Bundesliga 2018/19

Nothing he could've done. Veljkovic "elbows" his opponent in the face when he's already on a yellow. Stupid mistake from the player.
he jumped for the ball, hardly a foul let alone second yellow, didn't elbow anyone
 
Is Hamburg going to bottle promotion from Bundesliga 2?

Saw they drew another game yesterday (they only have +7 GD after 30 games which is poor) and are benching Lassoga, Hunt and Holtby for some reason.

As much as I'm critical over the relegation play off Hamburg v Schalke to play in next season's Bundesliga would be total box office. Can't see Stuttgart winning games though after their 6-0 loss yesterday so more likely to be them.
 
Still getting around the fact that Hannover, Nuremberg AND Stuttgart are in relegation zone with no hopes of survival...what?

And Schalke 04 almost there (next season?)

What's up with Big Clubs in Germany? Why are they so inconsistent? Please, somebody explain this to me.
 
Still getting around the fact that Hannover, Nuremberg AND Stuttgart are in relegation zone with no hopes of survival...what?

And Schalke 04 almost there (next season?)

What's up with Big Clubs in Germany? Why are they so inconsistent? Please, somebody explain this to me.
Its a pity that the level at the bottom of the league is so weak this season that Schalke will survive this, normaly with their points they would be in relegation for sure. But i still have hope for an epic endgame Schalke vs Stuttgart.

Why inconsistent? Schalke always was and will be Schalke, a big but totaly bad runed and chaotic club. It was a matter of time till this all collapsed and that they are now where they are. I expect them to struggle for relegation next season, too. They will continue their downfall, don't see any reason why this would change.
The others Gladbach, Leverkusen, and now RB, are consistent on their level, being the next row after Bayern and Dortmund. Bremen and Frankfurt doing great work since some years, so they are gaining ground, which is good and interesting for the league.

Have the feeling that Dortmund and Bayern are closer to each other in their level like the last years. And that they are more far away from the row behind (the table this season illustrates that). And that this mentioned row behind them (Leverkusen, Gladbach, RB, Bremen, Frankfurt) get closer to each other, too. Schalke falls apart, and Hertha gets more solid since some years. Expect Hoffenheim even with their good and solid squad to fall back after Nagelsmann has left.
 
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Still getting around the fact that Hannover, Nuremberg AND Stuttgart are in relegation zone with no hopes of survival...what?

And Schalke 04 almost there (next season?)

What's up with Big Clubs in Germany? Why are they so inconsistent? Please, somebody explain this to me.

Hannover and Nürnberg aren't big clubs.
That being said it's the same it's always been: bad management, the wrong people in key positions (dof, coach, chairman).

You've made it into the CL. You think you're a (domestic) top club now, your wage bill grows accordingly. Then you appoint the wrong coach or have a couple of transfers which don't work out. You miss the CL. Maybe you can take the hit for one year, but then you miss it again and you are in trouble, because your squad and your wage bill are too big to sustain without CL money. So you have to downsize your squad. But you can't find buyers for your flops who got you into trouble to begin with, your team is underperforming your squad is damaged goods, so the only players you can sell for good money are the key players, they have to go to balance the books and the dead weight who more or less sit out their big contracts and stink out the place stay and eat up your wage budget.
And then you are in a vicious cycle, you need to rebuild your squad, but you have no money. Good players don't want to come, you have to take gambles and if they don't pay off you're in even deeper trouble. As it takes a bit of time for fans and the media to realize that you're not hot stuff anymore expectations are too high.
You may have a coach who is doing reasonably well, keeping you steady in midtable regions, but everyone is used to your club playing in Europe, so that's not enough, expectations are unrealistic, there's too much pressure on the coach and the team and the guy has to go eventually. You've shot yourself in the foot again.

That's how it went for Stuttgart and Hamburg. Stuttgart looked like it kind of turned things around after getting relegated, they hired a reputable DoF in Reschke (former Leverkusen and Bayern) and tried to rebuild with young players and low expectations. But then they had a really good run after last season's winter break and almost made it into the EL in the end, which seems to have caused the club to get ahead of itself.
They paid a lot of money to sign highly rated youngsters and bought some veterans to guarantee stability, but it all backfired. The old players aren't leading the team, they seem indifferent and struggle with injuries (Didavi, Badstuber), Gomez turned around their season last year, but now he seems unable to score.
Meanwhile their youngster are painfully inconsistent, some perhaps a bit full of themselves.
They fired their coach, but the next one (Weinzierl) did even worse, so now they have a completely dysfunctional team and no coach.






Schalke has been really badly run for ages, but their academy has always kept them afloat.

The list of their former coaches kind of says it all:
Weinzierl, Breitenreiter, di Matteo, Keller, Stevens. I think Breitenreiter (who got fired by Hannover this season) is the only one who held a job for a full year after leaving Schalke.
Breitenreiter, di Matteo and Keller went straight to 2nd division jobs from Schalke, Stevens took a Greek club, Weinzierl landed the caretaker job at Stuttgart where he just got fired, having the worst ppg in the club's history I think.

On the DoF position they appointed Horst Heldt, right after he transitioned Stuttgart from league winners to relegation candidates and let him do the same at their club for five years.

They are also burdened with considerable debt since building their "new" stadium.

They have had this coming for at least a decade.
 
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Hannover and Nürnberg aren't big clubs.

Stuttgart looked like it kind of turned things around after getting relegated, they hired a reputable DoF in Reschke (former Leverkusen and Bayern) and tried to rebuild with young players and low expectations. But then they had a really good run after last season's winter break and almost made it into the EL in the end, which seems to have caused the club to get ahead of itself.
They paid a lot of money to sign highly rated youngsters and bought some veterans to guarantee stability, but it all backfired. The old players aren't leading the team, they seem indifferent and struggle with injuries (Didavi, Badstuber), Gomez turned around their season last year, but now he seems unable to score.
Meanwhile their youngster are painfully inconsistent, some perhaps a bit full of themselves.


Schalke has been really badly run for ages, but their academy has always kept them afloat.
The list of their former coaches kind of says it all
They are also burdened with considerable debts since building their "new" stadium.


Thanks for the info!
 
Thanks for the info!

No problem.
I guess the main difference is that English top clubs have more reliable income and owners who can help out.
Imagine United missing the CL this season and having to sell Pogba and de Gea without really being able to invest much in return. That could turn nasty pretty quickly as well. But the club keeps making tons of money no matter what for the time being, so it can keep going through a couple of bad years.
German clubs, aside from Bayern, Dortmund and Leipzig (perhaps Wolfsburg and Leverkusen to a much lesser extend) can't. They immediately feel the pain.
 
Schalke has been really badly run for ages, but their academy has always kept them afloat.

The list of their former coaches kind of says it all:
Weinzierl, Breitenreiter, di Matteo, Keller, Stevens. I think Breitenreiter (who got fired by Hannover this season) is the only one who held a job for a full year after leaving Schalke.
Breitenreiter, di Matteo and Keller went straight to 2nd division jobs from Schalke, Stevens took a Greek club, Weinzierl landed the caretaker job at Stuttgart where he just got fired, having the worst ppg in the club's history I think.

On the DoF position they appointed Horst Heldt, right after he transitioned Stuttgart from league winners to relegation candidates and let him do the same at their club for five years.

They are also burdened with considerable debt since building their "new" stadium.

They have had this coming for at least a decade.

Totaly agree and a great sum up. You can add that Schalke has a terrible contract policy, so that they loose a lot of their good players coming from the academy without getting anything. Matip, Goretzka and Meyer comes in mind. Seems that it continues now with Nübel. Even a warning interview from him wasn't enough for the managment to do something. Now it seems that he refuses to sign a new contract and they have to sell him immediately or he is off to Bayern after next season for free.
 
Shit, I'm at a thing tonight which was booked months ago... Missing both Bayern-Bremen AND the Manchester derby, how cruel is that :mad:
 
And just as it gets interesting, the ref comes to the rescue..how was that a penalty?
 
And just as it gets interesting, the ref comes to the rescue..how was that a penalty?

I don't know. Coman messes up his touch, then goes down to a little bit of contact, because the ball is gone anyway, so why not. It's hard to see that as an honest mistake and VAR needs to stretch the clear mistake stuff to the limit not to intervene either.
Bremen came up with a bit of magic, a potential historic night for them and then all hopes get crushed by this piece of "refereeing".
 
Joke of a pen, can't believe he didnt even look at that again himself.
 
Joke of a pen, can't believe he didnt even look at that again himself.
That is what I don’t understand as well.
I don’t blame Coman since he was pushed (a bit). I don’t blame the defender, since you get away with that push most of the time. I don’t blame the ref for the whistle.
But why does the VAR not even tell him to look at it again?
 
That is what I don’t understand as well.
I don’t blame Coman since he was pushed (a bit). I don’t blame the defender, since you get away with that push most of the time. I don’t blame the ref for the whistle.
But why does the VAR not even tell him to look at it again?

Actually that was correct. Var only should jump in when the referee totally fecked it. It was a very, very soft penalty - put as you said, Coman got pushed.
 
Joke of a pen, can't believe he didnt even look at that again himself.
I agree, it was super-soft. Lots of similar situations happen every week with no consequences. Not a dive, either. I take a wild guess and say the main decider for the ref was that the defender was *behind* Coman when it happened, not at his side or ahead of him. Can be argued that Coman had no chance of reaching the ball any more anyway.. i can understand Werder being upset about it. Match like this shouldn't be decided by such a situation.
 
I was hoping Werder would win that match but, that looked 100% like a foul to me. I am surprised there is even much of a debate for it. At every angle it looks like a clear push.
 
You can give it, though i would have preferred a semi final not decided by a pen (before a shoot out, that is).
 
Corrupt German Football once again. Nice.
Yeah. But don't struggle too long with this, you are building a great team with a good coach. Your Club does everything right in the last time, so keep on. I guess You, Frankfurt, and the fantastic rebuild of my team are the reasons some fans enjoy the league a little bit again. Hope you will be back in the top6 for a longterm.
 
Was those the semi finals?

I assume neutrals in Germany want Bayern to win the cup final to stop Leipzig getting their grubby little hands on German silverware or have I got that wrong?
 
Was those the semi finals?

I assume neutrals in Germany want Bayern to win the cup final to stop Leipzig getting their grubby little hands on German silverware or have I got that wrong?
Hmm, in germany we say its "Pest vs. Cholera". Nobody wants Bayern to win it, and nobody wants Leipzig to win it.
On the other hand Bayern winning the cup raises the chance of keeping Kovac, that would be nice. Myself simply fears the policy of Leipzig, there is a chance they doesn't fight 100% in the league game vs Bayern just to give everything in the cup-final. Experiences with there european games and other things suggest that.
 
Hmm, in germany we say its "Pest vs. Cholera". Nobody wants Bayern to win it, and nobody wants Leipzig to win it.
On the other hand Bayern winning the cup raises the chance of keeping Kovac, that would be nice. Myself simply fears the policy of Leipzig, there is a chance they doesn't fight 100% in the league game vs Bayern just to give everything in the cup-final. Experiences with there european games and other things suggest that.

Yeah that's fair enough.

Frankfurt should've got a bye to the final for winning it last year, such a brilliant match that.

Ralf Rangnick done a pretty good job this year considering he's just keeping the seat warm for Nagalsmann.
 
At least Hamburg didn't get through, could you imagine a team winning 9-0 in a major cup final.:lol: