HISTORISCH!
SEASON ONE REVIEW
TSG Hoffenheim secure their first major trophy under the guidance of Magnus Steinkelsson. Yes, that’s right folks, despite the clubs rapid ascent from the lower leagues to the Bundesliga, the 2-0 victory over Werder Bremen in the final at the Olympiastadion in Berlin was the first major trophy for the club.
If securinmg the DFB-Pokal wasn’t enough, Steinkelsson also managed to deliver a record breaking performance in the Bundesliga smashing both the 16/17 points haul (62) and the 17/18 highest league position (3rd).
Unfortunately, Hoffenheim didn’t have enough in the tank to go all the way and secure a Bundesliga title, RB Leipzig were crowned Champions of Germany for the first time in their club history.
Looking at the underlying data below, you’ll see that Bayern picked up the most expected points. however, they only manged to pick up 5.79 more points compared to this value, where as both RB Leizig and ourselves secured over 15 more.
Leipzig continued their defensive robustness into the second half of the campaign, closing with the lowest xG accumilated - they also had the joint lowest actual goals conceded (24) joint with ourselves.
Looking at individual attacking performances - specifically the most important metric in football (goals scored) you will see the following when looking at players with over 10 goals.
FC Bayern - 3 players with over 10 goals (Olise 11, and Jackson 10), along with the Bundesliga’s most prolific scorer in Harry Kane (22)
RB Leipzig - for players with over 10 Bundesliga goals (Romulo 15, Baumgartner 13, Ouedraogo 10, and Diomande 10)
TSG Hoffenheim - three players Kramaric (13), Toure (12), and Asllani (11).
Whilst each side aren’t clearly reliant on a single player to bang goals - the differentiator comes when looking at the average minutes per goal with both Romulo (118 mins) and Kane (135 mins) much more frequent than our best Kramaric (163 mins).
Oliver Baumann set a club record for keeping 18 clean sheets across the season in all competitions, He topped the Bundesliga charts with three more than Gregor Kobel of Borussia Dortmund (12). The 36 year-old closed the season with -5.37 expected goals prevented and a save percentage of 85.7% - the fourth best in the Bundesliga.
Michael Olise topped the assist charts (16) - Bazoumana Toure finishing in third place with 12 assists in the Bundesliga. His 17 across all competitions was enough for him to achieve a personal goal breaking the previous record.
Our second team secured the title in 3.Liga - although despite showing their dominance in the third-tier they can not be promoted. Leonard Krasniqi picked up the highest average rating of the squad (7.32) scoring nine goals and assisting 11 for his peers.
ALLEX, ALLEZ, ALLEZ
UEFA Champions League is on the horizon, which will see TSG Hoffenheim play against the elite sides on the continent - this is not a first for the club, they have been here on two other occasions. In 2017/18 they lost both games in the play-offs, and in 2018/19 they made the group stage, where they failed to win a single game (3D, 3L).
With £49m in the clubs bank balance and all summer signing fully aligning with the club culture, it is time to break the mould and bring in a special player - our marquee signing.
Marquee Player - an exceptionally popular, highly skilled, or famous athlete whose name draws spectators and boosts ticket sales, often serving as the primary "star" of a team.
Mohamed-Ali Cho joins us from OGC Nice for £13m (I couldn’t play FM without having a reference point to my favourite club in France).
The 22 year old had an exceptional campaign last season in which he broke the Nice record for goals scored in a season with 24 goals. He also won the UEFA Europa League Golen Boot (11), and was named in the Europa League Squad of the Season.
Cho will become the highest paid player in the squad on £80k per week - his estimated value has sky-rocketed on arrival in Germany, a value which not sits at an estimated £54-£75m.
I am really looking forward to seeing Cho take the field in a Hoffenheim shirt. He has been signed to play in a specific role, that of the Wide Forward. He is primarily a left-footed forward who can play as a central striker or on the wing. His strengths are his tremendous speed and agility in open spaces. He excels at running with the ball, possesses sharp dribbling skills, and is a daring player who initiates action.
Cho is a different profile to Lemperle, which should mean that we now have a significant threat to vacant space in behind the oppositions defensive line on both sides of the pitch - adding another dimension to our already potent attack.
As previously stated in my blog The Culture Club - I secured the signing of Mohammed Ali Zoma for £3.2m to ensure that Toure can stay fresh, given the increased schedule - time to explore a structured squad rotation policy.