Hoffenheim's fairytale to European success [FM 12]

As a supporter of 1899 Hoffenheim, it’s clear to me that the first team I choose to manage would be my favorite team. I also want them to play similar to the real-life team, a 4-2-3-1 where the front four is so fluid that it sometimes becomes a 4-2-4. Hoffenheim don’t really use a real striker – Vedad Ibisevic was injured until October, Babel and Obasi are wingers and Mlapa isn’t a starter.

Philosophy

As a big fan of Barcelona, I slowly want to build my side to play beautiful possession football. This doesn’t just come in one season by downloading a tactic and plugging it in. It is a process that involves the infrastructure of my club and also my Youth players. Surely, I want my club to succeed and win everything there is to win, but I also want a side that is unique and will go down in history as a memorable one. Barcelona is showing that it is possible to have success and have an own philosophy at the same time.

I want as many home-grown players as possible or at least (young) German players. For that I need to improve our Youth Recruitment Network and our Junior Coaching and also make training schedules to make my players suitable of playing possession football. Lots of technique is needed, a player in midfield is needed to be able to pass the ball well, but he doesn’t need to be very strong. Let the technique be his biggest tool.

Targets

1. Win the Bundesliga in 3 seasons – it really depends on the first season. If we qualify for the Europa League, we should get a decent transfer budget to buy some good players. But if we don’t, it’s really going to get tough. Then we really have to overachieve in the second season.
   
2. Win the DFB-Cup in 3 seasons – if we can avoid facing tough opposition away from home like Bayern Munich or Borussia Dortmund, this should be possible.
   
3. Win the Champions League or the Europa League in 5 seasons – if we can’t even achieve target number one, this is one is pretty much doomed to fail. Otherwise possible (at least getting into the latter stages).
   

My team

All in all, it’s pretty solid. The only thing Hoffenheim lacks is a real defensive midfielder, someone who is able to sit in front of the defence to intercept opposition’s moves. Although RL-Hoffenheim plays with Rudy as a defensive midfielder, I don’t really think he is suited for a lone defensive midfield role. He lacks mobility and real strength for that. For me he is much more a central midfielder.

My first goalkeeper, Tom Starke, is already 30 years old and while Daniel Haas is a decent back-up, I need to find someone who is young and is able to play many years. But I don’t really need to immediately buy him, there’s time for that. Maybe someone will come through my Youth team.

The defence is solid as well. Andreas Beck, the captain, has only one year left on his contract so I instantly extended the contract. Edson Braafheid on the left side is pretty decent, as well as Ibertsberger, I should try to look for someone. Vorsah and Compper are very good Bundesliga centre-backs and also relatively young.

Midfield is not as good as last season when we had Carlos Eduardo and Luiz Gustavo, but this year we have Roberto Firmino and Gylfi Sigurdsson, our big hopes. We only lack a defensive midfielder, like stated earlier. There are lots of creative and technically gifted players, so it would be a waste to not play proactive.

Vedad Ibisevic, a Hoffenheim legend who scored 18 goals in 16 matches in the 08/09 season is injured until mid-October. New signings are Sven Schipplock and Knowledge Musona. To be honest, they are decent at best and next season I will try to sell them if they don’t prove me wrong in my judgement.

Due to our lack of a real striker, the best system to play is a 4-2-3-1 with a fluid front four that is comfortable in changing positions, so that the formation could become a 4-2-4 if needed (like stated earlier). I also want my team to play slow, patient football and to press when the opponent has the ball to regain it as fast as possible.

Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Compper, Braafheid – Rudy, Salihovic – Obasi, Firmino, Babel – Sigurdsson should be my favored line-up if I don’t get a good but cheap defensive midfielder. And if I do get one, he will most likely only be used in important games, so maybe I'll just stick with Daniel Williams.

P.S.: I really hope you can understand my English as I'm (obviously) from Germany.

Your English is fine! No problems! Better, in fact, than some English people on this forum.

Germany is a country that I would like to manage in again. I haven't been there since FM08 when I managed Kaiserslauten and Leverkusen during a journeyman career in which I moved from club to club in various countries. So maybe I am overdue a stop off there on FM12.

Nice tactical talk in your opening post. I enjoy a bit of tactical talk and sometimes there isn't enough on this forum for my personal liking! I'm really looking forward to seeing how you build up to your vision and find your tactical settings to meet with your objectives to play that certain style of football.

The formation you'll be basing your tactic on will be what the game calls 4-2-3-1 Deep, I assume?

Good luck.

@crouchaldinho: Thanks for the feedback, really appreciate it. The German league is a very exciting one, because there are 7-8 teams that could win the Bundesliga if they manage to maintain their form (like Borussia Dortmund last year). Of course, Bayern are favorites every year, but they "only" win the title every two years.

My intended formation isn't really 4-2-3-1 deep, because that would mean playing with two defensive midfielders. But as I have no decent player in that position I decided to play with two central midfielders, Rudy and Salihovic if they both are fit.

Pre-Season

I don’t really want to go through the pre-season with that much detail. As always, I just arranged six friendly matches against very small opposition to make sure that my team scores goals and boosts morale.

Transfers weren’t really made, I only sold Tobias Weis for 7M€ to Napoli as he doesn’t fit my system and is too unique of a player to fit in any position of my system, even as a substitute. He has no real stand-out qualities. One player was bought though, but will join the team in summer 2012 after his loan has expired. It’s centre-back Stefan Bell for 3M€ from Mainz 05. My staff though was drastically changed.

Friendlies

Hoffenheim 2 – 0 Hoffenheim II

Goals: Sigurdsson, Neupert (own goal)

That was a pretty bad game, but it was the first match and my players had pretty bad condition and stamina. Still, another game like that and I would flip out!

Hoffenheim 15 – 0 Neureut

Goals: Babel (4), Mlapa (4), Vorsah, Firmino, Sigurdsson, Zimmermann (own goal), Schipplock (2), Jaissle

What a reaction. This one was so much better, my offence really worked well and played fluid. Vorsah and Jaissle scored a header from a corner while the remaining goals came from my fluid front four.

Wolfen 0 – 4 Hoffenheim

Goals: Musona (3), Jaissle

I played the last game with the real Hoffenheim starting XI, so this time I fielded some players I consider to be substitutes. Jaissle scored again after a corner and Musona grabbed a hattrick. I’m happy with that.

Hoffenheim 12 – 0 Bentwisch

Goals: Schipplock (2), Jaissle (2), Braun (own goal), Babel (5), Sigurdsson, Mlapa

Another convincing victory for my team. Again Jaissle scored after a corner. Seems like the corner routine works (at least against small opponents). My team also forced the opposition to three own goals in four matches. Very Manchester United-esque, when it was own goals, not Owen goals.

Bosna/Hercegovina Munich 1 – 9 Hoffenheim

Goals: Babel (4), Firmino (5)

An opponent with a funny team name, founded in 1993. Was a pretty easy game where Babel and Firmino continued their impressive form. Unfortunately we conceded a goal from a superb free kick. There was nothing our goalie could do.

Eislingen 0 – 7 Hoffenheim

Goals: Mlapa, Vestergaard, Sigurdsson (3), Beck, Babel

49 goals scored in 6 matches, very impressive. Sigurdsson was man of the match, finally he scored some. It’s very important that he is able to continue his form from last season where he was Hoffenheim’s most important player without a doubt and our best scorer as well. Beck scored an absolute fluke goal when his cross from the right went on goal.

Hoffenheim 6 – 0 Würges

Goals: Braafheid, Jaissle (2), Firmino (2), Kaul (own goal).

I decided to rest some players that have not great stamina levels like Obasi. Still my team went on to amaze me by scoring 6 great goals. One of them was an own goal again.

I’m very pleased with the pre-season. We scored lots of goals and dominated the opposition. The only thing that could have been better though is our conversion rate. We wasted too many good chances and sometimes we decided to shoot rather than to pass. Still, this could be a good season.

DFB-Cup round 1 – Oberneuland

Unfortunately, Salihovic and Vorsah were injured in pre-season and even though they are already back, they aren’t fit enough to play for 90 minutes. Therefore I decided to play Jaissle (who convinced me in pre-season anyways) and Williams as a defensive midfielder, although the latter is decent at best. As a result, my 4-2-3-1 is now an asymmetrical one with 1 holding midfielder and 1 central midfielder.

"It’s your first official match as Hoffenheim manager. Are you nervous?"

"I’m not really nervous, but excited. This is a match that could really be over after a few mintues, when we score the opener or can be really, really tough the longer the match goes. But I think I’m fully prepared to get the victory and to be honest I would rather see my team achieve a comfortable but boring win, rather than a thriller in which my team progresses after a penalty shoot-out. My team should enjoy themselves, the result will come, I’m sure of that."

And it came. My team continued to score goals for fun. After 18 minutes we were already 3-0 up, so the rest was really just like a training match, therefore we "only" scored two more.

Result: Oberneuland 0 – 5 Hoffenheim

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Jaissle, Compper, Braafheid – Williams, Rudy – Sigurdsson, Firmino, Babel - Obasi

Goals: Sigurdsson, Babel (4)

Completely dominating the opponent. Only the amout of possession is a bit disappointing, but it's only the first match of the season and the team needs time to gel in order to have the needed cohesion between the players. Then we should be able to play free-flowing football.

Hertha BSC Berlin is our opponent in the second round, meaning we have a Bundesliga team vs Bundesliga team match. Fortunately we can play the match in front of our home crowd, so chances are high that we will progress to the next round.

Next up are the first Bundesliga matches.

Have to agree with you my_heroine, a defensive midfielder is the priority signing. Otherwise, they have a solid squad. Definitely potential there.

This is a great read and two really good posts! Your English is really good, perfect if compared to my German

Good Luck

@HotChocolate: Thanks, will try to continue making good posts. Hopefully you will continue to follow my story too

Matchday 1 – Hannover 96

It’s my first ever Bundesliga match and it’s against a team that ranked four last season. So, it was a huge task for my team, but nevertheless I decided to play attacking football even though it is known that Hannover is very dangerous on the counter attack.

Compared to last week’s 5-0 cup victory I made just one change. Peniel Mlapa started instead of Chinedu Obasi, because his cup match didn’t really please me, while Mlapa made instant impact as a substitute.

Result: Hannover 1 – 4 Hoffenheim

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Jaissle, Compper, Braafheid – Williams, Rudy – Mlapa, Firmino, Babel - Sigurdsson

Goals: Mlapa, Babel, Obasi, Firmino

Shots: 8 – 18

On Target: 4 – 10

Off Target: 4 – 6

Blocked Shots: 0 – 2

Woodwork: 0 – 1

Clear Cut Chances: 1 – 3

Half Chances: 2 – 12

Other Chances: 4 – 4

Long Shots: 3 – 2

Possession: 50% – 50%

What a start for our team! I think I got this one spot on. Mlapa scored just after 5 minutes and Obasi, who came on in minute 65, scored four minutes after. All in all, we managed to play our attacking game, but were a bit wasteful in converting our scoring chances. It could really have been more than four, but it’s a brilliant start and hopefully our team can continue the form.

After the match, I was asked whether they were any worries for me, when they pulled it back to 1-2. My answer to that was:

"No, I was always confident that my team would go on to win the match. It is a known fact that Hannover isn’t really able to play proactive football. They never take the initiative. It’s always up to the opponents to play the game and we were very solid in the defence. The only hope they had was their goal by a 30m long shot. I think it’s a shame when a team plays in front of their home crowd and just kicks the ball away. The fans don’t deserve to spend their hard-earned money to see destructive football from the team they support. You can defend and at least try to win the match but they didn’t. Their goal was a one-hit-wonder, a big fluke and in a fair world, there was no way they would score another one. And after we scored the third, it was really over. And to be honest, we should have scored even more, we were that much better."

Matchday 2 – Borussia Dortmund

For this match, Isaac Vorsah returns to the starting line-up and replaces Matthias Jaissle. And even though Gylfi Sigurdsson scored for his international side on Wednesday, I decided to field Obasi as the lone forward. Sigurdsson is a more direct goalscoring threat due to his good finishing and long shots stats, but Obasi is very fast and could be exploiting Dortmund’s weakness to players with pace. I altered my midfield a bit as well. Seeing that Dortmund play a 4-2-3-1 with two central midfielders, I decided to play an asymmetrical 4-3-3 with Firmino as right-sided central midfielder playing a more offensive part than his left-sided partner Rudy.

Result: Hoffenheim 2 – 1 Dortmund

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Compper, Braafheid – Williams – Rudy – Mlapa, Firmino, Babel - Obasi

Goals: Mlapa, Babel

Shots: 16 – 10

On Target: 6 – 5

Off Target: 5 – 3

Blocked Shots: 5 – 2

Woodwork: 0 – 0

Clear Cut Chances: 3 – 1

Half Chances: 8 – 5

Other Chances: 6 – 4

Long Shots: 4 – 3

Possession: 51% – 49%

It was once again a very good performance from my team. Beating the League champions twice in a row (Hoffenheim won 1-0 in the previous season) is quite an accomplishment. We played the football Dortmund was known for – pressing intensively, play attacking football and take the game to the opponent’s half.

This is how we dealt with Dortmund’s midfield: First of all we had Obasi dropping deeper to create a numerical advantage for our team. Then we tried to match their midfield by playing Williams as lone defensive midfielder to watch Kagawa, which he did very well, even though the Japanese scored a goal. Rudy played as left-sided central midfielder. He was instructed to play a more deepish role, helping Williams out if needed, because I know that Sven Bender isn’t really someone who is creative and could be dangerous when having the ball. Instead Gündogan is the one who should be creative and dangerous when in possession for Dortmund. But for him I had Firmino closing him down and it worked so well that Gündogan was subbed after 56 minutes. When we were in possession, Firmino had to find space between the lines. I instructed him to be more right-sided because Gündogan is not disciplined enough (unlike Bender) to follow and watch Firmino. It was also the latter who assisted Mlapa’s opener.

Mlapa was very impressive. Not only did he score an important goal, he also tracked back and helped Beck in defence to make it 2v1 against Götze, who still managed to have an assist, but otherwise had a quiet game.

"In my opinion this was another great match from our team. We dominated Dortmund from the first minute until the last. The moment Kevin Großkreutz got a red card after a cynical foul against Ryan Babel, there was no way Dortmund could get back into the match, especially after Ryan Babel converted the penalty. Still, unlike Hannover they at least tried to score a goal and maybe get back. They were vulnerable on the back after that but we couldn’t take advantage, but nevertheless I’m very proud of my team to beat the League champions in such a convincing way."

I will be following this very closely indeed. Ive done the Hoffe thread http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/279839-FM12-TSG-1899-Hoffenheim-Hopp-Onboard-The-Hoffe for the last 2 FM's and have gained a soft spot in my heart for them now . Good luck mate

@SRL88: Thanks! You seemed to have a lot of success and a pretty good first season. Hopefully I'll have a season as good as yours as well.

Matchday 3-7 – Augsburg, Bremen, Mainz, Wolfsburg, Köln

Result: Augsburg 0 – 2 Hoffenheim

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Compper, Braafheid – Williams, Rudy – Mlapa, Firmino, Babel – Sigurdsson

Goals: Sigurdsson (2)

This was a pretty easy victory against an opponent that is considered to be dead-last at the end of the season. They never really caused us trouble. This game proved me that Sigurdsson as a lone forward works.

Result: Hoffenheim 2 – 0 Bremen

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Compper, Braafheid – Williams, Rudy – Mlapa, Firmino, Babel – Sigurdsson

Goals: Firmino (2)

Result: Mainz 1 – 4 Hoffenheim

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Jaissle, Compper, Johnson – Williams, Rudy – Sigurdsson, Firmino, Babel – Mlapa

Goals: Babel (2), Firmino, Sigurdsson

We won 4-1, but unfortunately I had three injuries after that match. Firmino, Babel and Compper were injured during the match and with Ibisevic, Vorsah, Braafheid, Ibertsberger and Obasi injured as well, it was very difficult to even name a starting line-up for the upcoming match against Wolfsburg. As a result, I had only 4 substitutes left.

Result: Hoffenheim 2 – 1 Wolfsburg

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Jaissle, Vestergaard, Johnson – Rudy, Williams, Salihovic – Mlapa, Sigurdsson, Musona

Goals: Sigurdsson, Musona

Fortunately, Wolfsburg were dead last with no victories after 5 matches, so their morale was pretty poor and we were able to get the victory despite the injuries. We are also lucky that most of the aforementioned injuries were just short-term injuries, meaning that most of the players would be available against Köln, but of course not 100% fit.

Result: Köln 0 – 0 Hoffenheim

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Jaissle, Braafheid – Williams, Rudy – Musona, Firmino, Babel – Sigurdsson

As mentioned, some of my players weren’t nowhere near fit, but had to play. It was the first game we were dominated by opposition and to be fair, escaping with a draw was very fortunate.

Matchday 8 – Bayern Munich

A match against Bayern is always eagerly anticipated – is the pressure getting to you and the players at all?

“Pressure? No, I don’t feel that much pressure. It’s like every other game – we want to win and we will go to the match very motivated and try to get the victory no matter what. Obviously the fans are going to play a big part in this one too.”

Result: Hoffenheim 1 – 1 Bayern Munich

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Jaissle, Braafheid – Williams, Rudy – Mlapa, Firmino, Babel – Sigurdsson

Goal: Sigurdsson

How do you rate the performance of your team?

"I’m very delighted with the point, against very tough opposition and rightfully leader of the league. We played the best football we could, they played their best, it was an entertaining game that could have ended 3 – 3, so I think everyone is happy. It’s always a great pleasure to watch a game when both teams try to play football and score goals and today that was exactly the case. I will go to my players and tell them that when they continue their impressing form, everything is possible. That started with today, with us, being the only team that didn’t lose against Munich in this season."

League Table

Short review

Right now we are the only team that caused trouble for Bayern Munich and rightfully so we are still number two, despite the last two draws. We are playing good football, having lots of good chances and scoring good goals as well. The thing that worries me a bit is that we can’t seem to control possession. Sometimes we have good amounts (55-60%), but sometimes we only had 40-45%. Still, I don’t want to make big changes as my formation in general seem to work quite well and obviously there is no reason to change a formation that brings you win after win.

Playing with Gylfi Sigurdsson as a false nine seemed to work quite well. He already scored 5 goals after 8 matches and as a result is our top scorer. But our front four in general works very well, Babel has 4 in 7, Firmino as well. Mlapa only has 2 but is so important due to his high work rate. He works much harder than his fellow forward members and makes sure we aren’t overrun on the left side.

Very important for the team is also Daniel Williams - someone I described as decent at best at the beginning of the season but since then started every game of the season so far and provided defensive quality in midfield. He even made Salihovic, a set-piece genius and a first teamer in RL-Hoffenheim a benchwarmer. To be honest though, I don't think he will be playing a big role next season, because then I should really have a good defensive midfielder.

Next update will come when the first half of the season is over.

@SRL88: Thanks! You seemed to have a lot of success and a pretty good first season. Hopefully I'll have a season as good as yours as well.

Cheers mate

Im top of the league in February 2014 so far after 19 games. 2pts ahead of Bayern.

Second season I came 3rd in the league and got to the Semi-Finals of the Champions League before going out to AC Milan. Pleased considering it was the first year at the level. Beat Barcelona 4-0 in the Group Stage this year , finished 2nd to them in it and Im playing Man Utd in the knockout phase.

Good luck with the rest of the season. Love the updates by the way

@SRL88: Very impressive Reaching the semis in the second year (first ever in the CL) is quite an accomplishment.

Matchday 9 & 10

Result: VfB Stuttgart 1 – 5 Hoffenheim

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Jaissle, Braafheid – Williams, Rudy – Mlapa, Firmino, Babel - Sigurdsson

Goals: Mlapa, Sigurdsson, Bicakcic (own goal), Babel (2)

Result: Hoffenheim 4 – 0 Gladbach

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Jaissle, Johnson – Williams, Rudy – Mlapa, Sigurdsson, Babel – Obasi

Goals: Jantschke (own goal), Babel, Sigurdsson, Vorsah

Two very strong games. Spectacular football and compact in defence. But even though we won 8 and drawn 2 – which should be enough to be number one – we are behind Bayern Munich, who won 9 and drawn 1 (against us).

DFB-Cup Round Two

Result: Hoffenheim 4 – 0 Hertha BSC

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Compper, Johnson – Williams, Salihovic – Mlapa, Sigurdsson, Babel – Ibisevic

Goals: Mlapa, Vorsah (3)

ROFL @ the three Vorsah goals. My corner routine really worked well, but three goals from corners is just unrealistic. Nonetheless, good performance and we were lucky in the draw as we got another home game – against Hannover.

Matchday 11

Result: Schalke 2 – 4 Hoffenheim

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Jaissle, Johnson – Williams, Rudy – Mlapa, Sigurdsson, Babel – Obasi

Goals: Sigurdsson, Babel (2), Fährmann (own goal)

In that match we were 3-0 up but in the 60th minute I made my third substitute and two minutes after that a player was injured, forcing us to play with ten men, conceding two in the process.

"At some point it might get pretty boring but at the moment it’s always that we win, win and win again. Today was a very special performance, in a tough away encounter. I told my players that Schalke are so desperate for a win that they would use every method to obtain a victory. That really proved to be true – from the first minute Schalke started playing unfair, kicking and injuring our players. The referee didn’t care about that. But despite their unfair tactics, despite a biased referee, we were on top of our game and deserved to lead by 3 – 0. I made my third substitution in the 60th minute – thee two substitutes before were because of injuries – Schalke were even more unfair afterwards. I was not surprised when Ibisevic, who came on in minute 20 for the injured Mlapa, had to leave the field because of injury. I was not surprised when the referee did nothing against it. We were down to ten men and didn’t even see one card in the game. Still, we were so strong that even though we conceded two afterwards, we managed to score our fourth goal of the day and decide the game. It was perfectly clear to me that nobody wanted us to win, the referee didn’t either, but at the end of the day we were the ones that came out victorious. I won, but I am disappointed with the treatment. Our team should be protected and respected."

Matchday 12-17

Result: Hoffenheim 2 – 0 Kaiserslautern

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Jaissle, Compper, Johnson – Williams, Rudy – Obasi, Sigurdsson, Babel – Musona

Goals: Compper, Schipplock

Kaiserslautern were on place 16 before the match, but still it was a pretty tough one. Nearly every week I have someone injured, whether as a result of training (well that happens very rare though) or match injuries. It’s really hard to recall two consecutive matches with the same starting line-up. I rotate sometimes as well, but at some point there was a need to have the same team from the week prior start again.

Result: Hamburg 1 – 4 Hoffenheim

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Jaissle, Johnson – Williams, Rudy – Obasi, Firmino, Babel – Sigurdsson

Goals: Babel (2), Sigurdsson, Rudy

This one was a very big surprise and to be honest we were not three goals better. We were very composed in front of goal, converting every good chance we had but only a 2-1 victory would be fair.

Result: Hoffenheim 3 – 0 Freiburg

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Compper, Johnson – Williams, Salihovic – Mlapa, Firmino, Babel – Sigurdsson

Goals: Babel, Sigurdsson (2)

Result: Leverkusen 2 – 5 Hoffenheim

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Compper, Johnson – Williams, Rudy – Mlapa, Sigurdsson, Babel – Obasi

Goals: Sigurdsson (2), Vorsah (2), Firmino

Another big scoreline. Our attacking players like scoring for fun and more often than not my substitutes impress me by scoring an important goal that decides the game, like Firmino did. Vorsah scored two headers from corner. Perfect!

Result: Nürnberg 1 – 2 Hoffenheim

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Compper, Johnson – Williams, Rudy – Mlapa, Firmino, Babel – Sigurdsson

Goals: Babel, Wollscheid (own goal)

Pretty luck this one. It was probably the first game where we fielded pretty much our starting eleven and still got dominated. It’s not surprising that Nürnberg are the third-best home team in the League, after us and Bayern and they really showed why. They were very unfortunate to get no points at all.

Result: Hoffenheim 4 – 1 Hertha BSC

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Compper, Johnson – Williams, Rudy – Mlapa, Firmino, Babel – Sigurdsson

Goals: Mlapa, Firmino, Compper, Rukavytsya (own goal)

We are so good that we are forcing our opponent's to own goals. But at least this one was not deciding.

League Table

Incredible first half, I must say. We average 2,9 goals per game (one more and we had 3,0 per game) and won 15 matches and drawn just 2. Under normal circumstances it would be enough to have about 30-35 points to be on top after the first half, but in this season that would only be third place. Notice how big the gap between Bayern (place two) and Stuttgart (place three) is. It’s a bit early but I guess that we are very likely to reach the Champions League after just one season.

Few stats

Average rating

1. Ryan Babel (Hoffenheim) – 8,04

2. Gylfi Sigurdsson (Hoffenheim) – 7,86

2. Isaac Vorsah (Hoffenheim) – 7.86

4. Thomas Müller (Bayern) – 7.71

5. Arjen Robben (Bayern) – 7.70

Goals

1. Ryan Babel (Hoffenheim) - 13

1. Gylfi Sigurdsson (Hoffenheim) – 13

1. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Schalke) – 13

4. Didier Ya Konan (Hannover) – 9

4. Shinji Okazaki (Stuttgart) – 9

Assists

1. Christian Eriksen (Wolfsburg) - 9

2. Tamas Hajnal (Stuttgart) – 8

2. Thomas Müller (Bayern) – 8

2. Sebastian Rudy (Hoffenheim) – 8

5. Gylfi Sigurdsson (Hoffenheim) – 7

Man of the Match

1. Ryan Babel (Hoffenheim) - 5

2. Arjen Robben (Bayern) – 4

2. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (schalke) – 4

2. Gylfi Sigurdsson (Hoffenheim) – 4

5. Marco Reus (Gladbach) – 3

Short review

Perfect first half of the season. If I could I would just stop the season right now, with us being the champions, Bayern second, etc. It was just incredible, our team played beautiful attacking football and demolished teams in the process (50 goals in 17 games, even better than RL-Hoffenheim with 42 goals in 17 games).

This is our team of the first half. Quite a few surprises there. Up front I rather played Gylfi Sigurdsson than Vedad Ibisevic or Chinedu Obasi, who really couldn’t impress me and Daniel Williams proved to be vital for my team. He was one of the few players who started every single Bundesliga match for me, that’s a very impressive accomplishment. Peniel Mlapa made the right-wing position his, despite Obasi also able to play there. He might not be that much of a goalscoring threat and while 4 goals in 14 matches are okay, it is his defensive contribution that makes him so important. He indeed is a team player, his team work (16) and work rate (14) stats show that. Roberto Firmino – 19 years old – could also impress. He played 12 matches and scored 6 goals and assisted 6.

To take the team our next level I bought two central defenders, Stefan Bell (20) from Mainz 05 and Stefan Reinartz (22) from Bayer Leverkusen who was unhappy. This would mean that next season I would have five top defenders, so one has to go. I thought I would have no problems finding one, but I could have never imagined that Jaissle and Compper would play such a good first half for us, that it’s going to be really difficult.

I also still didn’t find a good defensive midfielder. But now I’m not that much in a hurry. Williams is playing good, so when I’m buying one, he should be really really good. Sven Bender is my favourite, but he doesn’t want to join my club. (Let me remind you that I’m trying to have as many German players as possible)

Nice first half to the season mate . Herbstmeister

Great read and some brilliant results, lets hope you can stay top come the end of the season

Seriously racing there.

DFB Cup Round of 16

Result: Hoffenheim 3 – 0 Hannover

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Compper, Johnson – Williams, Rudy – Mlapa, Firmino, Babel – Sigurdsson

Goals: Babel (2), Firmino

Matchday 18 - 20

Result: Hoffenheim 2 – 0 Hannover

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Reinartz, Compper, Johnson – Williams, Rudy – Mlapa, Firmino, Babel – Sigurdsson

Goals: Sigurdsson, Reinartz

Result: Dortmund 3 – 1 Hoffenheim

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Reinartz, Compper, Johnson – Williams, Rudy – Mlapa, Sigurdsson, Babel – Ibisevic

Goal: Sigurdsson

Our first loss this season and also my first loss as Hoffenheim manager. But it’s not hard to admit that Dortmund deserved to win that match, they were exceptional while we were very poor. Sigurdsson’s direct free kick gave us hope but it wasn’t enough. Bayern lost their match and have drawn before, so we were 4 points clear.

Result: Hoffenheim 1 – 0 Augsburg

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Reinartz, Johnson – Williams, Rudy – Mlapa, Sigurdsson, Babel – Ibisevic

Goal: Sigurdsson

Pretty unconvincing victory, but at least we got the three points.

DFB Cup Quarterfinals

Result: Augsburg 0 – 4 Hoffenheim

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Reinartz, Braafheid – Williams, Rudy – Mlapa, Sigurdsson, Babel – Musona

Goals: Mlapa, Babel, Musona (2)

That was so much better. Firmino got injured, so I had to shift Sigurdsson to Attacking Midfield and started with Knowledge Musona, who scored twice. Good feeling when you give someone the chance and he impresses you.

Matchday 21 - 24

Result: Bremen 0 – 3 Hoffenheim

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Reinartz, Braafheid – Williams, Rudy – Mlapa, Sigurdsson, Babel – Musona

Goals: Mlapa, Sigurdsson (2)

3-0 seems to be a bit too high; we were very good, but not that much better. Of course I’m happy though. Seems that we started scoring for fun again.

Result: Hoffenheim 3 – 0 Mainz

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Compper, Braafheid – Williams, Rudy – Musona, Sigurdsson, Babel – Ibisevic

Goals: Rudy, Sigurdsson (2)

Result: Wolfsburg 2 – 1 Hoffenheim

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Reinartz, Braafheid – Williams, Rudy – Sigurdsson, Firmino, Babel – Musona

Goal: Vorsah

Argh, another loss. But once again that was deserved, we couldn’t play our usual game and our pressing didn’t work well. Fortunately, Bayern lost as well (they seem to lose when I lose, lol) so the gap remains four points. No problem if we go 4 points clear to Munich in two weeks.

Result: Hoffenheim 0 – 1 Köln

Line-up: Starke – Beck, Vorsah, Reinartz, Braafheid – Williams, Rudy – Sigurdsson, Firmino, Babel – Ibisevic

Goal: -

No, Bayern didn’t lose this time. Now my 100% home record has gone and we didn’t deserve to lose that match. It was a 0 – 0, there were few chances (we had 12 shots, Köln had 8) and the goal that made the difference was an own goal. The next match is Bayern Munich and we really can’t afford to lose that. Losing never was problem when we were 4 points clear and would be on top no matter the result.

Matchday 25

Do you feel the pressure of losing the place on top if your team loses today?

"As I always say, I don’t feel pressure. Why should I? It’s not us who desperately need a result today, it’s them. If you come and say that the result will be 0 – 0, I will gladly take it, because that would mean that we remain on top. In our stadium we showed them that we are certainly no pushovers and cause them problems if they underestimate us, today will be the same. The match will be very good and certainly memorable."

Result: Bayern Munich 0 – 1 Hoffenheim

Line-up: Starke – Ibertsberger, Vorsah, Reinartz, Braafheid – Williams, Rudy – Sigurdsson, Firmino, Johnson – Babel

Goal: Sigurdsson

I can’t believe we won! And obviously it wasn’t really deserved, but I will gladly take it. My plan was to play ultra-defensive to at least secure a 0 – 0, which seemed to be the likely result until Sigurdsson scored. Then I brought on a third central defender to secure the the victory. We were never in trouble and as a result Bayern had 0 clear cut chances and 15 of their 22 shots came from distance.

Of course the tactic was something I planned long ago, so that might be a reason why it worked so well. I created it in the winter break and used it for some Bundesliga matches when we were comfortably on top, like Bremen (3-0), Augsburg (4-0) or Hannover (2-0). As you can see we never conceded and never looked in trouble of conceding.

The plan was to give the opponent the ball. They can do everything they want, but if they aren’t able to score, it won’t be useful to them at all. We defended very deep and narrow, forcing them to many long shots. I used Fabian Johnson as left midfielder to stop Rafinha’s forward runs as someone like Babel isn’t disciplined enough to do defensive duty.

As you can see, we wanted to give the ball away, just look at all the unsuccessful passes. Our successful passes were only in our own half, we didn’t come forward but we didn’t really want to. And a large amount of Bayern’s passes were in our half, but there are only few that were or came in our box. Another indicator that they couldn’t find a way through our defence.

Today your team won the match, but many fans are shocked about your ultra-defensive strategy. How do you justify that?

"We play beautiful attacking football in 24 Bundesliga matches and I never heard praise about my positive strategy. Today I played different and now I'm the most-hated manager in Germany. But you need to be completely stupid or blind to think that we would have chances playing our usual game. Maybe we would have won the match, but the chances of us losing would be much higher. Bayern are the best home team in the Bundesliga and they scored even more than us at home and conceded less goals. I came here to just not lose the match. It didn't matter to me - win or draw. The important thing is that we didn't lose, the win is something I gladly take and think my team deserved. We came so close in beating them at home, this time we did it."

Short review

The match against Bayern was obviously great and if I were to manage in real-life, this would undoubtedly be the “greatest moment of my career”. I would even do a Jose Mourinho against Barcelona celebration, I was so happy about the victory.

But unfortunately we already lost three games in eight matches. We could be more than just four points clear, so it’s a pity. At least we got the four-point-gap back and it’s up to us to win the League and the Cup.

Talk about snatching it...

This really is a great read! Good win against Bayern just a shame some of the other results weren't as good.