STAR FOOTBALL ANTE-POST PREVIEW: Bundesliga

ALL KICKING OFF – BUNDESLIGA: As part of our build up to the new football season we preview the Bundesliga with DAVID STEWART including a recommended starsports.bet selection. Bayer Leverkusen halted Bayern’s domination last season – any chance lightning can strike twice ?

⭐ STAR MARKET ON BUNDESLIGA ⭐
⚽ ALL KICKING OFF – PREVIEWS ⚽

It wasn’t a shock of Leicester City proportions but a tremor big enough to trouble the Richter Scale was felt in German football with Bayer Leverkusen’s 25/1 title win last season.

In doing so they prevented Bayern Munich from clinching a 12th successive title and have definitely breathed fresh life in what was becoming a very mundane top flight of European football.

The biggest surprise though was the manner of their victory – the pacesetters who never came back to the field and ended up being the first Bundesliga team to end a season unbeaten with an astonishing 28 wins and six draws. In other words, there was no fluke whatsoever about their success.

They ended the season 17 points clear of Stuttgart with Bayern only in third – a further point behind.

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The starsports.bet market is firmly saying lightning can’t strike twice with Bayern Munich at ? and Bayer Leverkusen at ? which actually looks quite insulting after last season’s heroics.

I certainly wouldn’t want to be taking the short odds about Bayern pre-season. As the saying goes, surely you can find a better 4/9 chance than a side who have plenty of questions to answer after season?

The two heavyweights won’t meet until 28th September when the Allianz Arena (pictured below) will host Leverkusen.

Whilst the new season doesn’t start proper until 23 August – Leverkusen will have a competitive fixture the week before in the DFB Super Cup (think Community Shield) against DFB-Pokal winners VfB Stuttgart ? .

One reason to think Leverkusen can do well again is consistency. Their coach Xabi Alonso had a flood of offers for even bigger clubs but has stayed loyal.

More controversial was Bayern’s appointment of Vincent Kompany to replace Thomas Tuchel in May.

There’s little doubting Kompany lacks experience at this level. He got off to the dream start with Burnley who smashed the 100 point mark when winning promotion to the Premier League last season but the team (and Kompany) found it a whole new ball game in the top flight and were quickly relegated with a dismal tally of 24 points.

Looking back it’s pretty hard to fathom after such a season why Kompany was deemed to be the best man for the Bayern job and you can see why a large number of their fans thought similar.

Bayern haven’t been shy when opening their wallet though. Last month Michael Olise completed his £50.8 million move from Crystal Palace and Fulham have parted with Joao Palhinha who joins Bayern in a Craven Cottage club record signing £47 million.

Going in the other direction Bayern could be losing right-back Noussair Mazraoui who is in advance talks to join Man U.

The presumption that it’s two horse race is being disrespectful to Stuttgart who outperformed their odds in second last last season.

They have been knocking goals in for fun pre-season 8,5,5 (with bizarrely a 0-0 against Luzern in the middle).

However the loss of Serhou Guirassy (pictured below) to Dortmund ? is a hammer blow. Guirassy scored a record 25 goals last season including TEN in the first five matches and will almost be irreplaceable.