News and Analysis of the Bundesliga

Khedira Joins Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid.

Stuttgart’s Sami Khedira caught the atten­tion of Euro­pean giants Real Madrid after a very suc­cess­ful World Cup tour­na­ment, where the young mid­fielder impressed with bat­tling dis­plays in mid­field. Now, he has com­pleted a move to the Bern­abeu for a reported 15 mil­lion Euros.

At first glance, many will sim­ply con­grat­u­late Khedira on secur­ing a move to one of the most dec­o­rated clubs in the game. They will also praise the fact that Khedira will now be sur­rounded by some of the great­est play­ers in the world, includ­ing Cris­tiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Xabi Alonso, Ser­gio Ramos, Iker Casil­las and many oth­ers. Fans may also say that with Khedira’s move to Madrid, he will improve as a player under the tute­lage of the world-class coach­ing of Jose Mourinho.

While all this may be true, it is also true that Khedira’s career could poten­tially be harshly ham­pered after secur­ing a move to Spain with Real Madrid. First, he will be bat­tling for a first-team spot with the likes of Xabi Alonso, Las­sana Diarra, Fer­nando Gago and Este­ban Granero. None of these play­ers are at all second-rate. And, at Khedira’s rel­a­tively young age, a few faulty games when he is given the chance to impress could mean Khedira will be rid­ing the bench until fur­ther notice.

The point can be made that Khedira will take in a new type of foot­ball at Real Madrid with Jose Mour­inho, and that when he rep­re­sents Ger­many he will only add to their already stel­lar tac­ti­cal setup, but it could also serve to dam­age Khedira on the inter­na­tional stage. Before the World Cup ended, every player in the Ger­man 23-man squad were play­ing their club foot­ball in Ger­many. I believe that this has some­thing to do with the way they got their heads down and dis­ci­plined them­selves and were so ruth­less and fear­less dur­ing their World Cup run. But, with play­ers mov­ing away from Ger­many and adding new aspects to their game, this could take away from what has made them the play­ers they are.

Though, should Khedira impress at the Bern­abeu along­side Xabi Alonso, he will go on to great things. Under the tute­lage and the pres­tige of a world-class man­ager like Jose Mour­inho, we may be see­ing an absolute gem of a mid­fielder as he matures at Real Madrid. But, if he fails to set­tle in imme­di­ately and begin to make an impact, he will be brushed aside and some­one else, likely Gago or Diarra, will be brought in to take his place. The harsh real­ity at a mas­sive club like Real Madrid, like Chelsea, like Man­ches­ter United, for exam­ple, is that if a player does not make the impact he should make, then another player will be brought into the team to do that job.

The pres­sure, then, is cer­tainly on Khedira now. He joins Real Madrid with the rep­u­ta­tion he gained after part­ner­ing Bas­t­ian Schwe­in­steiger in Germany’s mid­field. Let’s hope he set­tles in at the Bern­abeu in Madrid as well as he set­tled in under Joachim Loew in South Africa.

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Dort­mund Head Into Next Sea­son With Attack­ing Prowess.

Dort­mund man­ager Jur­gen Klopp achieved his great­est suc­cess last sea­son when he lifted the club to an impres­sive 5th place which would secure Europa League foot­ball for the com­ing sea­son. Although Klopp is rel­a­tively inex­pe­ri­enced, his enthu­si­asm and thirst for suc­cess will spur his side on to greater suc­cess. Klopp has quite a squad at his dis­posal this sea­son with Borus­sia Dort­mund, but it will be down to his abil­ity to put all of those work­ing parts together and cre­ate a force that will com­pete for Europa League qual­i­fi­ca­tion on a domes­tic front and the Europa League title on a Euro­pean front that will deter­mine how suc­cess­ful Dort­mund are to be this season.

Key Play­ers

It’s fair to say that Borus­sia Dort­mund have a lot less sta­bil­ity defen­sively than they do in attack. One defender who does stand out though, despite his age, is Neven Sub­otic. Sub­otic played most of his youth foot­ball in the United States after his fam­ily moved there when he was 10. Sub­otic when on to be capped for both the U-17 and U-21 lev­els for the United States, but when the call came from Ser­bia, he opted to play for his home nation at the senior national level. His posi­tional sense and aer­ial abil­ity will be key for Dort­mund this sea­son, and he will look to con­tinue to impress and ful­fill his poten­tial with Dortmund.

Up top, Borus­sia Dortmund’s strength can really be seen. With the likes of Nel­son Valdez, Lucas Bar­rios, and Mohamed Zidan, Borus­sia Dortmund’s front-line is one that can really carve out oppor­tu­ni­ties and out-score oppo­nents. Although, none of them would be scor­ing the goals they did if it weren’t for the sup­port they get from the mid­field. The man in the mid­dle that cre­ates Dortmund’s attack­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties is prob­a­bly more impor­tant to Dort­mund than the strik­ers them­selves. That man, is Nuri Sahin. The young mid­fielder has come out in the press already this pre-season and has declared that he con­sid­ers him­self equal to Bas­t­ian Schwe­in­steiger. Cer­tainly, he will look to spring­board an already impres­sive start to his career on the Europa League stage this sea­son. Nuri Sahin’s cre­ativ­ity and box-to-box qual­i­ties make him an asset to his team.

New­com­ers

It doesn’t look like Dort­mund have made any very impres­sive sign­ings this sum­mer, but what has to be praised is their abil­ity to bring through incred­i­ble youth prospects. A mid­fielder like Sven Ben­der seems to be next on the list of admirable Ger­man mid­field stal­warts. Sven Ben­der, and his twin-brother Lars Ben­der who plays at Bayer Lev­erkusen, will both look to make a mark in the Bun­desliga this sea­son. Both broth­ers were a part of the U-19 Ger­man side that won the Euro­pean U-19 Cham­pi­onship in 2008. Now, at 21 years old, they will look to be reg­u­lar con­trib­u­tors for their respec­tive clubs. Sven will most likely be kept under the wing of Dort­mund cap­tain Sebas­t­ian Kehl, and look to improve his game under Kehl’s guidance.

Expec­ta­tions

It is unlikely that — because of Dortmund’s rather rick­ety defense — they will be able to con­tinue to push for Europa League qual­i­fi­ca­tion this sea­son. After Ham­burg and Wolfs­burg have both done their best to strengthen their squads for the upcom­ing sea­son, it is unlikely that Dort­mund will be able to hold their place in the top six. An 8th placed fin­ish may be all we see from Dort­mund this season.

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Lev­erkusen May Strug­gle To Repeat A Top-Four Fin­ish This Season.

Lev­erkusen man­ager Jupp Heynckes has quite the task ahead of him if he has any chance of fin­ish­ing 4th this sea­son in the Bun­desliga. Heynckes, who is known as ‘Osram’ by some in Ger­many, for the way his face goes red while under stress on the side­lines, will be look­ing to con­tinue his suc­cess with Lev­erkusen this sea­son. After join­ing in 2009, Heynckes imme­di­ately took Lev­erkusen from 9th in the league to an impres­sive 4th. Build­ing on that suc­cess, how­ever, will be a tor­ren­tial task.

Key Play­ers

Goal­keeper Rene Adler is piv­otal to Lev­erkusen suc­cess, and will be again this sea­son. Many in Ger­many believed that if it were not for his injury just pre­vi­ous to World Cup 2010, he would have been Joachim Loew’s num­ber one choice between the sticks for the national team. The young goal­keeper has been at Lev­erkusen since 2000, but broke into the first-team when he was just 22.

Cap­tain Simon Rolfes will also be impos­si­ble to replace for Lev­erkusen this sea­son. Due to being quite injury prone, Heynckes has secured the sig­na­ture of Hanno Bal­itsch, who will act as backup for the cap­tain. Many in Ger­many touted Rolfes as Ballack’s suc­ces­sor for World Cup 2010, but an injury ruled him out as well. His tack­ling abil­ity and his posi­tional sense as well as his lead­er­ship qual­i­ties will be crit­i­cal in the spine of this Lev­erkusen side.

New­com­ers

Enter Michael Bal­lack. Germany’s tal­is­manic mid­fielder has com­pleted a move from Chelsea back to Lev­erkusen where he began his senior career. Ballack’s pres­ence beside Rolfes will be fan­tas­tic to see for Bun­desliga fans this sea­son, as the two will look to take con­trol of games and dom­i­nate pos­ses­sion. Bal­lack will also be look­ing to impress at Lev­erkusen so that he can once again secure his place in Joachim Loew’s national team. With Sami Khedira doing so much to impress, it will be a lot harder than many first thought for Bal­lack to break his way back into the national team. But, if any­one can do it, he can.

Expec­ta­tions

While Lev­erkusen made a dra­matic improve­ment on their stand­ing last sea­son by mov­ing from a 9th-placed fin­ish in 2008 to a 4th-placed fin­ish in 2009, things may not be so smooth this term. Jupp Heynckes does have a won­der­ful squad at hand, but it still may not be good enough to beat off the likes of Schalke, Werder Bre­men, Wolfs­burg, Stuttgart and Ham­burg for a top four spot. Secur­ing Europa League qual­i­fi­ca­tion would be a great fin­ish for Heynckes’ side, and a good DFB Pokal run will please the fans. Unfor­tu­nately, Lev­erkusen may have a much harder time this sea­son than they did last time around.

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Span­ish Leg­end Raul Com­pletes Move To The Bun­desliga With Schalke.

World foot­ball leg­end Raul, who made his name play­ing for Span­ish giants Real Madrid and the Span­ish national team, has com­pleted a trans­fer to Schalke in the Bundesliga.

The ex-Real Madrid man is an absolute icon of Span­ish and Euro­pean foot­ball. Over what has been a stel­lar career, Raul has man­aged 554 league games for Real Madrid and has scored an aston­ish­ing 228 league goals. Raul has also been capped 102 times for the Span­ish national team, scor­ing 44 goals. Raul is the top all-time Cham­pi­ons League goalscorer, as well as being Spain’s all-time high­est goalscorer.

Cer­tainly, Raul has had an incred­i­ble career. After spend­ing 18 years at Real Madrid, and 16 of those play­ing for the first-team, Raul has man­aged to lift an incred­i­ble six La Liga titles, four Super­copa titles, three Cham­pi­ons League titles, a UEFA Super Cup and two Inter­con­ti­nen­tal Cups. Incred­i­bly, Raul has not man­aged to win any national team hon­ours with the Span­ish national team.

Raul’s move to Schalke can only be seen as a good thing for the club and for the Bun­desliga. While it is true that he is get­ting to the end of his career at the age of 33, his pres­ence, his sta­tus on the Euro­pean and World stages and his clin­i­cal fin­ish­ing are untar­nished. Raul is a man who knows how to win, and he will bring that atti­tude to the Bun­desliga with Schalke.

Ger­man clubs have done well to secure the sig­na­tures of house­hold names this sum­mer like Michael Bal­lack and Raul, and even Ruud van Nis­tel­rooy in Jan­u­ary. Raul will add just that extra bit of class and skill that all Bun­desliga fans will love to watch.

Raul will wear the num­ber 7 shirt at Schalke.

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Werder Bre­men Secured 3rd Last Sea­son Under Man­ager Thomas Schaaf.

Man­ager Thomas Schaaf will be delighted with the fact that many of the young­sters under his wing have sprung to world­wide suc­cess in South Africa this sum­mer dur­ing the World Cup. Mesut Ozil, in par­tic­u­lar, was a mas­sive suc­cess. Schaaf will be con­fi­dent in his abil­ity, and his play­ers’ abil­i­ties, to chal­lenge for domes­tic hon­ours this sea­son in the Bun­desliga. Despite the pres­sure of other aspir­ing Bun­desliga cham­pi­ons in the form of Bayer Lev­erkusen, Schalke 04, Stuttgart and Wolfs­burg, Schaaf’s Werder Bre­men side will be con­fi­dent that their squad has enough qual­ity to meet any and all expec­ta­tions this season.

Key Play­ers

The afore­men­tioned Mesut Ozil will be piv­otal to Werder Bremen’s sea­son if they have any inten­tions of chal­leng­ing for domes­tic hon­ours this sea­son. As we’ve just seen dur­ing the World Cup, Mesut Ozil’s sen­sa­tional abil­ity to both cre­ate and score goals can turn a game on it’s head in an instant.

It isn’t just up top where Werder are impres­sive. At the back, they have a man-mountain known as Per Merte­sacker. The Ger­man inter­na­tional was an absolute shield to Manuel Neuer’s goal at the World Cup, and will be plow­ing oppo­si­tion oppo­nents out of the way for Werder this sea­son along­side Naldo, who is another intense phys­i­cal spec­i­men. I think it’s rel­a­tively safe to say that Werder will not con­cede goals from set pieces or crosses this season.

New­com­ers

Marko Arnau­tovic has joined the club from FC Twente after com­plet­ing a sea­son on-loan at Euro­pean and Ital­ian cham­pi­ons Inter last sea­son. While he failed to make too much of an impact at Inter, he does look to be a fan­tas­tic prospect for the future. Under Thomas Schaaf’s wing, and with the tuition of more expe­ri­enced play­ers like Huge Almeida and Clau­dio Pizarro, Arnau­tovic could well turn into a top Bun­desliga striker.

Felix Kroos has also joined the club from FC Hansa Ros­tock. Felix is the younger brother of Bay­ern Munich’s Toni Kroos, and is another Werder Bre­men player who is set for a very bright future. He is an attack­ing mid­field player in the mould of his brother, and will look to learn his trade by part­ner­ing up with Mesut Ozil, Aaron Hunt and Marko Marin on the train­ing field. At 19 years old, Felix Kroos is only two or three years younger than the first-teamers play­ing in his posi­tion. Kudos to the won­der­ful youth setup in Ger­many for being able to con­tin­u­ously pump out fan­tas­tic tal­ent that can com­pete at the top level at such an early age.

Expec­ta­tions

Werder Bre­men fin­ished in an impres­sive 3rd place last sea­son and will look to con­tinue their domes­tic suc­cess after rein­forc­ing an already strong squad. Mesut Ozil, Torsten Frings, and Per Merte­sacker are the spine of a very com­pe­tent Bun­desliga side that will con­tinue to chal­lenge for a Euro­pean spot and domes­tic glory.

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Schalke Impressed Last Sea­son With A Second-Place Fin­ish In The Bundesliga.

Felix Mag­ath made a stun­ning start to his Schalke career after baf­fling crit­ics and defied expec­ta­tions after lead­ing Die Konigs­blauen to a second-placed Bun­desliga fin­ish last sea­son. The sea­son prior to last, Mag­ath was with VfL Wolfs­burg and man­aged to win the Bun­desliga that year. Cer­tainly, Mag­ath is capa­ble of the absolute best and he will be look­ing to extend his suc­cess with Schalke this sea­son. Since his side are in the Cham­pi­ons League again this sea­son, we may see Schalke lose sight of pri­or­i­ties and fiz­zle out into a mid-table posi­tion. Under Mag­ath, though, the impos­si­ble is cer­tainly always within sight.

Key Play­ers

Germany’s World Cup goal­keeper, Manuel Neuer, will mar­shall his penalty area and be the last bas­tion of defense for Schalke 04 this sea­son. Neuer has been at the club since 1991, where he played for the youth team aged just 5 years old. The goal­keeper has grown up a Schalke boy and has served his club admirably. Should he con­tinue to impress, he will con­tinue to force him­self into Joachim Loew’s thinking.

Ivan Rakitic is the man in the team who will orches­trate Schalke attacks. His flair and quick pass­ing is crit­i­cal in the cre­ation of goal-scoring oppor­tu­ni­ties for Die Knap­pen. He will tuck in just behind Schalke’s strik­ers, and pro­vide the cre­ativ­ity that every side craves when going for­ward. He will look to slip into space between the opposition’s mid­field and defense, and act as a tre­quartista for his side, in the mold of a player like Clarence Seedorf.

New­com­ers

The arrival of Raul Gon­za­lez seems absolutely immi­nent after Mag­ath him­self has come out and talked about how Raul would feel right at home play­ing for Schalke. Ruud van Nis­tel­rooy, an ex-teamate of Raul’s, has also expressed his delight at see­ing him ply his trade in the Bun­desliga. The arrival of Raul, for Schalke, would be a total god­send. After the depar­ture of top-scorer Kevin Kuranyi, Schalke do lack a lit­tle bit of qual­ity up front. Raul, def­i­nitely, would pro­vide a killer touch and a clin­i­cal fin­ish in and around the oppo­si­tion 18-yard box that Schalke could thrive off of.

Younger Levan Kenia will also be look­ing to step up in a big way this sea­son. The young Geor­gian mid­fielder has made just 11 appear­ances for the club, but at only 19 years old he does look a fan­tas­tic prospect. Kenia, this sea­son, will be look­ing to stake a claim for Rakitic’s cre­ative mid­field role, and we should see a lot of pos­i­tive things from the young mid­fielder this season.

Expec­ta­tions

With Felix Mag­ath in charge, you can almost get the feel­ing that expec­ta­tions dont even enter his mind. Exceed­ing them, though, cer­tainly does. While the squad has taken heavy losses in the trans­fer mar­ket after the depar­tures of Kevin Kuranyi, Marcelo Bor­don and Heiko West­er­mann, they have looked to bring in very com­pe­tent replace­ments for those play­ers in Raul, Christoph Met­zelder and Kyr­i­akos Papadopou­los. For Mag­ath, with the added pres­sure of the Cham­pi­ons League, this sea­son may be one of con­stant strug­gle. Though, we’ve seen Mag­ath pull off the nearly impos­si­ble before. Schalke are very hard to call, but I do see them once again push­ing for a Cham­pi­ons League spot this season.

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