Bundesliga 2022/23 - 27 EURO finalists play in the best league in Europe

I hope you double-checked your count, before naming the new thread, and they're really 27! (I didn't, so I'll just trust you ).

 

Ah, you factor in previous editions of the Euro also. Smart-assy.

 

Season doesn't start until 16 September! That's after the next international break.

Wonder if we'll see rise in attendances after this summer's tournament.

 

Besides the idiotic announcement of games being played on a Monday, the DFB continues to announce absolutely nothing positive for this league lol...

 

Wolfsburg looks mighty… unless Bayern improves drastically, Wolfsburg will win the Meisterschaft with ease once again

oh and with Hegering in the squad now, I really feel like Wedemeyer should make a move somewhere else as she’ll likely not be playing as a CB for another season again…

 

yeah I agree, Wolfsburg should be an MONSTER possibly could win the CL this time. Well I guess depending if Lyon doesn’t go on it’s usual shopping binge & buys again all the world’s superstars! Other than that their still could be reeling over late season ACL’ s to Macario Marozsan Carpenter & the irrelevancy of previous stars like Henry & LeSommer(both apparently not good enough to make the French NT anymore).
Barca I keep reading is flat broke & wouldn’t be hiring more or bigger stars(though they did sign Lucy Bronze & go the injury prone Lieke Martens)
A few things don’t like about Wolfsburg’s domination….

1) previously Stroot hasn’t been an ‘rotation’ coach, so careers will be hurt by the lack of playing time(this is an big problem particularly for German players who don’t or don’t want to go anywhere else once they’ve played for the higher paying or more prestigious club that’s WOB)

2) a monster club will not face any real competition for most of the season that could lead to what’s called complacency for it’s players in not having challenging individual or team opponents

3) this has been known to effect their NT play as well as shown by the previous one club dominated NT’s like France(Lyon) & Spain(Barca) & their usual turning into flops come major tournament time. Not saying that Germany can’t break the mold(WOB got now 10 German NT’s that were part of the Euro squad/including seven starters) but it just hasn’t happened in woso before

 

other competitors; Bayern should take 2nd place again based on their strong domestic players. Yet take note; no new ‘big’ German name in the mix & and some of their international pickups like Bragstad are…..well, nothing to brag about. Their one big name. Georgia Stanway at least started every game for England, but other than her ‘cracker’ of an shot vs Spain, felt she was average for her squad. Plus she’s an CAM or box 2 box mid, but of which BM is already stacked with. How good BM will do at CL will depend on if Lohmann will emerge as the potential superstar, that was unfortunately held back last year to an couple of injuries


Biggest competition will be for 3rd place again. HOF’s pickups of 3 potentially effective offensive players in Hickleberger Memeti & Kossler could win over the ever improving Frankfurt who’s gotten a bit deeper this year than last

————//————-
got to conclude with; one thing good about last season is that German players dominated the goal scoring with 8 of the top 11 being domestic. Not sure if they can do that again as I can see Wassmuth, Kossler & Cerci falling off(I mean Cerci wouldn’t be coming back till half the season’s over/Wassmuth probably wouldn’t be starting striker). Can see Pajor scoring 30 plus goals(maybe even beat countryman’s Lowendowski’s 41 goal tally!). That’s why I hope Stroot gives others an chance

 

You say Bayern might need to improve drastically... when Wolfsburg would win the league last season, on the same points total that would have only seen them finish 2nd the year prior...

Covid and injury pretty much destroying Bayern last season, it's easy to forget their title win the season prior based on the form of core players (Benkarth, Hegering, Glass, Gwinn, Simon, Zadrazil, Magull, Schüller, Asseyi, Bühl) all being fantastic, as a rookie Lohmann would even become one of the leagues best players too.

Now... we don't know how Benkarth/Leitzig will work, or if Kumagai will have a better CB partner in Tainara...; but I look at the rest of their squad, and still see major potential for Bayern to at least improve on their inferior 2021/22 form.

I mean... except for 3 players, this season could still be very similar to Scheuer's 2020/21 title wining team...
Bühl --------------------- Schuller --------------------- Laurent
----------------------------- Magull --------------------------------
------------ Zadrazil -------------------- Lohmann ------------------
Simon ------- Kumagai ---------- Tainara ---------- Gwinn
---------------------------- Benkarth -----------------------------------

 

I think early last season, Stroot moving Wedemeyer to a RB role might have already set the tone for the rest of her career with Wolfsburg...

Hegering a major upgrade to the depth of their defense. Wedemeyer/Wilms at RB, Agrez/Rauch at LB, Hendrich/Janssen/Hegering at CB. Wedemeyer seems fine, no..? Wolter being the player I see looking at this squad wondering where she fits in now...

 

... 6 French internationals started in Lyon's WUCL winning 11. Endler, Carpenter, Horan (Loan), Macario, not exactly reading like the list of names for a team accused of simply buying the worlds best players to accomplish lasting success...

They weren't selected for the Euro's by their wnt coach... making them "irrelevant", wow.... Henry literally POTM match in the WUCL final lol.

Try reading more lol... their not "flat broke". Their servicing crazy amounts of debt, but (fair, or unfair) allowed to do so as a major institution, meaning they still have access to huge sums of money.

Barca's men's Basketball team currently working within a 44 million Euro budget, as their women's team working with a 5 million Euro budget. Yeah, tell me again how a "broke" Barca are going to negatively effect their other teams, when they just approved an operating budget of $900 Million for the men's football team...

 

It was his first season at Wolfsburg, taking over a side in transition, where he simply couldn't afford to rotate the few strong players he had at his disposal, for fear of lowering the quality too much. So it's weird seeing assertions on Stroot's ability to rotate players, when it based on using a mere seasons worth of information, to try and confirm the patterns of coach about to go in to a new season with a significantly stronger roster...

Plus, there's no real evidence concerning good players supposedly damaging their careers, if they remain parts of strong clubs, with deep squads... Simply not being good enough, versus not having a true role/position, very different factors in players careers.

 

Have you watched the Frauen- Bundesliga recently lol. It might not ever get to a point anyone can win the title (and rarely leagues based on relegation/promotion will), but if your a prominent WUCL club like Wolfsburg, being able to rest/rotate players against your leagues lower ranked teams, is going to be a major benefit for to a long season.

This a factor I feel very likely to negatively effect Frankfurt this season, as they now face the same issues Hoffenheim would encounter during their first WUCL campaign; lacking the necessary depth to play tougher competitions, and still maintain strong league form...

But this mainly due to Wolfsburg recently recruiting key domestic players from rivals. While I don't see any historical correlation to the success/failure of national teams, based on the amounts of players coming from one club...

 

Hmmmm, Hoffenheim just beat Frankfurt 3-2 (3-1) during a pre-season friendly. Hoffenheim starting with a front 3 of Memeti - Kossler - Hickelsberger, would see all three combine for all 3 of their teams goals. This game also seeing Küver make her return for Frankfurt too.

It's only a pre season match... but knowing Frankfurt using this as a warm up for coming WUCL matches, it might highlight what I initially thought about this season having Hoffenheim be a much stronger team that last season...

Frankfurt:
Bösl – Hechler (46. Santos, 87. Küver), Kleinherne (46. Aehling), Kirchberger (46. Doorsoun), Hanshaw (75. D. Acikgöz) – Nüsken (83. Nachtigall), Pawollek (46. Reuteler), Freigang (83. Brengel), Dunst (61. Köster) – Martinez (75. I. Acikgöz), Prasnikar (46. Feiersinger).

Hoffenheim:
Tufekovic – Linder, Bühler (63. Kaut), Feldkamp, Naschenweng (46. Hofmann) – Dongus (73. de Caigny), Hartig (73. Memeti), Harsch (46. Hagel), Hickelsberger-Füller (63. Kocsán) – Kössler (63. Leimenstoll), Memeti (46. Billa).

Goals
0:1 Memeti (7.)
1:1 Freigang (11.)
1:2 Feldkamp (26.)
1:3 Hartig (34.)
2:3 Martinez (50.)

 

Memeti ------------ Kössler ------------- H-Füller
------------- Hartig ------------- Harsch --------------
------------------------ Dongus -------------------------
N-weng ---- Bühler ------- Feldkamp ----- Linder
Vs.
----- Prasnikar ------------------- Martinez -------
---------------------- Freigang -----------------------
------------ Nüsken ---------- Dunst ---------------
---------------------- Pawollek ------------------------
Hanshaw - Kleinherne - Kirchberger - Hechler

Hoffenheim's CB options look like a very obvious weak point headed into the new season. But even without Billa, Caigny, Hagel, or Corely, all starting for them, they'd still possess more than enough quality to beat Frankfurt...

 

Wasn’t going to buy into the hype of Macario as the ‘new Marta’ while still in college, but’s really proven herself in Lyon’s fist full year; 14 goals & 5 assists in regular league Horan was an late comer to Lyon due to an knee operation, but once fit, started most games on an team with plenty of top notch mids to compete for playing time. Carpenter got plenty of accolades like best youth players of the year and idk the story behind it but Lyon replaced her with Lucy Bronze shows what the club thinks about her.
Henry’s league stats of just 1 goal & 4 assists in 1400 min of playing time(as as Macario’s) was way below the 6 goals from the previous season/idk on what actually happened with the her & Diacre but some might have said she just lost her edge(France had its best tourney showing in an decade without her)

Steinert(formerly of HOF) signed with Freiburg. Krumbiegel(one year ACL anniversary) still missing? MVT favorite Anyomi out with an hand injury. A few others like Wamser, misting due to u20 duties. Bummer that once again Freigang stuck at AM/might of effected her NT playing time. Yeah, HOF a little stronger than EF(or at least till/if Kuver can regain prominence

 

Yeah, none of this is providing legitimacy towards your idea Lyon simply "buys again all the world’s superstars!"... 6 French internationals, alongside consistently logical acquisitions of strong foreign talent; a high budget yes, but a high budget that seems to have been put to rather effective use over the years, where Lyon aren't really appearing like the image your trying to paint here....

I feel like this using stats with little context though... as the little information I know, is that Henry's season spent between CB and CM roles this season; meaning her stats probably wouldn't reflect the form of someone playing within more stable role for an extended duration of time.

I mean... hard to say someone's genuinely lost their edge, while they still providing WUCL final POTM performances....

 

Steinert was competing with a future wnt player aka Linder for a RB role this season, and probably realized her game time going to be increasingly limited. And I don't know what's happening to Krumbiegel either, with the length of her recovery not appearing very positive...

It's funny you mention the absence of Wamser too, when the U-20 WC about to start with Hoffenheim's Corely clearly set to be the teams best player. Yes... Wamser still only 18, but has A LOT to prove at club level, with this U-20 WC a genuine moment in time to see what type of player she could be (winger or forward...?).

Germany having some really promising players in the 19-23 age bracket that could make themselves genuine candidates for MVT's world cup squad, I would however have a hard time believing Wamser one of those right now...

 

I look at Frankfurt's young talents, and still maintain it's Küver who'll rise to prominence as a future world class CB, potentially even a senior international very soon..... But already showing they can score more goals than Frankfurt, it still Hoffenheim's defense I see remaining the major concern about their hopes for 3rd place next season.

Feldkamp a CM who will never be a strong CB option, while Bühler a rather suspect defender at her best too. Hoffenheim do have potential junior options who could step up and help improve this aspect of their team, but I feel the club should have really addressed this by recruiting established CB's from within the league.

So Frankfurt have a significantly better defense, and Hoffenheim the superior attack, it probably places both teams hopes for 3rd place on who's players mature faster over the course of the new season....

 

Her hopes of WC football would always be difficult. As a FW she's now competing with Schüller, Popp, Cerci, Kössler, Waßmuth. As a CAM, she's competing with Magull, Hagel, Marozsan, Däbritz, Corley, Lohmann, Dallmann.

Look at how Freigang's league tally of 12 goals, 6 assists, better than Dallmann last season, but only saw Dallmann starting close to 200 hours of Euro's football, with Freigang featuring for 14 minutes lol. I feel Freigang would need to attain a level of quality in the league we've never seen from her previously, if she's going to be a regular feature for MVT come the WC.

 

Potsdam won it's first friendly 5-0 Vs FC Bergheim.... FC Bergheim finishing two points above relegation last season....

It's good to see new Japanese signing Mai Kyokawa scored twice, but does anyone believe Potsdam won't be fighting relegation for most of this new season...?

 

Yeah... sorry. I was rushing, and forgot to include important information like scorers, and the fact this game was against Austrian opposition...

Lol... I'm just surprised Kyokawa hasn't noticed the daily exodus taking place at this club, and used her injury as an excuse to make a quick exit too...