Premier League Shocks Outweigh Bundesliga Predictability
There is a certain expectation with the Bundesliga. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist, Nobel Prize winner, or even someone who follows football to know that Bayern Munich have a swat-like habit of hoisting the league trophy at the end of the season. The bigwigs are almost always followed by Borussia Dortmund, the vibrant black-and-yellow-jerseyed graceful second place holders. This is common knowledge now, rather than a curious and coincidental observation.
This predictable notion has been flagged up by Leicester City defender, Christian Fuchs. The ex-Mainz and Schalke 04 star has recently claimed that the Bundesliga’s predictability makes it boring, losing the wow factor that the Premier League exudes due to its immense number of upsets and underdogs.
Fuchs has a point. Newcomers Bournemouth can boomerang up and down some weeks, whilst Manchester City can bring their game faces now and again, but be brought down a peg for weeks on the trot, whilst last season’s laughing stock, Leicester City, can shine and propel themselves to the most incredible of campaign heights.
This is why Fuchs is qualified to make such a judgement; he has been privy to how the magic boils and bursts into success after success in the Premier League. Bayern have maintained flawless status over the years and, no matter who is sold and who is brought into the fold, they steal the fixtures and dominate.
This is not a drag on Bayern Munich. They are an electric side. Goals are bagged, and it is so clinical and precise that one is left pondering how most other teams around the globe can barely tie their shoelaces by comparison. Philipp Lahm has been the omnipresent glue throughout a good portion of Bayern’s winning days, whilst Bastian Schweinsteiger, Arjen Robben and Franck Ribéry were incredible back in the Jupp Heynckes era.
This was really when things began to heat up for the Bavarians, but even now that Mario Gomez, Mario Mandžukić, Toni Kroos, Xherdan Shaqiri and so forthare dotted around at different clubs, and the effect that these gents once had seems to have leaked into what must be normal standards for Bayern now. That’s something clever. Even though the dazzling dynamism of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Marco Reus at Dortmund is sensational, it still isn’t enough to pip Bayern to the ultimate winner’s place, for five points separate them.
Christian Fuchs is right, really, to outline that the Premier League is more enthralling, because it is. Now, I’ve generally held the stance that the Bundesliga is the best division in the world, because it showcases how great football is attainable with hard work and proper respect for the game. Logically, it’s the culmination of preparation and deserved results.
However, there is a sense of one-sidedness. This might continue, it might not; Leicester City’s surprising elements and good fortune is less likely to remain constant, though, but they’ve been so captivating all season long. It’s their newfound ability to throw other teams off course that has boosted the Premier League lately, and has clearly underlined the division as way more interesting and edge-of-the-seat.
The German leagues are incredibly enjoyable to watch, but the Premier League is different, purely for its ability to display shocks and some delightfully unexpected victories. So, perhaps neither one is inherently ‘better’, but it is seasons like this that really pinpoints the Premier League’s exclusivity.
