2009/2010 Ending table

Title favourite:
Bayern München

Champions league position (2nd & 3rd):
1899 Hoffenheim
VfL Wolfsburg

Europe League position (4th & 5th)
Hamburger SV
Borussia Dortmund

Midfield position (6th to 15th)
Bayer 04 Leverkusen
VfB Stuttgart
Werder Bremen
Schalke 04
Hertha BSC Berlin
1. FC Nürnberg
1. FC Köln
Eintracht Frankfurt
Borussia Mönchengladbach
SC Freiburg

Relegation position (16th to 18th)
VfL Bochum
Hannover 96
1. FSV Mainz 05

1.FC Nürnberg Preview

1. FC Nürnberg

Coach: Michael Oenning

Michael Oenning is one of the new coaches. It will be his first season in Bundesliga.
He took over Thomas van Heesen's position as coach in August 2008.

At the beginning it did not look as if Oenning is able to get Nürnberg back to 1.Bundesliga. The first half of the season went quite bad and many people gave Nürnberg no chance to get back to 1.Bundesliga that season.

But during the winter break Oenning did some changes and brought Nürnberg back on the winning way. At the end it was enough and since then Oenning is rated high in Nürnberg. Especially the fans celebrated him a lot!

It will be interesting to see how he can adapt to Bundesliga, but it is nice to see young and new coaches getting a chance in Germanys highest football league.

Money spend for transfers: 1.250.000 €
Money earned from transfers: 7.425.000 €

Balance: +6.175.000 €

Atmosphere during training camp&test matches:

Out of nine test matches Nürnberg lost only two. Quite eye-catching fact was that against small teams they had no problems winning (5:1 against RW Erfurt f.e.), but against bigger teams such as Dortmund (0:1) and Glasgow Ranger (0:2) they got defeats.

At least they managed to steal a draw from Fenerbahce (3:3), but as a Fenerbahce supporter I had a look at this match for sure and must admit that through all the changes done in the line-up Fenerbahce was not once on full strength.

All in all we could see that their level is top of 2.Bundesliga and bottom of 1.Bundesliga (wins over small teams, defeats against big teams).

In terms of injuries Nürnberg had not any big problems which will make coach Oenning happy.

Possible line-ups & tactics:










Most likely:

1. 4-4-2 (4-1-2-1-2); LB,CB,CB,RB,DM,OM,RM,LM,ST,ST

Aim set by club:

Don't get relegated. Stay in 1.Bundesliga.

Team check:

Goalkeeper: 7/10

Raphael Schäfer moved to Stuttgart from Nürnberg where many fans thought if it is a copy of Schäfer who was bought. Schäfer could not convince in Stuttgart and went back to Nürnberg.
Last season he was one of the best goalkeepers in 2.Bundesliga and he is now back in 1.Bundesliga.
He has some deficits when he has to control the ball with his foot as we could see in the friendly against Fenerbahce once again.
On the line and in 1 vs. 1 situation is good, crosses are only a problem from time to time for him.

Defence: 6/10

Left back Pinola is well known for those who follow Bundesliga regular. A good left back who identifies himself with the club. He stayed in Nürnberg although he could play 1.Bundesliga in clubs such as Leverkusen. A problem is that Maroh, centre back is injured and therefore Pinola will be used as centre back at the beginning of the season.

Another experienced player who played in Bundesliga before is Andreas Wolf. He will play centre back together with Pinola.

Left back will be then Pascal Bieler. Right back Dennis Diekmeier came during the winter break from Bremen and directly played for Nürnberg.

During a possible relegation fight Nürnberg can trust in experience and the defence was the best one last season conceding only 29 goals.

Midfield: 7/10

New guy Broich came from Köln where he could not convince that much, but he will be a good help for sure.

Defensive midfield will be either Mnari who is very experienced or the already mentioned Thomas Broich.

On left midfield position we can see a new face. Ilkay Gündogan, just 18 years old did impress in test matches and may start on this position. Gygax and Frantz would have to sit on bench then.

On right midfield position there is no way going around Peer Kluge who also played with Nürnberg in Bundesliga.

Marek Mintal, the dangerous creative head of the team will fill the offensive midfield position.
Nürnberg has some alternatives in midfield, only on offensive midfield position they are depending a lot on Marek Mintal who has to be play a lot of games if possible.

Striker: 5/10

The strikers do not convince me at all.
Eigler, Charisteas and Boakye did all play in Bundesliga but not one of them can be described as a real goal getter.

At the moment it is not sure who will play, Eigler and Boakye had some advantages but Charisteas outpaced them in test matches.

All in all not one of them is able to score more than 10 goals, at least they never did before.

Total: 6/10

My prognosis:

Usually teams who got promoted have to fight against relegation in the first season, but Nürnberg has some quality in the team which a lot of other clubs let miss. A good midfield position would not let me wonder.

Only the offense and the missing goal scoring ability can cause some problems, but when the midfield scores a few goals as well they can compensate that.

Mainz 05 Preview

Mainz 05

Coach: Thomas Tuchel

Well I don't know a lot about this coach. He coached the U19 team of Mainz and will take over Andersen's part.



Money spend for transfers: 2.250.000 €
Money earned from transfers: 0 €

Balance: -2.250.000 €

Atmosphere during training camp&test matches:

Good results in test matches and concentrated preparations for Bundesliga start. Only negative aspect is that Trojan and Polanski got injured and that the coach needs to find a way to compensate those missing players at the beginning.

Possible line-ups & tactics:










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

Aim set by club:

Don't get relegated. Stay in 1.Bundesliga.

Team check:

Goalkeeper: 4/10

Dimo Wache played on this position last season. The 35 year old did not concede a goal in 13 matches last season. But he aged already and Heinz Müller is back.

Müller was not able to settle down in Germany before, he was sent to Grenland (Norway) then to Lillestrom SK and his last station FC Barnsley in England. Now he is back and has to show if he is capable of playing in Bundesliga.

One aged goalkeeper and one who did not show himself yet in Bundesliga.

Defence: 3/10

Defence contains some names that we already read or saw in 1.Bundesliga. But all could not settle down in 1.Bundesliga and were rarely playing.

Left back van der Heyden could not stay in Wolfsburg.

Right back Tim Hoogland came from Schalke were he played 9 matches. In Mainz he played 33 matches last season.

Centre backs are Niko Bungert, who lacks experience in relegation fight and the experienced leader Nokolce Noveski.

Midfield: 3/10

Feulner left Mainz, but they were able to buy Polanski and Trojan who were hunted by many Bundesliga teams. But both are injured at the moment and will miss which is quite critical.

Trojan would have played as left midfield, Polanski would endue the defensive midfield position. For Polanski we will see Karhan who was one of the key players last season and who is experienced a lot.

Florian Heller will play as right midfield. It will be his first Bundesliga minutes.
Ivanschitzt will play the offensive part here.

When the new transfers will be back they have an acceptable midfield on paper. But at the moment it looks like they will head many problems with the current one.

Striker: 4/10

Aristide Bance and Srdejan Baljak were planned to play here, but Baljak got injured when he fall off his bike during a bike tour. He will miss like four weeks so that Bogavac, Borja or Andre Schürle will have to play with Bance. But all three miss Bundesliga experience and the new transfer Hamza Gamal is an unknown quantity too.

Additionally Chadli Amri is missing because of an injury.

Total: 3/10

My prognosis:

To be honest I can't understand how a club can fire the coach who helped the club to promote into 1.Bundesliga.

Jörn Andresen would go another way than the club looks for and because of this they kick him. Insider say that the reason was not the fact that they lost in DFB-Cup but also that the club sees Andresen as the reason for all the injuries.

It looks like some players complaint and won at the end. Unbelievable behaviour really and with this team I see them getting relegated this season.

SC Freiburg Preview

SC Freiburg

Coach: Robin Dutt

Robin Dutt started coaching in a very low league ten years ago.
With hard and objective work he claimed up the carrier ladder and now will coach his first Bundesliga team.

His work in Freiburg last season was convincing and with his calm appearance he is also the key for a good atmosphere in the team.

The prerequisites for good work are given!

Money spend for transfers: 1.600.000 €
Money earned from transfers: 450.000 €

Balance: -1.150.000 €

Atmosphere during training camp&test matches:

Against no names Freiburg got the expected wins. Against Leverkusen (1:2) and against Pfullendorf (2:2) there were first signs that Freiburg lacks a bit of quality.

During the training camp a second centre back was searched (Butscher is one of them, but they miss a good second one). A few players trained with them but got send away so that they still miss one here.

Possible line-ups & tactics:










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

Aim set by club:

Don't get relegated. Stay in 1.Bundesliga.

Team check:

Goalkeeper: 6/10

The French goalkeeper Pouplin was not the best goalkeeper during the last season in 2.Bundesliga but he is not one of these goalkeepers during regular mistakes.

He had good training partners in past when he played in France. When he played for Stade Rennes he could learn a lot from Peter Czech and later from Andreas Isaksson.
He played 74 matches in League 1 which shows that he gained some experience already.

The only aspect he has to work on is his body strength and his technique (control ball, shot, pass).

Will be interesting to see how he can adapt to Bundesliga.

Defence: 4/10

Daniel Schwaab, Pavel Krmas, Ömer Toprak and Heiko Butscher build the very good defense last season.

This season Daniel Schwaab was transferred and Ömer Toprak had an accident when driving a go-kart. The go-kart burned and Toprak was brought to hospital. It is not sure when he will be able to play again.

Bastians and Duri Cha will play on the outside positions while Butscher and Krmas will play as centre backs.

Both Bastians and Duri Cha will have some problems with fast Bundesliga football at the beginning so that Freiburg can only hope to get Toprak back fast.

Midfield: 4/10

Julian Schuster, Ivica Banovic or Johannes Flum will play on centre positions. The fast Yacine Abdessadki and Jonathan Jäger will play on the wings.

A defensive minded midfield who tries to own the ball quite long (65% ball possession last season) and create some pressure with good passing.

All back-ups are no names really and Freiburg will get problems when some of the first line-up will get injured.

Additionally it will be difficult for them to own the ball as long as in 2.Bundesliga against teams like Wolfsburg, Bayern and the other big clubs.

Striker: 6/10

Both Idrissou and Tommy Bechmann played in Bundesliga before so that they have some experience in offense at least.

With the new transfer Stefan Reisinger (12 goals, 7 assists for Greuther Fürth) and Cedrick Makiadi from Duisburg they added even more quality here.

Very important for clubs from 2.Bundesliga to have some experienced strikers, especially when trying to play on counterattacks you need guys who score if they get their few chances.

Compared to other clubs on bottom good strikers.

Total: 5/10

My prognosis:

If Freiburg will have some success from time to time and don't lose many matches at the beginning of the season they may grab the needed points to stay in Bundesliga.

The promotion euphoria could also give them strength at the beginning where they will have the biggest problems to adapt to Bundesliga. If they can get use of this they will have an advantage against the other relegation competitors.

Borussia Mönchengladbach Preview

Borussia M.gladbach

Coach: Michael Frontzeck

Frontzeck was already assistant of Hans Meyer in Gladbach between 2000 and 2003. He also came into professional football from Gladbachs youth team.

Frontzeck got fired one match before season ended, his team Bielefeld play in 2.Bundesliga now while he preferred to stay in 1.Bundesliga and now works for Borussia Mönchengladbach were the boss expects him to work as they want him to work.

Eberl (Gladbach boss) said the following before they transferred Frontzeck:"That is like a motorway. The coach can move as he want but the guard rails are predefined by us."

Michael Frontzeck will fit into this role as he does his work and never tends to be the eye-catching element of the club.

Money spend for transfers: 8.430.000 €
Money earned from transfers: 10.300.000 €

Balance: -1.870.000 €

Atmosphere during training camp&test matches:

The test matches do not show were Gladbach stands at the moment. Many wins against small teams do not make it possible to rate them for Bundesliga.
Paul Stalteri missed the preparation due to the Gold-Cup. Rob Friend will be able to train with the team soon. Keeper Bailly broke his feet and going to miss a while.

Possible line-ups & tactics:










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

Aim set by club:

Don't get relegated. Stay in 1.Bundesliga.

Team check:

Goalkeeper: 5/10

Logan Bailly was bought during the winter break last season and he had some fantastic performances. For the new season he will have to watch Gladbach matches because he broke his hand.
Christofer Heimeroth who was send on bench when Bailly came gets another chance and he says that he will try the best possible to thank the coach for trusting him.

Anyway, Bailly is at least one class better than Heimeroth so that they start with an handicap on the goalkeeper position.

Defence: 4/10

Roel Brouwers and Dante will most likely build the defence together with Jaures on left side and Tobias Levels on right side.

Fillip Daems is still injured, but when he is back he could play for Jaures on left back position.
More alternatives are the young Dorda (20 years old) as left back and Thomas Kleine is another centre back.

The experienced Stalteri who came back late from the Gulf Cup still has some hope to play on either right or left back position.

Quality wise they cannot keep up with the big teams. No one out of them would play in the first line-up of Bayern, Wolfsburg, Stuttgart e.g.

Midfield: 6/10

The midfield is quite strong with some new faces.
Marcel Meeuwis came from Kerkrade and took over a lot of responsibility in test matches already. But he will miss in the first two matches because of a red card from his Kerkrade times. Either Michael Bradley or Thorben Marx will play for him.

Both guys are capable of playing on left or right midfield side, Bradley on left side when Meeuwis will be able to play and Marx on right side. There he has to fight with Matmour, who is also a candidate for this position.

Arango the new 3,5 million transfer from Mallorca will play on offensive midfield position. Not only a creative guy, he also causes danger with his good shots.

Striker: 6/10

Bobadilla a strong and big striker who tends to be injured often. Gladbach spend some money for him and they really needed another striker.
Rob Friend is still injured, Colautti and Oliver Neuville have big problems to score goals.

We could see Bobadilla as single striker and two wing players on left and right side. Then Arango would play on right wing (offensive midfield position would not exist in this system) and Marco Reus - who got many chances in test matches - on the left wing.

When Friend will be fit or/and Colautti, Neuville will get back to old strength they could also play with two strikers.

Friend and Bobadilla together seems strong, but it is a question of whether they will ever be fit at the same time.

Total: 5/10

My prognosis:

With Frontzeck, the new coach, Gladbach was able to show some good signs during the test matches. The quality of the team may be enough to stay in Bundesliga but more than a midfield position is not possible it seems.

VfL Bochum Preview

VfL Bochum

Coach: Marcel Koller

The 48 year old coach is already training Bochum for 5 years. His contract is finishing this season, but if he will work meticulous again it should be not a big deal for him to hold Bochum in Bundesliga and get a new contract.

Money spend for transfers: 0 €
Money earned from transfers: 1.200.000 €

Balance: -1.200.000 €

Atmosphere during training camp&test matches:

The results in training camp were all good. Three matches and three wins, f.e. against Zürich. At the end the team made a tired impression which is normal after a though condition based training camp.

Possible line-ups & tactics:











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

Aim set by club:

Midfield position and not to be relegated!

Team check:

Goalkeeper: 4/10

Daniel Marcio Fernandes was bought last season and after some good performances he did more and more mistakes and at the end of the season Heerwagen got his chance and showed accosting performances.

Now during test matches Fernandes did some mistakes again and it seems like Heerwagen will be the number 1 at the beginning of the season although the coach did not comment this.

Still quality wise they are behind a lot of clubs on this position.

Defence: 5/10

Marcel Maltritz, Anthar Yahia and Mavraj are fighting for the two centre back positions. Maltritz should play for sure. Mavraj has some advantage over Yahia, who lost his starting position to Mavraj during the last season after some very bad performances.

Left back is Fuchs for sure who is a fighter. Running a lot, also with some help to offense.

It is not sure who will play on right back position. Both Pfertzel and Concha are on the same level and it will depend on how the coach will decide.

To rate the defence we have to compare it a bit to the other defences. When doing this, there are still some big differences and aspects which have to be improved.

Midfield: 4/10

Dabrowski, Daniel Imhof and Johansson are fighting for the defensive midfield position. It will depend on whether Bochum will play with two defensive midfield or only with one.

Dabrowski has the best chances to play, but he could also move to left midfield where his good offensive abilities could be used better. He has some good shots.

Dennis Grote and Azaouagh could play left midfield as well. While Grote is more the defensive minded player Azaouagh is the offensive all-rounder, creative guy with smart passes.

Right midfield is a big question mark really. Paul Freier was brought to Bochum and Fans were very happy. I did not rate him high at all even during his time in Leverkusen and we saw what he is capable of doing last season. It was just bad.
Either Azaouagh, Ono or Epalle could play on this position, but one of them will also have to play on the offensive midfield position.

Some rotation possible here, but that is not the best condition to have a working midfield at all.

Striker: 5/10

Stanislav Sestak and Klimowicz are the strikers who should score the goals. Sestak was the best striker for Bochum, but his performances were to inconsistent last season.
Klimwoicz is aged, 35 years old now and he does not show his old goal danger anymore too.

Vahid Hashemian.. well I doubt this guy can get back to good form at all and the new transfer Dedic with seven goals in 31 matches does not show a very good statistic.

Too much responsibility on Sestak in my opinion. That may work but it is risky for sure!

Total: 4/10

My prognosis:

Many aspects which do not look good here and nothing really changed. The defense does make too may individual mistakes. The offense has not enough power to score important goals. Relegation fight from beginning to the end. That is what Bochum will have to face if they don't get some players on very great and unexpected form.
But as I said "unexpected good form". I don't believe at this and Bochum must tremble until the end of the season!

Eintracht Frankfurt Preview

Eintracht Frankfurt

Coach: Michael Skibbe

Long years Funkel coached Eintracht Frankfurt.
Now it is time for Michael Skibbe to take the control over.

From his outer appearance Skibbe looks very calm and objective. Sometimes he has been criticized to be too objective and calm, but if the team is willing to listen to him and take him serious Frankfurt may have some success.

Money spend for transfers: 1.250.000 €
Money earned from transfers: 0 €

Balance: -1.250.000 €

Atmosphere during training camp&test matches:

Three wins, two defeats.
Frankfurt started bad into test matches, but improved a lot lately. Especially the 2:0 win over Kaiserslautern showed that they have not any big problems.

Possible lineups & tactics:












Most likely:
1. 4-5-1 (4-2-3-1); LB,CB,CB,RB,DM,DM,ROM,LOM,OM,ST

Aim set by club:

Be close to top teams, same as for Hannover really. Looking to have a lucky and surprising good season as Hertha last season always, but they might be happy with a good midfield position!

Teamcheck:

Goalkeeper: 5/10

After buying Ralf Fährmann the problem in the goalkeeper position should be solved.
The new goalkeeper came, but the bad luck with injuries stayed.

Fährmann broke his hand so that either Pröll or Nikolov will play. Both getting their chances, because both never convince for a long time!

Defence: 5/10

Similar situation in defence. Maik Franz comes from Karlsuher SC and everyone saw how important he was for Karlsruhe when he was injured the second half of the season and his club got relegated.

Together with Franz Marco Russ will play, who shows his talent quite often but who has a high mistake rate. Aleksandar Vasaski will be fit soon, but he has still to show that he is good enough for Bundesliga. So if Franz oder Russ will be out, Frankfurt will lack quality on centre back position.

Right back Patrick Ochs is on good days over average, but he is too inconstant.
Same with Christoph Spycher.

But once again the line-up is only solid if these two play. If the backups have to play they have a huge quality loss!

Midfield: 6/10

Both Selim Teber and Schwegler - the new transfers in midfield - will improve the quality in here.

Together with Chris, Bajramovic (both long-term injured, but if they are fit vey good players)
and Caio, Meier and Köhler Frankfurt owns quite a solid midfield.

It is the strongest part of the team for sure, with some players owning big potential which was not shown last season though.

Striker: 6/10

Amanatidis injured and we could observe the same situation during last season. Without Amanatidis and Fenin being injured too, Frankfurt only had Liberopoulos as striker.

At least he scored a lot of important goals, but they lack some good back ups here.
Of course Ümit Korkmaz can play striker as well, but he is more the wing player. Possible that we could see single striker (either Amanatidis or Liberopoulos) and Fenin together with Korkmaz on the wings.

Still they lack alternatives in my opinion and Amanatidis is not in best mood after Spycher got the captain band.

Total: 5/10

My prognosis:

The quality in the team should be enough to stay in Bundesliga, but if they have bad luck with injuries they can easily face relegation fight.
Of course if we see everything going very good they can be close to the top 10 teams.

1. FC Köln Preview

1. FC Köln

Coach: Zvonimir Soldo

First of all wooow...! Who would have expected this. Me not for sure.

Zvonimir Soldo is the new coach of Köln. He played for Köln and was the right hand of the coach always.
Soldo was a player who could read the game, now he is coach and has an experienced assistant with Michael Henke, who was the assistant of Ottmar Hitzfeld (successful Bayern coach).

Soldo will have to be successful, Köln fans always expect a lot, especially with Lukas Podolski being back in "Kölle". If Soldo will do his coach job with the same discipline and passion as he played before, then I have no doubt that Kölns aim can be realised.

Money spend for transfers: 11.000.000 €
Money earned from transfers: 700.000 €

Balance: -10.300.000 €

Atmosphere during training camp&test matches:

Soldo criticised Daums test match organisation which was not changeable. He wished that they could play against more clubs on same level rather than against no name teams.
They had two tests lately against Hannover (0:0) - where we see a good defending Cologne - and a test match against Bayern München which they lost 0:2.

A poor performance in last match which showed how big the difference between Cologne and Bayern is. But at the end it was Bayern and we should not rate that defeat to high.

Possible lineups & tactics:












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

Aim set by club:

Euphoria in Cologne, especially from fans but even "Prinz" Poldi (Lukas Podolski) who came back from Bayern says that they must be realistic and that a midfield position would be good.

Teamcheck:

Goalkeeper: 7/10

More important than the performance he shows on the field is the experience and the leadership of Faryd Mondragon. When he speaks other listen. When a defence player is standing wrong he corrects him.

That is very important as a goalkeeper, very fundamantel piece of what a goalkeeper must do.

However, Mondragon is 38 years old and Thomas Kessler, his backup did not get the chance to show himself quite often which shows that the club does not trust him yet to be a good Bundesliga goalkeeper.

Defence: 5/10

The defence of Köln is very good in centre position, but lacks quality on right and left side.

Geromel and Mohamad are getting grown man slowly and performing good during a long period of time. Of course they have to learn some more things but they are on the right track.

Left back Wome had his best time in Bremen and could not repeat the same yet again for Köln. Still acceptable.

The problem is right back Brecko who is not the best solution here. Köln was looking for a new right back but didnt found any. Only the new transfer Schorch could play also as right back, but his best position is centre back.

Midfield: 6/10

Some surprising names in Kölns midfield.

The big Petit from Barcelona in Köln who was the head of Köln last season. Next to him either Maniche, again another new Portuguese transfer or Pezzoni will play.

Left and right offensive midfield Ehret and new transfer Freis.

Good midfield, added quality with Maniche who will need some time though.

Striker: 7/10

On paper the strikers are all good.

Podolski and Novakovic would be a good striker pair. But Novakovic is injured and it is not sure when he will be fit. Back up Ishiaku was injured himself for quite a long time and is running after his form.

Potential is big, but at the moment there are some doubts.

Total: 6/10

My prognosis:

One of the midfield teams of this season.

Not good enough to be under top 10, but still enough quality to not get relegated.

Hannover 96 Preview

Hannover 96

Coach:

Dieter Hecking Dieter Hecking does know the club very good from his own time as a player.
1998 he helped the club to get to 2.Bundesliga.
The last season was not as expected, probably because they set too high aims after the season before which ended almost in International position. Anyway, this season Dieter Hecking has Jörg Schmadtke as manager behind him.

Both know each other from good old Alemannia Aachen years. Boss Martin Kind does support Hecking also after his bad last season, but expects a better performance for sure!

Money spend for transfers: 400.000 €
Money earned from transfers: 200.000 €

Balance: -200.000 €

Atmosphere during training camp&test matches:

Test matches worked quite well for Hannover. First matches were against low league teams which was good for the motivation and self-confidence of the strikers.

Many goals for the strikers in those matches, but the main work and main improvement had to be done in the defence and they really worked on it.
Bad luck with youngster Chahed who broke his feet and who will miss long-term!

Possible line-ups & tactics:










Most likely:

1. 4-4-2 (4-2-2-2); LB,CB,CB,RB,DM,DM,ROM,LOM,ST,ST

Aim set by club:

To play behind the top 10 clubs, get close to them rather than close to relegation positions.

Team check:

Goalkeeper: 9/10

Without any doubt Robert Enke is one of the best in Hannover.
He did show so many great performances last season in Hannover!

You could read everywhere and in any forum of any Bundesliga team that other fans said "oh man poor Enke", because he often got not payed off for his great performances.

His defence let him alone and it is just impossible to safe every ball. Very good goalkeeper for sure here.

Defence: 3/10

The biggest weakness was the defence for quite a long time now in Hannover.
Jörg Schmadtke is trying to improve the defence with cheap players but can you get good defender for free or for very low amount of money? I guess no..

Well as left back Hannover has Konstantin Rausch, young guy but he lacks a lot of experience. To add some quality they got Djakpa from Leverkusen. Djakpa himself did not play a lot in Leverkusen and he is only average Bundesliga player.

Right back is Cherundolo who is an experienced guy with low mistake rate, but his problem is that he is quite often injured.

Centre position. Man how bad they performed here last season. Mario Eggimann and Valerien Ismail could not show what was expected. Eggimann had a big mistake rate while Ismail was long-term injured. In order to improve on this position they bought Haggui from Leverkusen. Haggui can be a good transfer, he showed some good performances in Leverkusen but he has to make the next steps in his carrier.

But often we see new players in Hannover doing a step back rather than forward.. All in all still not convincing me.

Midfield: 4/10

The midfield does show big deficits as well.
Balitsch had problems during the preparation time and could not train always. Lala and Andreasen will miss at the beginning.
Right midfield is probably Rosenthal who had many injuries last season but who is fit at the moment. Alternatively Sergio Pinto can play here who has good long shots but who lacks discipline from time to time.

Krzynowek will work on the left midfield side. As we now he tends to do this rather offensive then defensively.

Only Bruggink is fitting perfectly into his position and can let hope some Hannover fans for good matches.

Striker: 5/10

Jan Schlaudraff fights with his groin problems and no one was yet able to find a good solution for his problem. Therefore we will see Mike Hanke and Jiri Stajner in front.

Mikael Forssell will start on the bench and owns the joker role once again.

I think Hecking would not say no if anyone would offer him new strikers, improvable but better than the rest of the team parts.

Total: 5/10

My prognosis:

Hannover will have real problems with this team. Many injuries during preparation and the lack of quality will cause some problems for them.

If they have a good season as a team they may get into the single-digit positions, but it is more likely that they will end up close to relegation positions or even sit on one of them at the end of the season.