As the final weekend of the Bundesliga came to a close it was hard not to look back and reflect on one of the most exciting seasons in its history.
The big storyline of the season definitely has to be Leverkusen becoming invincible in the league. This is perhaps the most incredible achievement by Xabi Alonso’s men and made history taking down perennial title holders Bayern Munich.
Never in their 119-year history had Leverkusen won the Bundesliga, and they did it invincible which is incredible, as it seemed like something special was needed to dethrone Bayern after their decade of dominance domestically. The fashion in which Leverkusen won their games to was equally as impressive because it wasn’t like they were scraping by teams and grinding out wins. They were winning a lot of games comfortable, playing attacking football and taking it to teams. It also seemed that Xabi Alonso had some sort of black magic going on. Leverkusen were able to save their invincible season on multiple occasions with some super late equalizers that you sort of just felt were coming. They won the league with a couple weeks to spare and ended up 17 points clear of second place. If that’s not domination then I don’t know what is. Xabi Alonso is going to continue next year even though many bigger clubs were trying to get him to be their next manager. So, it should be interesting to see if they can replicate this play next season. A large part of it will come down to if they are able to keep a lot of their key players this summer. Big clubs will be vying for signature from players like Frimpong and Wirtz although they say they’re not for sale at any price.
Another major storyline from the Bundesliga this season was the collapse (if you call it that) of Bayern Munich. After signing Harry Kane prior to the season, it seemed that the league title was locked into Bayern. They finally had the missing piece that they had been looking for ever since Lewandowski left for Barcelona. Bayern started the season strong and were right in contention for the title with Leverkusen, but there was a rough stretch in January and February where they dropped points and games and that ultimately made the difference in the title. When was the last time you’ve seen Bayern finish in 3rd place. I get that they had a bit of a tumultuous season with all of the Tuchel drama, but finishing in 3rd just feels wrong for Bayern. They’ll have a lot of questions to answer this summer and they also need to bring in a new manager even though it seems that the players want Tuchel to continue. I think there is too much of a divide between the coach and the board for there to be any reconciliation between the two to continue forward. It’s recently come out that Vincent Kompany could be a candidate for the Bayern job, and I’m certainly skeptical if he is the right one to lead them forward. Elsewhere, Dortmund had a somewhat underwhelming season in the league finishing in 5th place, but reaching the final of the Champions League. 5th is enough to qualify for UCL football next year, but the league performance was just lacking all year. Still, there were many positive things to take away like winning 2-0 at the Allianz for the first time in several years. I think there were some question marks surrounding Edin Terzic and his performance as manager, and I honestly think that there is some merit to those reservations. It’s hard to criticize a manager that has reached the Champions League final, but in some Bundesliga games it just seemed like Dortmund were a bit clueless and got tactically beat. That comes down to the manager, but he’s gotten right in the Champions League and we could be set for an all time fairytale story if they manage to go on and win it. A big surprise from this season was VFB Stuttgart finishing in second place. Just a year prior they finished in 16th and had to play in the Promotion/Relegation play-offs to even stay in the Bundesliga. A big part of that came down to their striker Serhou Guirassy who scored 28 league goals this season. I would imagine that it will be hard to keep ahold of him this summer, especially with Premier League clubs interested in him.
Now that the season is finished, we can look back and see that the Bundesliga gave us a truly unforgettable season. We finally have a new king of Germany that looks poised to finish a historic season with a truly remarkable achievement. We were treated to a ton of entertaining games and storylines. Next season I expect Bayern to be hungry to regain their crown, but Leverkusen will not want to give it away easily.
