A look on the odds for the upcoming German Bundesliga season says all; apart from Interwetten’s outstanding 1.25 no other bookmaker offers more than 1.17 on Bayern Munich to defend the title. Actually six Bayern players were on the field when Germany beat Argentina in the World Cup final, others like Robben or Ribery are among the best players of the world anyway. However, there is a possibility that all this successful players are not easy to motivate back in Bundesliga’s daily routine and considering that other clubs have strong players as well, odds lower than 1.17 seem pretty tiny. With Toni Kroos Bayern lost one of their best players to Real Madrid, but made some strong signings in Juan Bernat (Valencia), Sebastian Rode (Frankfurt) and most notably Bundesliga top scorer Robert Lewandowski from Dortmund. Bayern currently have a problem in defence as Martinez and Schweinsteiger are sidelined for at least several weeks, therefore another player will be bought soon (Mehdi Benatia is a hot candidate).
Borussia Dortmund had serious injury problems all along last season, still managed to become runners-up with a seven point advantage to Schalke on the third place. The Borussia had been pretty much at eye level with Bayern Munich the recent past, won the German title in two of the last four years and will be Bayern’s biggest opponent this season again. They have lost Lewandowski to Munich, but with Ciro Immobile (19 million), Adrián Ramos (9,7 million) and Dong-Won Ji they signed very strong and quick forwards and should be even more flexible up front now. With Matthias Ginter (10 million) also a young defender joined Dortmund. He has been part of Germany’s World Cup squad as well. In consideration of all this signings and the fact that several top players have or will return from injury (Gündogan, Reus, Sahin), Dortmund seems to have a very good squad and odds of above 7.00 are very tempting to bet on them. The highest odd on Dortmund to win the Bundesliga can currently be found at Bet365 with 7.50.
The first match up of the two German giants was won by Dortmund with 2:0 in the final of the German Supercup.
Behind Bayern and Dortmund there are several other teams with outsider chances, led by the VfL Wolfsburg (Volkswagen) who invested aplenty of millions the recent years. The VfL did not lose a single key player, made some decent signings in Nicklas Bendtner (Arsenal), Aaron Hunt (Bremen), Josuha Guilavogui (Atlético Madrid) and Sebastian Jung (Frankfurt). The quality of the German champions from 2009 is huge and they should not be disregarded.
Bayer Leverkusen never invested as much money for new players as this season. Top transfers were Hakan Calhanoglu (14,5 million, HSV), Josip Drmic (6,8 million, Nürnberg) and Wendell (6,5 million, Gremio). Kyriakos Papadopoulos comes on loan from Schalke and with Roger Schmidt (RB Salzburg) also a new coach was engaged. If everything works out well for the ‘eternal second’ they might even play for the title again.
Schalke 04 did not spend as much money as they used to do, still they signed two decent new players with Sidney Sam (Leverkusen) and Choupo-Moting (Mainz). However, Schalke will miss the key players Farfan, Goretzka and Uchida at the start of the season.
Except of the SC Paderborn all other teams seem at eye level, all of them could make it to an international position or find themselves in relegation battle, including 2. Bundesliga champions 1.FC Köln who are returning with a pretty strong side.
Borussia Mönchengladbach made huge progress under Lucien Favre the recent years, they will most probably qualify for the Europa League the next weeks. They lost keeper ter Stegen to Barcelona, replaced him with Swiss national goalkeeper Yann Sommer (Basel), also signed two quick wings with André Hahn and Ibrahima Traoré.
Also Mainz 05 could have played in the Europa League, but they got knocked out in qualification, were eliminated in the first round of the German Cup too. A terrible debut for new Danish coach Kasper Hjulmand. And as his squad also lost quality, he might not survive this season.
Hoffenheim invested 15 million Euros for new players with Bundesliga experience (Baumann, Biscakcic, Schwegler, Szalai). This team might surprise this season, they at least have the quality to do so. Interwetten pays 10:1, if Hoffenheim gets under the first four.
In Hannover they spent 10 million for two signings (Joselu, Kiyotake), but they have lost several strong offensive players. Stuttgart bought Serbian Filip Kostic for 6 million Euros and Nelson Valdez is back in Bundesliga, will now play for Eintracht Frankfurt. Sascha Riether (Stoke City) returned to the SC Freiburg and also Werder Bremen, who lost key player Aaron Hunt, must have an eye on the relegation places.
The Hamburger SV avoided relegation narrowly last season when drew 0:0 and 1:1 against Greuther Fürth in the play-offs. They sold Calhanoglu for 14,5 million and bought two strong midfielders in Valon Behrami (Napoli) and Nicolai Müller (Mainz). The squad should have enough quality to easily stay in Bundesliga, but that’s what we thought last season as well. Who believes that the HSV will finally relegate for the first time should bet on it. The odd of 12.00 at Tipico is very juicy.
The SC Paderborn are ranked as the biggest underdog, they managed promotion for the first time with a team of almost unknown players. They haven’t bought any remarkable players; their big plus is the team spirit, an important feature which was also displayed by the German national team at the World Cup. Tipico offers an odd of 3.60, if Paderborn will be placed ahead of Freiburg at the end of the season.
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