My predictions in the beginning of the season were:
Germany: FC Bayern, Dortmund, Leipzig, Leverkusen
Bayern to be 1st is an obvious prediction. Just look at their goal difference. We have only one team that has 10+ goals and it's Bayern who wreck everyone. That's absurd. This is so League 1 like. How is Bundesliga still ranked among the 5 best leagues?*
The next match for Bayern after the WC will be against RB Leipzig and this match will decide if RB can be a threat to Bayern's 11th championship in a row. If they lose they are obviously out of the race bc Bayern won't lose a 9 point lead.
RB Leipzig had a rough start but since Marco Rose took over they have improved a lot. You can't take away how impressive their come back is. Still, fuck them.
Freiburg is Bayern hunter number 1 and it never imagined to say this. They were always a more better midcard team. Touched the top here and there for a matchday or two but never really could establish there but here they are. Playing international this season and being 2nd in BL is very impressive. It's not a rich club, not even for Bundesliga standards. But they are working with their coach -Christian Streich- now for 10 years. Even when Freiburg got relegated to 2nd Bundesliga they sticked with Streich and didn't kick him out. And it starts to pay off now.
Would be really rad and weird to see them in the end of the season still being 2nd (or 3rd).
AND HOLY FUCKING SHIT WE ARE FOURTH! AND HAVE MOVED ON IN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE! AND IN THE ROUND OF SIXTEEN IN DFB POKAL!
And all of this after Frankfurt started this season with a 6:1 loss against Bayern München.
Before the season I was hoping that we can at least reach 6th place in BL. It's still qualification level for Conference League so it's still playing international which means money. Yeah, noone gives a shit about ConL but every bit of TV and UEFA money we can get is needed. So finger's crossed that Frankfurt can keep it together.
When Kostic went to Juve a lot of people weren't sure how we would do without him. He was so crucial for our success in the last years. Basically he was our Ronaldo. But then someone snatched Randal Kolo Muani. 14 games, 5 goals, 10 assists in BL, 2 goals in CL - and he came for free. However managed this deal deserves a medal.
Union on #5 after leading the table for quite some team looks bad now. They fucked up their last 3 games completely. 5:1 against Leverkusen who were at the bottom of the barrel back then, then a draw against fucking Bayern-slayer Augsburg and now a loss against Freiburg.
Throughout the season their strength was discipline. Everyone knew what he has to do and just did. They don't play some fancy football but they don't want to and they don't need to. Union games are most of the time rather boring to watch. But they win and he who wins has right. In the last 3 games now one could see that they need a break. They weren't there in their heads as they were before. And they need to adapt a bit on their strategy. Opponents have figured out what Union does and started exploiting their weakness. It's going be very exciting how they will perform after WC who can fuck up things for some teams.
I honestly don't know what to say about Dortmund. Everything has been said by everyone and so very often. They have the squad and the financial background to be the 2nd best team and they fucking have to be. There's no excuse. But nevertheless there is one big excuse: injuries. I think they never had their top tier suqad on the pitch this season so far bc everyone weekend someone is missing. And at this point injuries can't be an excuse anymore. It's an issues plagueing Dortmund for years now. Someone has to take a close look at their medical team and start asking questions. They are paying these doctors and fitness trainers and whatnot and they are paying them good. How can it be that every fucking season we have to talk about how not-so-good is Dortmund performing and how it's every single year bc half of the squad is missing bc of injuries? That's not acceptable.
To be fair it's a close run for the places 2-6. It's just 5 points. That's two wins (while others lose two games). It can be done. Everyone of the teams could be at the top - behind Bayern. But my prediction now will be:
1. Bayern 2. RB Leipzig 3. Freiburg 4. Frankfurt
Frankfurt won't be good enough for #3 or better. Placing 4th at the end will still be a big win though.
Freiburg is to solid overall. Freiburg will be focussed more on BL than on Europa League. It's more important to get another good run in BL to qualify again for something international than to get further in EL.
It's possible that RB will lose it's steam but I wouldn't bet on it. It's more likely that will only get better. But again, fuck RB.
And from all the teams between 2-5 Dortmund is the weakest, the most incomplete. All the other teams have found themselves, have their big match plans and strategies, can count on their B and C squads.
And there is more:
Wolfsburg is threatening Dortmund. They are only 2 points behind them and out of their last 5 games they won 4. During the week Wolfsburg won 2:0 against Dortmund. This weekend Dortmund lost against Mönchengladbach 4:2. Gladbach is still only 1 win away from Dortmund.
Dortmund is in a shitty position. Losing contact to the teams before them but having other teams that are behind them yet being very close to them. 1 win can change a lot.
3 weeks ago I sperged about Leverkusen. Since then they won all their 3 games. The 5:1 win against Union Berlin was maybe their most impressive (Union being 2nd back then, Leverkusen being 16th or 17th). But the more important win was their next game, the win against Cologne (Köln). It wasn't a good match from Leverkusen. Cologne was leading 1:0 and was doing more for the game. Leverkusen only had 2 good moments in that game and they used them to win 2:1 in the end. So they finally proved their comeback mentality and that's very important for a team of this quality but performing so poorly so far. Leverkusen is on fire now. It's probably way to late to do better and reach one of the first 6 places. But in the end being 7th or 8th is way better than being at the bottom of the barrel. They might keep Xavi as coach.
Oh, and I will claim credit for Leverkusen doing better now. Obviously all they needed was an autist sperging about them in an obscure English speaking forum.
Schalke will go down. They are slightly doing better in their games since they kicked their coach but yeah, still not really scoring points.
Bochum will follow, there is no doubt.
The most exciting question will be who is going into the relegation games, Stuttgart or Hertha. Hertha is doing a lot better than last year. A LOT better. But they miss the luck. That's why they are still down there.
So my final prediction for BL will be:
1. Bayern
2. Leipzig
3. Freiburg
4. Frankfurt
...
16. Stuttgart
17. Bochum
18. Schalke
Thx for coming to my TED talk.
*rhetoric question; I know why but still ...
. 3-0 against Lazio is an impressive result.
