The 2022-23 Bundesliga season kicks off on Friday at 2:30 p.m. ET when Europa League-winning Eintracht Frankfurt hosts Bayern Munich. Reigning champion Bayern is looking to capture an 11th consecutive league title, but this time without the undeniable scoring prowess of Robert Lewandowski, who made the move to FC Barcelona this summer.
How will Bayern and Borussia Dortmund fair without their top scorers? Which young USMNT hopeful will emerge in time for the World Cup? And what’s next for defender John Brooks?
ESPN Bundesliga commentator Derek Rae shared his thoughts on the upcoming season with detailed insight into the latest news around the league.
Pro Soccer Wire: What does the “new Bayern” look like this season without Lewandowski?
Derek Rae: For years Bayern have relied on Robert Lewandowski. They’ve played with him as the main attacking station. I think what we’re going to see now is less emphasis on a number nine, and maybe more flexible attacking. We got a glimpse of that at the weekend during Bayern’s 5-3 DFL Super Cup win over RB Leipzig. We saw this with Bayern having some of the sweeping counterattacks.
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Sadio Mané is going to be front and center as part of that new style. They have a number of attackers, who you would say are dribblers, are speedy, are dynamic. In a funny kind of way, no longer having Lewandowski, might actually make Bayern better to watch. We are going to see Bayern tackle this in a different way. I don’t think there’ll be one goalscorer who has 25-30 goals. I think it will be a case of spreading the wealth.
PSW: Can Bayern’s attack succeed without Lewandowski attracting all the pressure?
Rae: We’re going to find out. What I do think is that this new dynamism of a different look and attack is going to benefit a lot of the players who found themselves frustrated about last season.
If you think about it, when you have Lewandowski and you have Thomas Muller it limits the number of other players you can work into the starting XI. Under Julian Nagelsmann last season, you had wide players like Kingsley Coman or Leroy Sane or Serge Gnabry – two of those three. Now, we’re going to see more of those players playing week-in and week-out. It’s good news for somebody like Jamal Musiala, who I think is the brightest young talent in German football and one of the brightest talents in world football. His difficulty was that he couldn’t get into the team regularly. This will leave more scope for a player like Musiala to play, not as a nine because that’s not what he is, but as one of the other supporting roles in attack.
PSW: Sadly, Sebastian Haller will miss at least two months after undergoing surgery for a tumor. What does that mean for Borussia Dortmund’s attack?
Rae: Aside from football, I’m sure everybody will wish him well. But it is a slight problem for Dortmund because they were depending on him to be the focal point of the attack. He’s not the same as Erling Haaland (who left for Manchester City) in terms of style, but he’s a handful and he’s somebody who does know the Bundesliga.
The player who I think the fans will become very familiar with, if they’re not already, is Karim Adeyemi. The young German international striker has played four times already for Germany. He’s not a pure center forward, but he’s somebody who loves to take on defenders and can score spectacular goals. He will fit the Dortmund style very quickly.
And also, as a defender, we should mention Nico Schlotterbeck who’s another German international. He’s somebody who will improve the Dortmund defense, which does need improving. And they already have Jude Bellingham, who, like Musiala, is one of the outstanding talents anywhere in the world. Edin Terzić is a new old coach because he was in charge two seasons ago. He’s a Dortmund guy to the core. He grew up supporting the club, and he’s passionate. I think he strikes a chord with some of these younger players.
Americans in the Bundesliga
PSW: What can we expect with Gio Reyna’s return, especially without Haaland to feed assists to?
Rae: Dortmund are very cautious about pushing him too hard early on. After the nightmare situations last season when he left the field in tears on a couple of separate occasions, there’s a determination with regard to everybody in Dortmund to not let it happen again – to not make him run before he can walk.
Now he did play at the weekend in a friendly match that Dortmund had against Antalyaspor of Turkey and had some good moments in that game. But I think your other question, about the change of approach, that’s something he’s going to have to get used to. Certainly, he had a good rapport with Haaland both on and off the pitch, but I think he can have a rapport with the other attacking players. When he does come back, I think Dortmund will be asking Reyna to take on even more responsibility because they do rate him very highly. They know that he’s extremely gifted, but there’s just that worry. I think that if they let him loose before it’s time, then the same thing could happen again.
PSW: Does the transfer of FC Augsburg leading goalscorer Michael Gregoritsch open up an opportunity for Ricardo Pepi?
Rae: Without Gregoritsch goals in the second half of the season, I don’t think Augsburg would still be a Bundesliga club. I think he was that important to them. For things in Pepi’s favor, they have a new coach in Enrico Maassen, who comes from the Dortmund setup where he was the coach of the second team. So he’s used to improving young players. He also favors a system that has two strikers. Much of the time, sometimes it’s three, but two wide players and one through the middle. We’ll see what he does with Augsburg. With Pepi, the early signs are he’s probably not going to be in the starting 11 straightaway, but he will get opportunities.
PSW: Julian Green was in the Bundesliga when he became a World Cup surprise at the end of 2014 qualifying. Do you see any players who could pop up come November?
Rae: I’m glad you mentioned Julian Green because, actually, I think he’s somebody who’s been forgotten about, and unfairly. The second division in Germany is a good standard. I would argue that in some respects, it’s a better test of a player than MLS. I’m not going to say that it’s better from top to bottom than MLS, but the standard within the league is more even. Now, Julian Green doesn’t really need to prove anything. He’s been around for a long time, but he can still play and he’ll be important for Greuther Fürth in the second division this season. I fear that maybe he’s never going to get looked at again for the U.S. But I’d hope he would because I don’t think he should be finished with consideration for the national team.
As far as some of the other players are concerned, Joe Scally with Borussia Mönchengladbach. I’ve spoken to him. His big dream is to be at the World Cup this year. He knows he’s got to be playing, and that is going to be the challenge at Gladbach. As things stand going into the season, he’s probably not the first choice on the right-hand side. He’s going to try to force his way in or at least get some minutes off the bench. He’s got a great attitude, a hunger for success. George Bello is still in Germany, but now in the second division playing for Arminia Bielefeld. I actually think that’s quite good for him. I think that playing regularly in that testing ground will be a benefit to his career and in the grand scheme of things.
And Jordan Pefok, who goes by Siebatcheu in Germany, was definitely signed to be a regular frontman for Union Berlin. The difficulty for him is that he’s having to fill pretty big shoes in terms of those of Taiwo Awoniyi, who really carried Union to a large extent in the attack. But Siebatcheu is playing for a good team, a well-organized club that has signed well again during the summer. He’ll be playing European football for them, too. So I think it’s just another level higher in his career, one that will benefit him and in turn will certainly benefit the USA.
PSW: Someone who has had a lot of the attention without being in regular USMNT lineups is John Brooks. He’s currently without a team. What do you see for him?
Rae: John Brooks still has many years ahead of him at a good level playing football. And I think there was some confusion last season about exactly how his season went at VfL Wolfsburg, as a final season there. It actually wasn’t a terrible season. It was a mixed bag. I would say he had a couple of pretty bad periods in it, but he sort of smoothed things out of the second half of the campaign. The only reason he’s not there anymore is that the two sides couldn’t come together on a deal. He was one of the higher earners there. Wolfsburg, like most German clubs, are constantly looking to replenish. If you have a 21-year-old who’s making a quarter of what the 29-year-old is making, then you’re going to put your hopes on the 21-year-old.
What we’re waiting to find out is who he is going to end up with. This comes down to money, and probably in realistic terms means taking a fairly sizable pay cut if he wants to continue in the Bundesliga. But I suspect from his side, he’s likely waiting to see which teams need what in central defense.
From my perspective, anyway, he’s somebody who I hope is playing regularly at a good level in European football in the months ahead because I feel that the USA needs his experience. I’ve heard all the talking about wanting to play a high line on the part of Gregg Berhalter. That’s great. I respect that. Every coach has got to do what he thinks is right, but I think there will be games at the World Cup where playing a high line will simply not be realistic. That would be asking for trouble to be doing that, especially in a knockout stage game. So that’s why I think you do need somebody like Brooks, who has been over the course before, who is a good guy. Everybody I’ve spoken to in German football said he’s a bit of a gentle giant, John Brooks. He’s not a disruptive influence at all. He’s a good, honest guy. It’s not my decision, but I would have thought there’s a strong case for John Brooks to be part of the squad.
Rae’s Bundesliga predictions
Top Four: Bayern Munich (winning an 11th consecutive league title), Bayern Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig
Relegation: FC Augsburg and VfL Bochum
Potential surprise: SC Freiburg
Top scorer: Patrik Schick, Bayer Leverkusen
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