August 5 – Bayern Munich kick off their Bundesliga title defence towards Europa League winners Eintracht Frankfurt tonight hoping {that a} close-season spending spree, notably together with Sadio Mane from Liverpool, will offset the lack of star striker Robert Lewandowski.
With 5 Champions League individuals from the Bundesliga for the primary time ever this season, Bayern will nonetheless be favoured to say their eleventh straight home title.
Whereas Lewandowski, who scored 344 targets in 375 video games in all competitions throughout eight years on the Allianz Enviornment, shall be missed up entrance, Bayern CEO Oliver Kahn believes the acquisition of Mane might work within the German champions’ favour by making Bayern much less predictable in assault.
“You would see what number of alternatives we had going ahead, what number of completely different formations we had, how stunning we might be,” Kahn mentioned within the aftermath of Bayern’s 5-3 Tremendous Cup victory over RB Leipzig final weekend.
The Bundesliga’s high defence from final season, Bayern have additionally been bolstered with the addition of 23-year-old Dutchman Matthijs de Ligt from Juventus, thought-about the most effective centre backs on this planet.
Final season’s runners-up Borussia Dortmund will head up a chasing pack seeking to dethrone the perennial German champions regardless of Erling Haaland’s shifting to England.
After conceding 52 targets final outing, greater than another aspect within the high eight, Dortmund loosened the purse strings to usher in German nationwide crew centre-backs Nico Schlotterbeck and Niklas Suele from Freiburg and Bayern respectively.
New sporting director Sebastian Kehl however appealed to followers to indicate “somewhat realism” in pursuit of their first title since 2012.
“Bayern make €285 million ($291 million) extra in income than we do. Roughly talking, they’ll make investments twice as a lot of their squad this season as we have now,” he mentioned.
Leipzig enter the season having received their first main title, beating SC Freiburg on penalties to raise the 2021/22 German Cup. They’ve additionally managed to carry on to their greatest gamers, specifically German Footballer of the Yr Christopher Nkunku who signed a two-year contract extension in June.
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