Following the retirement of Jupp Heynckes, Bayern Munich appointed former Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola as their new head coach. The Spaniard started life in Munich in the easiest way potential, profitable the league by 19 factors forward of Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund.
Schalke and Bayer Leverkusen completed within the prime 4, with Leverkusen only one level forward of Wolfsburg within the race for the ultimate Champions League spot.
Hamburg escaped relegation due to an away targets victory within the play-off with Greuther Furth, whereas Nurnberg and Eintracht Braunschweig went down.
CHANGES
Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen had teaching adjustments earlier than the beginning of the season. Guardiola returned from a 12 months away from administration to take over on the Allianz Enviornment, and co-coach Sascha Lewandowski stepped down at Leverkusen leaving Sami Hyypia because the group’s sole coach.
Nonetheless, Leverkusen’s failure to correctly problem on the prime of the desk noticed Hyypia dismissed by April, with Lewandowski returning in a caretaker position. Hamburg’s flirtation with relegation meant Thorsten Fink was sacked after which substitute Bert van Marwijk additionally was ousted, leaving Mirko Slomka in cost for the final couple of months of the season.
Guardiola’s most necessary buy was midfielder Thiago Alcantara, who he had labored with at Barcelona, for €25 million, whereas Bayern spent much more on Dortmund attacking midfielder Mario Gotze, a €37m signing who supplied 10 assists in his first season in Munich.
Luis Gustavo was bought to Wolfsburg for €16m, whereas Emre Can joined Bayer Leverkusen for €5m, and Mario Gomez left for Serie A facet Fiorentina for €15.5m. Dortmund used a few of the cash from the Gotze sale to signal Armenian winger Henrikh Mkhitaryan for €27.5m from Shakhtar Donetsk and Saint-Etienne ahead Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for €13m.
Sokratis traded Werder Bremen for Dortmund, whereas Leonardo Bittencourt moved to Hannover. In addition to Can, Leverkusen signed Hamburg’s Korean winger Heung-Min Son (€10m) and Inter Milan full-back Giulio Donati (€3m). Andre Schurrle left for Chelsea for €22m and Dani Carvajal went again to Actual Madrid for €6.5m.
Schalke took a threat on controversial midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng from AC Milan for €10m, whereas simply over €3m was spent on 18-year-old Bochum midfielder Leon Goretzka. Borussia Monchengladbach modified their strikeforce, with Luuk de Jong (Newcastle) and Igor de Camargo (Hoffenheim) being changed by Raffael (€5m from Dynamo Kiev) and Max Kruse (€2.5m from Freiburg).
Wolfsburg made a giant signing in the course of the summer time, bringing Kevin De Bruyne again to the Bundesliga for €22m following an unsuccessful spell with Chelsea. Along with de Bruyne and Gustavo, additionally they signed Nurnberg centre-back Timm Klose and Freiburg winger Daniel Caligiuri.
SUMMARY
Bayern Munich simply sealed one other Bundesliga title, with new head coach Guardiola falling only one level wanting the earlier season’s document haul of 91 factors. Guardiola’s possession-based facet dominated the league, ending properly away from Borussia Dortmund, who had misplaced key participant Gotze to the Bavarians in the course of the summer time.
By Matchday 27, Bayern received the title undefeated – the earliest ever winners of the Bundesliga. With Guardiola additionally battling for the Champions League, he rotated his squad, shedding the following two video games towards Augsburg and Dortmund – their solely two defeats within the league in 2013-14.
Dortmund completed with the highest scorer and assists chief as Robert Lewandowski and Marco Reus had sensible seasons at Westfalenstadion. New signing Mkhitaryan was introduced in to exchange the artistic expertise of Gotze, and did properly in his first marketing campaign with 10 assists and 9 targets.
Schalke began the season slowly, with coach Keller beneath stress to ship, however regardless of fan outcry, the board saved religion of their boss, and completed third within the ultimate standings after a powerful second-half efficiency.
Leverkusen have been the other to Schalke, beginning properly after which falling again. After the winter break, they fell out of the highest 5, and coach Hyypia was dismissed following a defeat to Hamburg. Lewandowski returned as caretaker and completed in fourth due to a win over Wolfsburg on the final day of the season.
That defeat meant Wolfsburg missed out on the Champions League, however fifth place and Europa League qualification was their greatest end in 5 years. Tayfun Korkut saved Hannover from relegation after changing Mirko Slomka in December, however none of Nurnberg’s three head coaches may do sufficient to keep away from the drop.
Eintracht Braunschweig completed backside with 25 factors, whereas Hamburg had simply two extra factors, however stayed within the prime flight due to an away targets win over Greuther Furth.
PLAYER OF THE SEASON
MANAGER OF THE SEASON
PEP GUARDIOLA
Having received every little thing at Barcelona, Guardiola’s first season at Bayern Munich noticed him proceed his success as a head coach, profitable the Bundesliga at a canter after which lifting the DFB-Pokal.
TOP GOALSCORER
ROBERT LEWANDOWSKI – 20 GOALS
Lewandowski scored 20 or extra targets for the third season in succession, additionally reaching 100 targets for Borussia Dortmund in the course of the marketing campaign.
TEAM OF THE SEASON
NEUER; LAHM, BOATENG, NALDO, ALABA; ROBBEN, GEIS, FIRMINO, KROOS, REUS; LEWANDOWSKI
MOST EXPENSIVE TRANSFER
Mario Gotze
Dortmund to Bayern
€37m
KEY MOMENT OF THE SEASON
Mario Gotze was Borussia Dortmund’s brightest younger participant as Jurgen Klopp guided BVB to back-to-back titles, however scored the opening objective towards them as Bayern Munich received 3-0 on Matchday 13, leaving his outdated membership seven factors behind his new one within the title race.
