5 minute read
BAYERN DYNASTY
UNUSUAL BY: FEARGAL BRENNAN SUSPECTS
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THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
THE GOOD
The 2020-21 Bundesliga season has had a more competitive race than usual at the top, even as Bayern Munich stepped up a gear in 2021 and powered through the rest of the pack. Behind the Bavarians though it has been a real slugfest for the Champions League, as Borussia Dortmund’s form failed. RB Leipzig, pretenders to Bayern’s crown, were always going to at least take a Champions League spot and the form of Wolfsburg has been a welcome surprise. Oliver Glasner’s side got their act together in 2021, losing their first game of the year – against Dortmund, ironically – but then not losing again until the beginning of March. That defeat to Dortmund was the turning point, with the performance arguably worse than the outcome. Wolfsburg responded in the best possible way, picking up 27 points from a possible 33 in the 11 games that followed. Netherlands international forward Wout Weghorst has been the standout name for Glasner this season, as his goals have propelled the team up the table. He in particular turned it on in 2021, with eight league goals in the first three months of the year A place in next season’s Champions League will be key for Glasner’s ability to retain the highly rated Weghorst this summer with Kevin Mbabu and Bote Baku also attracting growing attention from Europe’s biggest clubs. A first Champions League berth since 2015-16 – when they reached the quarter-finals and only lost
to eventual winners Real Madrid on aggregate, winning 2-0 in the home first leg but losing 3-0 in Spain – would be reward for knuckling down in the second half of the season.
THE BAD
Borussia Dortmund’s mixed run of form in 2021 raised the prospect of a Bundesliga finish outside the top four for the first time since 2015. Edin Terzic’s interim stint as head coach failed to stabilise the club following Lucien Favre’s exit in December 2020, with Marco Rose now set to take over at Signal Iduna Park this summer. Terzic’s inexperience was exposed in 2021 with just three league wins picked up in February and March as their rivals gained a key advantage ahead of the crucial final stage of the season. The major issue Terzic faced was translating BVB’s impressive European form on the domestic stage as their best chance of playing in next season’s Champions League appeared to be by winning the 2020 version. A difficult draw with Manchester City put even that into doubt as Dortmund came up against one of Europe’s financial powerhouses. But four wins and one draw in their group stage results under Favre saw Dortmund cruise into the knockout stages before his eventual sacking. Terzic then successfully steered them through a rollercoaster 5-4 aggregate win over Sevilla as the pressure of their indifferent league form appeared to lift away from his players shoulders. It may however be a blessing in disguise. The Champions League gave Erling Haaland another chance to shine as he broke double figures for the second successive season and became the youngest ever player to score 20+ goals in it. Despite Haaland continuing his incredible goal scoring form in the Bundesliga, the rest of the squad did not match up and Terzic was unable to find a balance. Haaland’s form, meanwhile, saw the vultures circle even closer than before. Missing out on the Champions League would hit Dortmund’s finances, and Haaland could be forgiven for wanting to join a club that is all-but guaranteed to play in the competition every year.
THE UGLY
With Bayer Leverkusen’s form slowly edging them out to the periphery of the race for European qualification the club opted to take the bold step of sacking manager Peter Bosz. Bosz was offered a second chance in the Bundesliga, after his disastrous stint in charge of Borussia Dortmund back in 2017, when he arrived refreshed at the BayArena midway through the 2018-19 domestic season. But despite finishing in the Champions League qualification spots in 2019 Leverkusen slipped down into the Europa League this season and Bosz found himself under growing pressure ever since. Their Bundesliga form in 2021 sealed his eventual fate at the club with an average of just one win per month in the first three months of the calendar year. That indifferent run of results went on to cost the Dutchman his job at the club and it may have come potentially too late to save Leverkusen’s season from ending in disappointment. The job of avoiding that went to rookie coach Hannes Wolf, who was given the job on an interim basis until the end of 2020-21. Former midfielder Peter Hermann was also named to the staff as Wolf’s assistant. As for Bosz, this may have been his last chance in the big-time surroundings of Bundesliga, at least in the short term, with his reputation taking a real battering over the course of this season. His next move could be a return to his native Netherlands as he aims to rebuild his reputation and return to the European football scene in the coming years. Bosz has been a traveller in his early career, playing in Japan and coaching in Israel, and may need to take a job in another far flung corner before getting a chance again in one of Europe’s big leagues.
ABOVE (OPPOSITE PAGE): Oliver Glasner, Wolfsburg Coach
BOTTOM LEFT (OPPOSITE PAGE): Kevin Mbabu is attracting attention from big teams
BOTTOM RIGHT (OPPOSITE PAGE): Wolfsburg players celebrate scoring
ABOVE: Edin Terzic, coach of Borussia Dortmund
RIGHT: Despite Haaland keepigng up is scoring output, Dortmund is falling behind
BELOW: Peter Bosz
TOP RIGHT: Union’s head coach Urs Fischer reacts during a German Bundesliga soccer match
BOTTOM RIGHT: Schalke continues to slip down the table Neutral fans’ favourite Union Berlin have pulled off the most dramatic of turnarounds in 2021, Urs Fischer’s side have dragged themselves away from the brink of a relegation battle and on to the edge of the Europa League qualification spots in recent months.
GOING DOWN
Schake’s relegation fate was essentially sealed at the back end of 2020, but despite being handed a last gasp reprieve in 2021, they are now certain to go down. Dimitrios Grammozis was named as the club’s fifth head coach this year and they should be relegated by May.
