The Currywurst is on the grill and the Weiβbier is in the fridge. As you turn up the recorded crowd noise, here are 5 things for Premier League fans to enjoy when German football gets back underway.
1. David Wagner’s managerial semi-renaissance
After a four-year spell at the John Smith’s (née McAlpine) Stadium, David Wagner’s incredibly successful period at the helm of one of English football’s great underachievers ultimately ended in sadness. With the Terriers slowly petrifying into a unit almost incapable of scoring goals, Huddersfield fans reluctantly bade farewell to the very popular leader who had led them into the top division and defied the odds to keep them there (which of them will forget that draw at Stamford Bridge to secure Premier League status in May 2018?).
With Huddersfield now at the foot of the Championship after a disastrous Jan Siewert era, Premier League fans might be surprised to see the energetic Wagner at the helm of one of German football’s proudest clubs, Schalke 04. Null-Vier probably feel like an enigma to most British football fans – what to make of a team who had Raul for two seasons, are sponsored by Gazprom and play in the amazing Gelsenkirchen arena, but rarely show up in European competition and hardly ever seem to challenge for domestic trophies?
But the club from Germany’s industrial heartlands are actually doing quite well under Wagner. With a young team spearheaded by talents such as Amine Harit and Suat Serdar and including British players Jonjoe Kenny and Rabbi Matondo, they had been in the top four for most of the season, until a dip in results after the winter break.
Reinvigorated in the land of his birth, can Wagner re-find the early season optimism and exciting playing style that made the Ruhr outfit so thrilling to watch before Christmas?
2. Claudio Pizarro’s never-ending career
The Peruvian striker seemed to be heading into the Autumn of his career when leaving Chelsea for the second time in 2009 (he was 30 then). The Bundesliga’s 6th highest ever goalscorer and a 6-time winner of both the Bundesliga and the DFB-Cup, no one has ever doubted Pizarro’s finishing ability – including, it seems, his current manager Florian Kohfeldt.
Even if the 41 year-old hasn’t yet scored this season, the man who has signed for Werder on four separate occasions is still getting regular (albeit limited) game time – managing 4 touches in the 3 minutes he was given off the bench against Hertha Berlin before the coronavirus curtain temporarily fell on the Bundesliga season.
Will Pizarro still be in favour after the restart? Bremen have the joint worst goal difference in the league and are 4 points away from even the Bundesliga’s relegation play-off place. Pizarro doesn’t look like the sprightliest of routes to avoiding a first relegation since 1980, but Kohfeldt is short on options. Don’t be surprised to see Pizarro coming off the bench and attempting to set a new mark for the Bundesliga’s oldest ever goalscorer – improving his own record, which he set last season.
3. The flourishing Haaland-Sancho partnership
The son of former Leeds defender (and Roy Keane target) Alf-Inge, Erling Haaland was one of Europe’s hottest properties even before arriving at Dortmund – having scored four hat-tricks for RB Salzburg by September and netting 8 times in the 6 games of his debut Champions League group stage. Since signing for BVB in January, the Leeds-born striker’s performances have beggared belief – with a hat-trick in 23 minutes on his debut and 9 goals in his first 8 games for the club.
And encouragingly for English football fans, he seems to be pushing Jadon Sancho to new heights. While Sancho’s form since bursting onto the scene at the start of last season has seemingly followed a continual upward trajectory, his on-field rapport with Haaland is obvious, and yielding rich rewards. Before the lockdown, Sancho became the first player in the top 5 European leagues to reach double figures for both assists and goals this season, and currently has 14 goals and 15 assists to his name this term.
Expect that run to continue next weekend as Dortmund look to reinvigorate a title push that was flagging before the enforced break.
4. The Eintracht enigma
Chelsea and Arsenal fans will remember the impressive Frankfurt of last season’s Europa League, whose helter-skelter run through the competition ended in semi-final shootout heartbreak at Stamford Bridge. If the capital of European banking hasn’t been a footballing powerhouse for a long time, that European adventure, following a 2018 DFB-Cup win, had offered some long overdue joy to Eintracht fans.
But after a summer raid on their promising young squad – with Luka Jovic now warming the bench at Real Madrid – Frankfurt have become an enigma this season. Currently sitting in 12th, Frankfurt are a lot closer to the relegation places than they are to a Europa League spot – in a season where they’ve recorded a 5-1 home win over Bayern Munich in the league, two home wins over RB Leipzig (in league and cup) and a creditable 2-2 home draw against Dortmund.
However, they’re still in this year’s Europa League – albeit only just, after being hammered 3-0 at home by FC Basel in the first leg of their last-16 game – and the DFB Cup, where they await a semi-final at home to Bayern Munich. Will the “can beat any team on their day” Frankfurt turn up next weekend against high-flying Gladbach, or will it be the team that conceded 16 goals in its last 7 competitive matches before the break?
5. The resurgence of Angeliño
Many Chelsea fans had never heard of their loaned defender Ethan Ampadu when he shone against Spurs in Leipzig’s round of 16 first leg. But the former Exeter City man has largely struggled for game time in Germany – in fact, he’s only played 3 Bundesliga games all season, and he didn’t make the squad for the second leg.
Instead, it’s fellow Premier League export Angeliño who has been dazzling in defence for Leipzig, after joining on loan from Manchester City in January. Visitors to the Etihad will hardly remember Angeliño fondly, with a string of anaemic performances before Christmas leading him to fall out of favour with Pep Guardiola. Since arriving at Die Roten Bullen, however, Angeliño’s performances have been strong – particularly going forward, where he has become an incisive attacking force on the left of Julian Nagelsmann’s young side.
With Angeliño reportedly keen to compete for a place in City’s squad again this summer, he’ll need more strong performances at Leipzig before the season is out.
There you go – 5 reasons to tune in next weekend. So place some cardboard cut-outs of other fans around the sofa, dust off your rabble-rousing megaphone and pretend we’re back to normal. Auf wiedersehen!
Gegenpress 