[Marienburg]

Due to boredom over the International Break I thought this might be an interesting idea for people to update after each spieltag or monthly:

A power rankings poll for the Bundesliga! Why only 6 spots? 3 Champions League and 3 Europa Cup slots up for grabs. Here is mine (too verbose as usual) after Spieltag 4:


1. Hamburg: They sit atop the table and made a resounding statement of intent by beating Wolfsburg on the road to break up their 16 game home win streak. With Elia (the real deal, awesome to watch, and a player I hope stays in the Bundesliga for a loonnngg time) on the wing, Ze Roberto adding experience and creativity in the middle, Trochowski drilling shots from outside, and Jarolim being the veteran leader it is a great midfield. Petric and Guerrero are a nice striker pair. The defense is not amazing but when you can put in 3-4 goals each game it doesn’t have to be. The most exciting, end to end, football in the league. Hamburg is going to be in the race for the title.

2. Bayer Leverkusen: Should have a perfect 4-0-0 record if not for a dubious penalty decision and a blind linesman. Life without Patrick Helmes has not been troubling Bayer at all thus far. The concern is that the schedule has been very easy: Mainz away, Bochum home, Freiburg away, Hoffenheim home. The upcoming trip to Wolfsburg and then match against Werder Bremen will show if they are a true contender or just a good squad capitalizing on weak opposition.

3. Wolfsburg: After the first two matches this team looked invincible. And then a shocking loss at home to Hamburg and a 3-0 defeat on the road against a desperate and revitalized Bayern team and all is not well for the Wolf. The champions will always be dangerous, but they need the Grafite/Dzeko/Misimovic partnership to get back on last season’s form. Grafite has shown glimpses of it and Misimovic has shown up for every game but Dzeko has lacked his goal scorer’s touch thus far. Martins has been an excellent sub and quality signing, Ziani has sputtered so far. There have been big problems at the back with Madlung/Barzagli forming a shaky combo as well.

4. Werder Bremen: The enigma of the Bundesliga. Every Werder match you know is going to be an exciting one. They leak goals like a rusty sieve and score them like C. Ronaldo with VD infested hookers. They could lose at home to a crap team and then go on the road to beat an excellent one the next week. If they can get consistent they could be in the title picture.

5. Bayern Munich: This team was in the pits of despair following the Mainz disaster. Then the Robben signing and dream debut and now collectively Bayern fans are salivating at the mouth for the Robben/Ribery combo and Bundesliga backlines are having nightmares about facing it. There are plenty of lingering problems like average goal keeping and a very suspect center back (Van Buyten, also known as the Predator’s wimpy half cousin). The 4-3-3 was excellent for 1 game but that’s all it is: 1 game. We’ll get to see if Bayern is making a serious resurgence when they travel to Dortmund and then Hamburg two weeks later.

6. Schalke: Not the toughest schedule so far and they surprisingly dropped 3 points at home to Freiburg this weekend. The rumors persist that the club is in very poor financial condition and we could see the exits of Rafinha, Jermaine Jones and/or anyone in the January window. Despite all the darkness looming there is only one thing to think about for Schalke: Never doubt Felix Magath. However, I definitely don’t think this will be their year.

[Cirdan]

1. Hamburg. You said it all, they seem very strong right now.
2. Bayern. Yes, it was just one match. But. Ribery-Gomez-Robben... and they are Bayern. Nevertheless, their defense still does look a bit unstable. However the teams that I would be willing to place ahead of Bayern all showed their own signs of weakness, so Bayern is already on 2nd again with me.
3. Leverkusen. Yes, they've been great so far. Like in the beginning of the last season. And the one before that. 3rd is as far as I'd go until they've played and beaten one of the bigger names in the league.
4. Wolfsburg. 2 less than spectacular matches and the damocles sword of the CL that didn't treat teams like Stuttgart or Hamburg well in recent seasons... still, they began great and even in the match against Bayern, there were moments in which you could see the true value of this team.
5. Werder Bremen. Like you said, spectacular offense, but their defense is often horrible. And they didn't buy a new fullback, and both Fritz and Boenisch were particularly horrible last season, and didn't start well into this one. Their situation in the table looks rather good, but compared to Wolfsburg and Bayern they didn't have it very hard.
6. Stuttgart. Their start wasn't really great, but their potencial did flash every now and then, and I believe they invested well on the transfer market.

["Eisenfuß" Eilts]

Originally Posted by Cirdan

Their situation in the table looks rather good, but compared to Wolfsburg and Bayern they didn't have it very hard.

Yeah, Bremen had to play at the crappy Bayern, while Bayern had the mighty Bremen at home.

[Cirdan]

Originally Posted by "Eisenfuß" Eilts

Yeah, Bremen had to play at the crappy Bayern, while Bayern had the mighty Bremen at home.

When you play Gladbach and Frankfurt at home and a severly weakened Hertha away, 7 points is not that great, even with an away fixture at Bayern in the mix. And in conceding 3 goals from Frankfurt and Aktobe, and 2 from Hertha who doesn't have strikers, Werder has already shown that their defense has not improved.

["Eisenfuß" Eilts]

means it is fun.