The Bundesliga is back, and there is plenty to look forward to this season in all parts of the table! This season, we have the return of Schalke 04, a whole host of new managers, and a club that has never been in the top flight before, and whose town doesn’t even have a train station (It’s good to have you, SV Elversberg)!
However, which three games should you watch out for this weekend as we get a first look at each Bundesliga team?
Bayern Munich vs VfB Stuttgart
Firstly, it has to be the opening fixture of matchday 1 on Friday night as the holders host Stuttgart.
We’ve already had a brief look at Bayern during their 2-1 Supercup victory over Borussia Dortmund last weekend. New signing Nathaniel Brown scored on his debut and played in a much more attacking role from his traditional left-back position. How much Vincent Kompany uses Brown in this way will be interesting to see.
Elsewhere, it was a fairly similar Byaern that we saw last season, with Michael Olise also getting on the scoresheet.
Stuttgart’s best bit of business this summer was the contract extension of Deniz Undav. With 25 goals across 45 competitive games last season, the German international will be hoping for more of the same this season as Stuttgart will once again aim to secure Champions League football.
During Stuttgart’s DFB Pokal win against Hansa Rostock last weekend, Undav played just behind fellow forward Dzenan Pejcinovic, and it worked well. Okay, it was against a third division side, but the early signs are promising.
On Friday night, Stuttgart will know they will have to give up a lot of possession. However, they know they have more than enough to cause Bayern problems if they get their game plan right. Never sleep on the opening game!
Borussia Dortmund vs Hamburger SV
The Saturday evening topspiel is between Dortmund and Hamburg and has the possibility to be a cracker. Dortmund showed a lot of promise in the second half of the Supercup against Bayern, with Fabio Silva getting on the scoresheet and Maximilian Bauer coming close to equalising late on (he really should have scored).
BVB have spent just shy of €110m this season, including two Greek internationals in Konstantinos Karetsas and Giannis Konstantelias. To summarise this, I must borrow the words from Peter’s Bundesliga index:
“Dortmund have spent €108.5m this summer, which feels like a great deal of money until one remembers that approximately half of it has apparently been devoted to recreating ancient Greece behind Serhou Guirassy. Konstantinos Karetsas arrived from Genk for €30m. Giannis Konstantelias followed from PAOK for another €26m. The Greek double act forms the centrepiece of a significant attacking reset that saw a pair of Germans pitched to the wind. Julian Brandt departed for Ajax on a free, and Karim Adeyemi joined Barcelona for €22m.
Joey Veerman’s €22m arrival from PSV changes the midfield underneath them. The Dutchman gives Kovač something his side occasionally lacked even when everything else worked last season: a calmer distributor capable of controlling possession and punching vertical passes through the first opposition line. Felix Nmecha remains the established box-to-box force. Dortmund have therefore spent heavily not to replace Kovač’s 3-4-2-1, but to make the people occupying its central spaces considerably better at doing interesting things with the ball.”
HSV enter a second season in the Bundesliga and will look to build on last season’s finish of 13th. So far, Hamburg have spent just €12.50m and sold €10m’s worth of players.
One to watch out for this season is Albert Grønbaek: The winter loanee officially joined HSV this summer for just shy of €5m and is currently the club’s biggest expenditure in the window.
The Dane had an injury-stricken loan spell with HSV since January, but this pre-season has looked a different player altogether. The attacking midfielder has been scoring goals and assisting in Hamburg’s test matches and looks already to be a smart bit of business.
Hamburg may not be done in the window as they look to secure the signing of former Arsenal loanee Fabio Vieira, for €7m plus add-ons. The midfielder remains one of Hamburg’s top priorities after impressing during his time at the Volksparkstadion last season.
In terms of Saturday evening’s fixture, we should see BVB try to dominant with their new attacking prowess, but don’t rule out HSV to come away with something here. Their away form was excellent last season, and they narrowly lost 3-2 in this fixture last season.
GGFN | Jamie Allen
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