go down will be Koln or Arminia. It's going to be a bumpy ride!
