End of first round at Bundesliga. There have been some surprises, mostly negatives, but things are, more or less, as expected.
At the start of the season i had said this:
Still early days and it could be more of a wishful thinking than a realistic expectation but there are ggood chances we could finally have an exciting season in Bundesliga. It's going to be a transition season for many teams. I don't remember the last time so many top teams started the new season with a new coach. Bayern, Leipzig, Dortmund, Wolfsburg, Eintracht, Leverkusen, Gladbach.
Nagelsmann at Bayern is going to be very interesting as their squad is unfit for his favorite back 3 formation. I believe he will go for a 4-4-2 at the start of the season though there's plenty of time left in the transfer market so we will see.
I am also curious to see what Fredi Bobic, the mastermind behind Eintracht success, can do at rich but mismanaged so far Hertha Berlin.
Sadly it was wishful thinking. Most of those projects haven't really worked and we're watching more of the same.
Bayern have had their weaknesses but there's no one to capitalize and the season seems already over. Dortmund find themselves in no man's land between Bayern and the rest of the league. They aren't strong enough to challenge the Bavarians but they're also a level above the rest of the league.
The projects of Leipzig, Wolfsburg and Gladbach have gone terribly and they find themselves in bottom half after the end of first round. Leverkusen are the typical Leverkusen that will field exciting talents, fight for a CL place but fail to rise to the challenge for anything more. Thankfully there are few positives to keep a slight interest for this season. Freiburg have built a very exciting project, both in terms of squad and infrastucture, which have pushed the team to take the next step and fight for top 4. There's a resurgence of Hoffenheim who are at their best shape since Nagelsmann left. Union Berlin have picked up from where they stopped last season, embarrassing the "big" club of the capital even further.
Eintracht also deserve a mention. That club has a die hard mentality. People have often been fast to rule them out but they have always proven them wrong. They have gone through many changes in recent years but they have managed to recover. They lost Kovac to Bayern and they still managed to stay competitive. They lost their attacking magic trio of Haller-Rebic-Jovic in one summer and they even managed to improve by turning Andre Silva into a top scorer. Last summer they lost both their coach and sporting director and after a poor start they have made an impressive run with the end of first round finding them just one point behind 4th place. Really impressive.
The fight for first place is basically over but hopefully we can have some entertaining matches for European places in the second round.