Things I Hope Happen in this 23/24 Season
> Arsenal gets relegated
> West Ham fans return to their hooligan roots and start trampling folk in Turin again
> Erling Haaland is arrested for the murder of Roy Keane
> A reunifed Yugoslavia wins the 2024 Euro
> Paul Pogba is tried at The Hague
> Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville are married in a tasteful ceremony outside of Wembley
> Jürgen Klopp tears Pep Guardiola's bald Catalán head clean off his shoulders after Liverpool beats City 27-0
> Kylian Mbappe disappears entirely and goes completely off-grid instead of accepting a concrete offer from Real Madrid, Al-Hilal, or Paris Saint-Germain. He is never seen or heard from again
> Darwin Nuñez wins the Golden Boot
> Arda Güler and Jude Bellingham absolutely rot on the Real Madrid bench
> Marco Reus lights himself on fire after losing the Bundesliga to Bayern Munich by 0.5 points
> Federico Valverde transfers to Liverpool after a messy breakup with Ancelotti, cites reasons for leaving as 'being replaced with children'
> Harry Maguire has the best season of his career and brings Manchester United the Treble, then leaves for City in the Summer Transfer Window
> Harry Kane has a violent nervous breakdown on the pitch after Richarlison scores and strips just for the goal to be ruled offside once again
> Manchester City are found guility of 102,719,273,929,280 counts of violating Premier League Financial Fair Play and are relegated to Iceland's 4th Division
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In Top-Form: Leon Goretzka
Two goals and two assists in just one game—Leon Goretzka recently gave a dazzling performance in our 8-1 win over Mainz—impressive proof of how strong our midfield engine currently is. The numbers show that in his current form, he is indispensable:
Leon has amassed 9 scorer points (2 goals, 7 assists) from the beginning of the year to the 25th Bundesliga matchday. Only Harry Kane (12) and Augsburg's Ermedin Demirovic (10) are ahead of him at this point.
He has led 82 defensive duels in the Bundesliga in 2024 so far—more than any other FCB player.
93% pass accuracy in his own half—an absolute top value! This shows how important he is for our game structure.
574 ball possessions in the Bundesliga—only Matthijs de Ligt has been more present in the Bayern game in 2024 than our number 8. The Dutchman has 581.
He has made 9.6 successful passes into the attacking third this Champions League season; only Koke from Atlético has more among midfielders (9.9).
🖊️ An excerpt from the April 2024 issue of 51 Magazine
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Holger Badstuber Column
Hello football fans!
New Year's Eve is just around the corner and the Bundesliga presents us with a few nice surprises when we look at the table. Bayer 04 Leverkusen with coach Xabi Alonso in first place, VfB Stuttgart in third, Union Berlin close to the relegation zone, BVB 15 points behind the leaders - I watched a lot of games, I was at the Allianz Arena and visited my former club in Stuttgart.
I've seen good football, exciting football, thrilling football. This season offers much of what I have loved about this sport for decades. Time for an interim assessment with four highlights and three weak points, and of course I won't let the championship prediction get away from me. How do you think the race for the championship will go? You can read my assessment in the text below. First the highlights.
Leverkusen enjoys winning
First place for Leverkusen is no surprise in principle. Coach Xabi Alonso's team plays consistently and has not yet been defeated. The style of play is clear, structured, sometimes ruthless. It's well-rounded, harmonious. It shows me that the coach's idea is being implemented consistently.
What's more, they have slowly taken a liking to winning. They're really up for it! That makes them extra dangerous for the competition. With his skills, Florian Wirtz stands out for me among a number of top players such as Boniface, Xhaka, Hofmann, Frimpong and Grimaldo.
The star, however, remains Alonso. As a player, he used to have everything under control on the six, but now he has managed to impart his knowledge as a coach. He combines competence with authority. Xabi Alonso will be coaching a really big team sooner rather than later.
Soothing calm in the Bayern environment
The leak at Säbener Strasse seems to have been plugged. Hardly any disagreements or disputes have been reported. For the club, this is a welcome development after the constant unrest surrounding the club in recent years
A number of positions have been filled - the decision to bring Christoph Freund on board as sports director was absolutely the right one. He is a good man with a good eye for talent and experience in developing players. Together with coach Thomas Tuchel, whom I hold in high esteem, I trust him to set up a framework that is Bayern-like again. The seed has been sown.
Harry Kane: More than a 9
25 goals in 22 competitive games, plus eight assists: WOW, what a record! What makes Harry Kane so valuable is his versatility. Compared to Robert Lewandowski, for example, Kane is not "just" a goalscorer, but also a ten-man who often plays the decisive final ball.
Kane combines the numbers 9 and 10, which is what makes him so dangerous, he also lets himself drop at times and is therefore less tangible for defenders. Every cent of this immense investment has already paid off for FC Bayern. I can only congratulate him once again on this transfer.
VfB Stuttgart: A very strong block
I once experienced how much the region lives and shakes when VfB plays, both as an active professional and as a guest in the stadium this season. These fans, this club and its environment deserve a stable season. The people in charge speak with one voice, the squad has been super strengthened in terms of positions with Stiller, Mittelstädt and Undav. Coach Sebastian Hoeneß has established a gallant power football that perfectly suits this dynamic club.
The players also look fresh and fit. With keeper Nübel, the back four and the two back sixes, there is a very strong block, a real unit. That creates consistency and reliability and, last but not least, defensive balance. I hope that VfB don't lose any top players in the winter and simply see the season through in this constellation. Then at least fifth place is certain!
Squad gaps at FCB: Transfers are needed for titles
First of all, a big compliment from me to Aleksandar Pavlovic. I liked what I saw of him. He has potential. He'll get his chance to really gain a foothold at Bayern in the future. But he's not the solution to achieve the goals now. Experience is the trump card in this position.
If FCB still want to win titles, which I logically assume they will, they need to bring in quality reinforcements in the winter. A physically strong, tall, simple-playing six-man and a right-back are urgently needed. To a certain extent, the season hinges on the winter transfer window. I can't say whether Bayern will be able to close the gaps in the squad. We'll have to be surprised.
Too fast, too much at Union
It's a bit of a shame, but it was also a bit predictable. Triple the workload, mixing it up with transfers, that's what messed up the team. It even got to the point where coach Urs Fischer had to go.
I didn't expect that and that Union would slip so far down the table. I still like the club, it has established itself in the Bundesliga with a well thought-out style of play and unity. Recently, it seemed as if the "Irons" had regained their composure. Please keep it up!
Köln's fall from grace
It had already become apparent in the summer that coach Steffen Baumgart's energy-sapping philosophy was continuing to wear thin. Added to this were crucial departures such as Ellyes Skhiri. Now the team has not only lost its greed, but also its balance. The quality is no longer sufficient.
Baumgart is now gone and his successor will not get any new players because the International Court of Arbitration for Sport has confirmed FIFA's ban on transfers for two transfer periods. Fear of relegation is rampant in Cologne - and rightly so.
And who will be champion?
In January, many professionals from the Bundesliga will be at the Africa Cup and the Asian Championships. One team that will be particularly hard hit is Bayer 04 Leverkusen. They could be missing up to six players. At Bayern, Minjae Kim and Noussair Mazraoui are likely to be traveling. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting was surprisingly not nominated for Cameroon's national team.
Depending on which team compensates better for the losses, the second half of the season will start with a boost. There will be a duel between Leverkusen and Bayern right up to the last matchday. But FC Bayern will always be my favorite to win the championship.
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Thanks to the lovely @chelleisamazing and to the not less lovely @miasanmuller and to my dear bestie @gxtzeizm for tagging me! 💖 I am super super late for this but for my defense I did a theater course during one week with no internet and after I passed an audition to enter a theater school and after that I was so tired that I didn't had the strength to do anything even that. I'm so sorry 🤦🏻♀️
bundesliga prediction time: answer the following questions about this bundesliga season
1. Top 5 Bundesliga Teams at the end of the season?
2. How far will Bayern get in the DFB Pokal?
3. How far will Bayern get in the Champions League?
4. Who will be Bayerns top goal scorer?
5. Biggest surprise? (could be anything)
6. Biggest disappointment? (could be anything)
Well surprise, surprise… I will go with… Bayern. Even if I wouldn’t want this to happen I would still answer that, and… guess what… I want it to happen : ). For the second place I think that there’s going to be a little surprise and that Leverkusen is going to be the second-best team of the season (Xabi I believe in you!). Then I struggled to choose between BVB and Leipzig for the third place but I will go with Leipzig, even if I like the players that Dortmund got this summer and even if I think that they have a good squad I suppose that the events from last year are going to affect them this season. So BVB in fourth and Union in fifth. I wanted to had a surprise team in my top five but I don’t know if Union can be considered as a surprise anymore (also that’s probably a bad guess because it’s quite rare for a team like that to keep having a successful season after a very successful season but let’s hope “finger cross”)
I hope that I’m not too optimistic but I want us to win it. We have been away from this trophy for way too long, and I carnally desire to in it again now.
A semi-final would be great but the team really have to improve for that or we need an easy draw ( < not going to happen). A quarter-final is probably more realistic.
Obviously, Harry Kane, not a very original answer but I can’t see it any other way. He seems to have fitted in the squad quite easily and even if later he struggles a little wish would be normal, I still think that he will have a too important lead to be caught up. But I want Sebastian Haller to be the second best striker of the season because he deserves that after what happened last season.
Bayern is going to win all the matches against Gladbach (yes I’m in full delulu mode)
I don’t want that to happen but I’m afraid that Florian Witz will have some difficulties this season, after such a terrible injury it can take a long time for a player to really come back to his best level.
I'm tagging @miasanmannschaft, @miasanmia44, @nyctophilic0vitnir, @uncoolfc, @leongolretzka (you have probably ll done this already but just in case... however feel free to ignore 😘)
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