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

Dunno why Batfink keeps on attacking Brand? Wuck sure showed a lot of confidence in her in starting her at the attacking mid position when she owned the left wide(where she was named Germany’s best player on a number of lists). I agree though that she should have just stay & master one position instead bring switched all over the place by her coaches & I wished she could of be playing on a mid tier club to develop more leadership skills than uber stacked Lyon. But at $1.8 mill/3 year contract, she’s probably already the highest German player in history & got an better chance to win the prestigious Champions League(with the extra bonuses that come with it—-so you can’t blame her for taking the money & run!

and why does Batfink all of an sudden hyping Buhl like she some kinda of new find?—four year ago I mentioned she’s the future of NT—-one of those rare breeds that got the confidence or an license to attack 1v1(which German soccer aficionados usually frown upon).
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My early contender for coach of the year, got to be Koln’s Britta Carlson:she’s got her squad huffing & puffing and got them scrambling for every loose ball but doesn’t have the depth quality in her squad to continue for an whole 90 minutes, so the players often begin the gas out after a while like when they played Frankfurt last week and led them 1-0 for 70 minutes while out shooting them an amazing 13-1 until that time. They came. Ack strong however in their last game when they best HOF 1-0. An meat & potato coach like Wuck would probably like the hustling DM named Vogt, though she is build a little short, just plays like one tough cookie but sometimes not in an good way as she did take out Oberdorf.
It’s a shame that Stolze doesn’t have an gifted ‘final shot’ otherwise showing some blazing speed as an winger

 

Nüsken an unused Sub Vs Arsenal, Alber yet again not even considered good enough to make the bench...

Knaak would play 61', while Lohmann once again used as a late substitute, only playing 10 mins this time. This week's round of WSL matches seeing Martinez the only positive, with her finally scoring again.

I haven't watched Man City enough to judge what Lohmann looks like, but in a DM the last time I saw her, I'm thinking she's not considered good enough to start for them... which might speak to her genuinely not performing to a high enough standard...

I still don't see how Knaak or Martinez are currently wnt level players, while Nüsken hasn't done anything to validate continued participation with the wnt too.

But damn... if Alber HAS to leave Chelsea to get her young career back on track, at some point Lohmann will need to raise her level of performance, or risk being removed from future wnt selection...

Lattwien back now, Gräwe starting to slowly regain form, and a certain super talented 17yo just waiting for her opportunity to take someones senior wnt place... it's will only be so long before we finally see the wnt coahces upgrading the first 11's CM options...

 

Wrede as a CM still sits ahead of Bühl for leading the league in successful 1v1's..., and doing this as a top 3 player for tackles won too.

And seeing this data alongside her actual in game flair, I really need to see what Wrede looks like playing within a more talented group of players...

 

Expecting Wolfsburg to struggle Vs Lyon... hope it doesn't end like Bayern's night Vs Barca...

 

Wolfsburg are playing within a 5-3-2... lol... I think Lerch is terrified.

 

Zicai is being used in a CM Vs Lyon... something I've been speculating about her future...

Wolfsburg lucky not to be 1-0 down already... this could be a long night...

 

Wow... operation bunker mode and pray is in full effect, but I don't see this last until Half Time...

Plus Zicai can't even contribute basic skills anymore... not even able to control the ball.

 

The distance in team quality between Lyon and Wolfsburg, is larger than the distance between Wolfsburg and Jena...

Lyon are just inches away from leading. And once they score one, it could be anything they want.

Wolfsburg need to find a way to get to Half Time 0-0, or they lose by 5 or 6 goals.

 

1-0 Lyon. Johannes can't push the ball away from the goal after a direct free kick hit the post, and now this could get ugly...

Zicai also needs to be subbed ASAP... Wolfsburg's inability to combine simple passes being made even worse with certain players looking like lower league players not meant for this level of football...

The formation was built to defend... and even that appears too difficult. Lerch has to make changes before more goals start to fly past his GK.

 

And here we go.... 2-0 Lyon lead now. Another free kick, another goal scored.

Wolfsburg are terrible... but terrible for reasons that goes beyond the quality of player they have on the field.

 

Lerch needs to place another experienced CM into this game... it won't stop his team losing, but it might just prevent a complete beat down from occurring...

 

HT: 2-0 Lyon lead.

Beerensteyn hits the post with a random break away chance. But if she finishes that chance to make it 2-1, that would have been an insane scoreline based on the flow of play lol...

The days of a good Wolfsburg struggling to contain a slightly better Lyon look like a LONG distant memory...

If you told people Lyon were facing a lower divsion cup team today, I feel like it would be 100% credible for most observers.

The game plan of Lerch was clearly to keep it tight and find moments to try and create break away chances. But the part thats fialed them being the defensive part, where Wolfsburg can't do anything to halt Lyon's attacks.

Again Zicai continues her run of being a terrible signing... but its also hard to be critical knowing she's being deployed in a completely random system/position than we're used to seeing her.

For the sake of pride, Wolsfburg's players need to take individual responsibility for their contributions during the 2nd half. 2-0 at HT, could easily still become 5/6 at FT if Lerch doesn't make the correct adjustments...

 

FT 3-1 Lyon win... and after the first half, that was probably a great end result foe Wolfsburg lol.

Losing the 1st half 2-0, Wolfsburg would manage a 1-1 effort in the 2nd half; substitutes helping to slow the waves of Lyon attacks.

However, instead of learning from errors Vs Frankfurt, Lerch appeared to succumb to fear for the prospect of facing Lyon away from home.

Bad player selection, within a 5-3-2 not actually working for the benefit of anyone on the night either.

Up next Lerch faces a cup match Vs a Freiburg side in deceptively good form, and should be really careful not to see his team lose a 3rd successive match...

 

Oh... and Zicai... WOW.... She's forgotten how to play football lol.

 

11 Vs 11 for 90+ mins, Lyon generated 21 shots, 7 on target. Compared to Wolfsburg's 2 shots, 1 on target...

71% possession for Lyon should only be justifiable with Wolfsburg having a clear method to counter attack effectively... but that appeared almost impossible too.

The only compliment I can give Lerch is knowing we saw Barca produce almost identical stats Vs Bayern, but score 7; meaning Wolfsburg's 2nd half effort was commendable.

But what I find really concerning, is both Bayern and Wolfsburg looking completely tactically inept, in ways that mirrored the wnt Euro's run...

I've said for a while now the big issues of Germany women's football goes beyond the quality of player within these teams... and it's proven to be a reality for the nation's top clubs within elite European competition this season.

 

Excellent goal by Freiburg’s 20 year old Tesa Blumenberg in her last game; tackled the ball from the Lev CB & then ran downfield 30 meters for an easy goal—that’s like two stats right there. Tessa someone to look forward to in further endeavors

I noticed Jule contributing as she passed the ball to what was another pass to another that turned into an eventual assist & goal,

I call this a Sydney Lohmann stat! And unlike Sydney, Jule actually gets to start!

 

Frankfurt, Bayern, Wolfsburg, all lack the dynamic transitional football showcased by Europe's elite clubs.

And it's not qualities beyond the domestic and foriegn talents in these various teams too, as we've all seen how effective various players within all 3 of these clubs can be within systems based around dynamic transition football.

You have Bühl - Harder - Schüller in your attack... but don't have the ability to effectly transition towards attack in a more dynamic manner...

You have Beerensteyn - Popp - Huth - Endemann, but don't have an ability to generate more effective transitional play...?

Even Frankfurt have options like Anyomi - Blomqvist - Raso - Memeti - Chiba, making it highly confusing to see how bad they were at generating offensive play in the UWCL..

Essen as the Bundesliga's most successfully direct team can't even seem to deploy the same football thats kept them in the league year after year.

So what's happening to cause German women's football to forget the elements that brought so much relevance on the elite stages of women's football?

 

When Bayern beat Barca 3-1 in 2022's UWCL group stage, it was built on the foundations of a counter attack style of football that had nothing to do with slow down Straus-ball.

Watching Wolfsburg beat Barca 2-0 in 2023's semi finals second meeting, again the foundation of that success was a counter attacking style that had previously brought Wolfsburg many important wins in the same competition.

Frankfurt being the complete anomaly here, as their current success completely halts in the UWCL, even though their past success would come from a more conventional style of play modern Frankfurt haven't used in years.

A forward line featuring Bühl, Schüller, Damnjanovic, Dallmann, they should be able to generate a better approach to score goals in Europe, no?

And I know Wolfsburg are dealing with a few injuries... but not being able to formulate an effective counter attack Vs Lyon is crazy considering the options still available to them...

 

Anyway... I'm hoping Bayern can beat Arsenal, simply to shut up the idiots pushing so much WSL propaganda online lol...

But seriously... knowing Bayern have another easy league title headed their way, I'd like to believe they could represent the 1.Bundesliga with a little more pride in UWCL play.

When Postdam, Frankfurt, Wolfsburg, all carried the weight of being the representative of the league, they maintained a standard rival domestic teams had to match, in the process making sure they would be able to compete in Europe.

So Bayern losing 7-1 to Barca is whatever... it happens. But looking useless throughout another early elimination run should hinestky be viewed as unacceptable for a consecutive 4 time champion.

 

Nüsken got into Chelsea's UWCL match around the 60' mark, and while not directly involved in the following 3 more 2nd half goals, was still part of Chelsea's high scoring UWCL win.

Brand on the other side of things would start wide left for Lyon, but facing Linder would contribute very little for her overwhelmingly dominant team, before being replaced around 66'.

The only bonus for Brand would be her generating a few attempts for her team this time; but overall it's still disappointing to see her lacking so much general effectiveness within such a strong team.

Currently no closer to being better than she was as a teenager. We still don't even know if Brand's best future will be a winger, FB, or CM...

So if Nüsken a DM who's not developed any true offensive qualities beyond charging into the box to cause chaos lol. I can understand why her new coach has no role for her as a starter anymore.

But Brand still very young, really does feel like she's regressing in various aspects of what made her so good as a teenage attacking talent...

Speed, power, and a highly effective ability to generate key passing chances for others. I think Brand's inability to regularly generate a minimum 10 assists a season is baffling.

I know it's not possible for Brand to be anywhere near Bühl, but damn... with her unique traits, 10 asissts should be the absolute minimum for Brand every season.

 

Where is this player.....