VfL Wolfsburg Preview

VfL Wolfsburg

Coach: Armin Veh

The champion coach of Stuttgart signed in Wolfsburg.

Armin Veh has the ability to coach a young team that is quite sure and he showed that with Stuttgart a few years ago.

The system used in Stuttgart is quite similar to the one in Wolfsburg, just that Wolfsburg uses a playmaker with Misimovic rather than two defensive midfield players.

Armin Veh said that he took over a working and very fit team (who wonders, that team won the league last season).
He added that he doesn't want to change everything but that he has an own philosophy which he wants to bring in.

Its quite possible that Wolfsburg will play a bit more offensive from the beginning. With Magath they attacked from their own defence, passing fast into offense and getting a lot of space in front with this tactic.

Veh analysed that their opponents wont give them so much space this season, because most teams will find a way to stop this tactic. Therefore he wants his players to be able to break through defensive team as well. This way they may create a few more goal chances than last season, where they used their few chances freaking effectively.
A disadvantage is that the defence could get more work this way and they were not looking always good already in last season.

As a coach, Veh is Authoritarian and he was able to let Grafite and other important players sign new contracts which shows that the players trust in him as well.

Money spend for transfers: 12.100.000 €
Money earned from transfers: 2.400.000 €

Balance: -9.700.000 €

Atmosphere during training camp&test matches:

No bad injuries for Wolfsburg in here so that the training camp result was positive.

Test matches are always difficult to rate but the last match against Mallorca showed that Wolfsburg still owns this fighting spirit (HT 0:1, FT 3:1). Armin Veh said that in second half he saw the football he expects to be played the whole 90 minutes.

During the period of preparation there were a lot of rumours about Dzeko leaving. However, Wolfsburg was able to hold all important players and even give a lot of them new contracts so that we can say it did not influence the team in a bad way at all.

Possible line-ups & tactics:











Most likely:
1. 4-4-2 (4-1-2-1-2); LB,CB,CB,RB,DM,LM,RM,OM,ST,ST
2. 4-4-2 (4-2-2-2); LB,CB,CB,RB,DM,DM,LOM,ROM,ST,ST

Aim set by club:

The announce aim by the club is to settle down on top.

Team check:

Goalkeeper: 10/10

In my opinion Benaglio is one of the best Bundesliga keepers.

He saved a few points last season with his amazing performances and was one reason why Wolfsburg won the title.

Marwin Hitz, the second goalkeeper showed a very good performance in friendlies and is a good backup.

Defence: 7/10

Good defence here although it suffers from offensive line-up sometimes.

Schäfer is a very good left back who improved a lot in recent years. More than an average left back and he has a good left shot as well.

Centre back position will be filled with Barzagli and either Simunek or Madlung. Barzagli is a good leader and both Simunek and Madlung have the potential to be good defenders.

As right back we have Sascha Riether here who did also play as right midfield last season. This time he is planned as right back since in midfield they got new players for right/left midfield position.

If they can avoid individual mistakes as in last season I would rate them higher, but all four in defence tend to make some big errors from time to time.

Midfield: 9/10

Defensive midfield player Josue was one of Magath key players last season. A man who does his work very good, but rarely people rate defensive midfield players high.

Left and right midfield. Gentner will play on left side probably. Good guy who was the surprising player last season. I mean they got him for a few hundred thousand Euros only and he ruled with his good crosses on Dzeko and Grafite.

Right midfield going to be a race between Kahlenberg and Ziani who both came new to the team. Cannot say that much about both, but I think Kahlenberg is more the playmaker as Misimovic is and probably we will see Ziani as right midfield player.

And yeah.. already mentioned that Misimovic will of course play on the offensive midfield position.

They now have more players for different positions on bench which will aid them during the long season.

Striker: 9/10

I do not think that I have to say much in here.

Dzeko and Grafite are just sick strikers. Especially Dzeko is born to be a striker really.

Behind them Esswein is sitting who did play some good test matches but at the moment Wolfsburg is hunting another striker. The last information I have got was that Martins wanted to come to Wolfsburg.

When Martins will come they may reach Bayern's striker level, but it is very good as it is already.

Total: 9/10

My prognosis:

It will be a very tough season for Wolfsburg really.
They will want to show everyone that their success was not so much based on luck. But if we remember back we saw very bad Bayern, Bremen e.g. last season.

I expect the other teams to perform better this season. Another thing which we will have to add is that Wolfsburg will play Champions league next season and we don't know how they will deal with it although they did had not many problems with Uefa Cup [this year Europe League] last season.

All in all the club must be patient especially when it will not work as they expect it. The team is good for sure and they bring everything with them to be successful.

I personally do hope they can repeat the success and finish at least under top 5.