Bundesliga 2025/26 - Is there a league after Lohmann?

Essen's poor start to the season, alongside Nürnberg, and HSV, both being significantly better than projected, could see the final women's only club removed from the nation's top division, never to return...

Terrible defense (3 goals short of last season total..), and a inability to score goals, the change of coach seems to have servely damaged Essen's sense of continuity.

I count at least 8 international caliber players on Essen's roster, with potentially 11 solid 1.Bundesliga players able to start for them too; they really should'nt be this bad...

And should HSV or Nürnberg's higher than expected quality of perfomance be rewarded with more points over the 2nd half of the season, I don't see how Essen survive.

 

Frankfurt have a fight for 3rd place...

If Werder can keep key players healthy, and gain access to someone like Mahmoud over the 2nd half of the season, they might be able to maintain pace with the Frankfurt side we see right now.

But I'm fully convinced Leverkusen with a 3 point lead now over Frankfurt, have everything in place to not only keep pace, but push the pace to hold off Frankfurt for 3rd place.

Without their best striker (Kramer), with Bender, Ostemeier, and Wamser, having injuries cause them to miss games... Leverkusen are showcasing a general level of maturity previously missing from their young team...

Frankfurt will need to significantly improve offensively, or find themselves missing European football next season.

 

I keep saying it... Bühl within a stronger team where she scores more goals, is a legit candidate for the #1 player in women's football...

 

Bayern can't replace the loss of Bühl with one player... they'll need to sign at minimum 3 new names to compensate for the loss of one.

Brand probably should have been the direct replacement for Bühl, but Barcelona's bad financial management stopped this from happening.

So it will be interesting to see who Bayern recruit when it's so obvious they'll need to look outside the Bundesliga to find wingers/wide forwards capable of providing half of Bühl's productivity.

 

@Lohmann why is the Bundi all of a sudden playing none stop games to a point where clubs have only two days to recover until next match?


This only hurts the mid to lower tier clubs as they don’t got the quality subs to switch or replace temporary injured players.

also are Cerci & Kossler injured? and how serious are those injuries?

 

3 consecutive games Bayern are using Tanikawa as a CM, with Harder the CAM... is this their coaches new 1st choice midfield for the rest of the season?

Good enough to keep obtaining straight forward wins in the league, I feel like the trio of Harder - Tanikawa - Stanway will get completely exposed defensively in the UWCL...

 

Freigang shouldn't have been selected for the last two wnt tournaments, and at this point in her career there shouldn't be anymore opportunities to participate with the wnt until her form changes dramatically.

Previously wnt coaches could justify her inclusion simply based in league goals. But without the goals, there's no way to justify her inclusion for the Nations League final.

No goal scoring this season with Frankfurt, and no signs of contributing in other ways like asissts, or key passes, there's absolutely no reason we should see Freigang wasting everyone's time within the wnt.

 

If Bayern are going to use Stanway as the primary DM in the UWCL... Tanikawa and Harder will need to contribute a serious upgrade in offensive productivity.

After years of Straus-ball passing the ball sideways and backwards, I honestly prefer the idea of this Bayern team being more offensive in future.

But with Bühl being the primary wide threat, nothing on the other side of the field, it will be interesting to see how they can construct a more diverse attack, without everything being forced through the middle of the field...

 

... it's becoming every game she providing an assist or a goal.

If Bühl continues this pace, she might come very close to equaling Caroline Hansen's 2018/19 record of 35 total combined goals and assists...

Currently on 4 goals 10 assist within a Bayern team that's not really an offensive mosnter. Hansen produced her record setting 2019 season within a Wolfsburg scoring a league total 94 Goals..

Again... what does Bühl actually look like if she's part of a legitimately strong offensive system?

 

I don't want Bühl to leave this league, but seeing how incompetent the wnt is run, and how unlikely it is Bayern becoming one of the UWCL's elite anytime soon... Bühl might have to leave Germany to actually play on a team that can finally unleash her full potential...

Previously I've stated Bühl should be scoring at least 15 goals a season. But if you take 20+ assissts, with a 15+ goals a season... WOW!

It's just annoying to think she won't be able to accomplish this playing in the 1.Bundesliga...

 

The DFB with outside funding is adding €100 million to the Bundesliga over the next 8 years...

So instead of losing their grip, the DFB is clenching their fist even tighter around the future of professional female club football.

Starting 2026, this is supposedly a joint venture between clubs and the DFB, to help prevent more domestic talent leaving for rival leagues aka leaving for the WSL lol.

It will also see the start of a 3.Bundesliga... starting 2027/28. Leadership saying "we want to give this positive development a further boost"

 

missed the first half but will watching the 2nd, currently Frankfurt with an 2-1 lead over Wolfsburg but down one player due to an red. Oh, and the famous Batfink ‘jinx’ well at hand as Freigang did score for Frankfurt

 

Wolfsburg’s defenders are a bit slow as an Blomqvist counter gives Frankfurt an 3-1 lead at the 81 min mark even though their one player down

 

Finally witnessed the Wolfsburg collapse Vs Frankfurt, and yeah... whatever that match was, it's crazy to think an idiotic red card was the least idiotic moment on show from both teams...

Johannes, and Dijkstra, combined for two brain freeze level errors that actually make Lührßen idiotic handball appear really ridiculously smart...

Wolfsburg would generate 22 shots in the 2nd half, and still lose thanks to a Frankfurt side who'd find a way to score a 3rd goal from one of the 3 shots they could generate with 10 players.

For me the big issue with Wolsfburg was their mid-field, who'd somehow select this game to all produce uniquely garbage displays at the same time.

Frankfurt had Senß, Gräwe, live comfortably vs the Wolfsburg disaster-class, as Raso, Anyomi, and even Freigang, would exploit space between Wolfsburg's mid-field and defence.

Honestly... not a high quality match between these two teams, I think as bad as Wolfsburg would be, I also have to praise Frankfurt's desire to fight for the 3 points.

It was also revealing to see Küver end the game as one of Wolfsburgs highest rated players, knowing she was on the team who conceeded 3, and faced 10 players for over 50 mis lol; Wolfsburg's forwards...

 

I was watching some of Essen Vs Jena, and can fully understand why they continue to struggle so much this season.

Jena another promoted team who actually displays good football, they further exposed the problem with Essen this season is their inability to play at a high tempo, utilizing direct transitions into attack.

Instead of Essen's forwards receiving long passes to go 1v1 or run into open spaces, now everything is constantly being passed to feet...

An attack designed around its forwards being able to thrive on being part of the most direct football in the league, now new coaches have them trying to utilize a more intricate passing style which doesn't really suit them...

The sad joke here is knowing should this bad form continue and Essen eventually relegated, they have a host of players who will likely all go on to make other teams far better next season.

 

Brand was credited with an asisst.... 6 league matches totaling 291 mins play time, Brand has finally produced her first assist for Lyon...

I really like Brand. But after being so frustratingly underwhelming with Wolfsburg, I don't see how she lasts being even worse within Lyon for more than 2 seasons...

If nothing changes this season, Lyon will likely 100% make plans to replace Brand for the following season; which means she see's even less playing time in a world cup year.

But I guess it's good Brand does more than attack, because just using data, she's factually worse than Zicai right now...

All my concerns over Brand being tactically flawed appearing to be even worse than imagined. Not being able to provide assists or goals for Lyon, highlighting how much work she'll need to do before ever reaching full potential.

 

When the wnt coaches decided to use Brand in a CM role, the alarm bells should have been loud and clear...

A wide forward/winger who refuses to attack open space feeling like a bad habit that can be trained out of talented players... yet this isn't happening for Brand.

The trap I see here is Brand not really progressing beyond her first professional season with Hoffenheim...

In the league, her best individual offensive contributions as a winger being 2020/21 4 goals 6 assists, and last season 5 goals with 5 assists.

Even if her dribbling, or passing has slightly improved... I think it's becoming clear even her coaches are beginning to ask questions about the effectivnes of her best attributes now.

I still believe good coaching can shape Brand into an elite winger. But when you see how elite Brand continues to be at winning possession... the question of is she better suited to be a AM/CM appears legitimate too.

 

The deeper we go into the season, if Lyon end up forcing Brand to be nothing more than a bench option... she is the only one to blame for this happening.

We just need other domestic wide forward options to get healthy, or start displaying good form with their clubs again.

As we see Bühl continues to improve, while Brand, Baum, and Zicai, are all in underwhelming form being the only healthy wingers playing regular football for their clubs.

Hopefully Endemann, Mahmoud, return ASAP... as Baum, and Zicai, aren't doing anything to deserve wnt recognition...

But damn... In a perfect world... Alber and Bender would be credible wnt level wing options right now too.

Instead though, bad luck with injuries and poor career decisions have decided to halt the progression of the wnt programs two most talented young wide forwards...