Bundesliga preview

Ahead of the new season, skysports.com takes a look at the 18 top-flight clubs in Germany.

Ahead of the new season, skysports.com's Bundesliga correspondent, Thomas Zocher, looks at the 18 top-flight clubs in Germany

The 2010/11 season was a campaign to remember in Germany. A young and exciting Borussia Dortmund squad won the title, relegation went to the final day of the season, and the managerial roundabout turned at a bizarre pace. Dortmund kick-off the new term on Friday night when Jurgen Klopp's defending champions host Hamburg. And ahead of what promises to be another dramatic and eventful nine months, skysports.com's German correspondent, Thomas Zocher, considers the prospects of all 18 clubs.

Augsburg

Manager: Jos Luhukay Stadium: Impuls Arena Star man: Simon Jentzsch, goalkeeper League position in 2010/11: 2. Bundesliga runners-up Overview: It is going to be the first time Augsburg have featured in the Bundesliga. The progress is largely down to the work of Dutch manager Jos Luhukay and general manager Andreas Rettig. As he did at his former clubs in Germany, Luhukay has worked with a large amount of players from the Dutch Eredivisie. Luhukay, known for his soft and conceptual approach, will start his third season in charge of the club with the knowledge that staying in the top flight would be an even bigger success than leading the club to promotion.

Bayer Leverkusen

Manager: Robin Dutt Stadium: BayArena Star man: Michael Ballack, midfielder League position in 2010/11: Runners-up Overview: Bayer Leverkusen are one of many Bundesliga clubs with a new manager. The departure of Jupp Heynckes, who returned to title rivals Bayern Munich, has been compensated with the arrival of former Freiburg boss Robin Dutt. Leverkusen's thinking behind the appointment of Dutt seems obvious. Dutt has had ongoing success at low-budget outfits. If he can reproduce this success, Leverkusen could rid themselves of the nickname of 'Neverkusen', which is based on their failure to win a Bundesliga title. There have been some squad changes. Star midfielder Arturo Vidal has joined Juventus and former Liverpool defender Sami Hyppia has retired. The biggest signing has been Andre Schurrle from Mainz. Leverkusen paid almost £7.5million for the Germany international, who has been a revelation in the past two years.

Bayern Munich

Manager: Jupp Heynckes Stadium: Allianz Arena Star man: Mario Gomez, striker League position in 2010/11: Third Overview: It is a new manager and a handful of new signings at record Bundesliga title-winners Bayern Munich. But the return of boss Jupp Heynckes from contenders Leverkusen brings back memories. Heynckes starts his third spell as manager of the club after a brief stint in 2009 and an earlier tenure in 1987. The club's most controversial signature of the summer, due to his lifelong affiliation with Schalke, was Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. But Neuer is expected to become an influential member of the Bayern team, despite the scepticism of club fans. The shot-stopper is undoubtedly among the best in the game and he joined Bayern because he feels they are the German club to meet his trophy aspirations. Bayern have spent almost £40million on transfers this summer, which is almost half of the overall spending of the whole league and provides a signal of their intent.

Borussia Dortmund

Manager: Jurgen Klopp Stadium: Signal-Iduna-Park Star man: Shinji Kagawa, forward League position in 2010/11: Champions Overview: Last season was a pretty impressive campaign. The team won the Bundesliga title with a mixture of elegance and youth. Players like Mario Gotze, Marcel Schmelzer, Nuri Sahin, Kevin Grosskreutz, Neven Subotic, Mats Hummels, Lucas Barrios or Shinji Kagawa performed extraordinarily well under the guidance of Jurgen Klopp. With the UEFA Champions League now on the horizon, Dortmund will hope to see an end to the trend shown at the conclusion of last season when Nuri Sahin, who has since moved onto Real Madrid, was injured and without him the team struggled. New arrival Ilkay Gundogan is poised to step into the boots left by Sahin in central midfield. This transfer was the biggest of Dortmund's this summer.

Borussia Monchengladbach

Manager: Lucien Favre Stadium: Stadion im Borussia-Park Star man: Marco Reus, forward League position in 2010/11: 16th (won relegation/promotion play-off) Overview: Seventy-two minutes into the second leg of the relegation/promotion play-off and the former Bundesliga giants finally secured top-flight status. This was the consequence of a massive run-in in their last five weeks of the Bundesliga under the guidance of Swiss tactician Lucien Favre. Although the team beat title candidates Leverkusen 6-3 away from home in the starting phase of last season, the campaign developed into a struggle. Immense injury problems to first-team regulars saw them pick up just 10 points and concede 47 goals in their first 17 games of the season. When they then had their change of manager in early spring, many suggested it would turn out much too late to initiate a change of fortunes. But the young squad grabbed 26 points in the latter stages of the season, entered the relegation/promotion play-offs and finally found safety.

Cologne

Manager: Stale Solbakken Stadium: RheinEnergieStadion Star man: Lukas Podolski, forward League position in 2010/11: 10th Overview: The biggest signing of the summer at Cologne is new manager Stale Solbakken, who had enjoyed success in charge of Danish outfit FC Copenhagen in recent years. The Norwegian did not wait long to leave his mark when he decided to take away the captain's armband from Germany international Lukas Podolski in favour of Portuguese defender Geromel. General manager Volker Finke worked hard this summer to finally capture loanee Mato Jajalo from Siena and persuaded versatile Germany international Sascha Riether to move from Wolfsburg.

Hamburg

Manager: Michael Oenning Stadium: Imtech Arena Star man: Eljero Elia, winger League position in 2010/11: Eighth Overview: The club failed to qualify for Europe for a second season in succession. This failure forced the club's authorities to have a certain change of plan. Rather than building their hopes on veteran players like Ruud van Nistelrooy or Frank Rost, the club has appointed recent Chelsea director of football Frank Arnesen. The Dane started his life at Hamburg with the capture of a handful of promising starlets, either on loan or permanent deals. England Under 21 international Michael Mancienne is among them, as is former Chelsea team-mate Jeffrey Bruma. This new squad is going to be managed by Michael Oenning, who will head into his second year at the club after being initially signed as assistant manager ahead of the last campaign. Oenning's record in the top flight is unimpressive, but he was in charge of Nurnberg when they returned to the top flight.

Freiburg

Manager: Marcus Sorg Stadium: badenova-Stadion Star man: Papiss Demba Cisse, striker League position in 2010/11: Ninth Overview: Freiburg were tipped to struggle last season, but surpassed expectations. Senegalese international Papiss Demba Cisse evolved into a star striker in the Bundesliga, netting 22 goals in 32 appearances and helping the small club to stay out of any relegation trouble. This has seen big clubs chase the former Metz man all summer. But the biggest change has taken place on the position of manager, with recent reserve-side coach Marcus Sorg replacing Robin Dutt after the latter received an offer to manage Bayer Leverkusen. Sorg will have a big job to fill the shoes of Dutt, while the Freiburg hierarchy hope that Mali striker Garra Dembele, a summer signature from Levski of Bulgaria, could be their next star.

Hertha Berlin

Manager: Markus Babbel Stadium: Olympiastadion Star man: Adrian Ramos, forward League position in 2010/11: 2. Bundesliga champions Overview: It took just one season for the club from the capital to return to the top flight. A previous relegation ended 13 seasons in a row in the Bundesliga. Former Liverpool defender Markus Babbel, who had taken over from the unlucky Friedhelm Funkel ahead of their promotion campaign, is their manager and he took advantage of the depths of one of his former clubs in signing Bayern Munich duo Thomas Kraft and Andreas Ottl on Bosmans to strengthen what had been the most expensive squad in the second division. Kraft is to take over from Dutchman Maikel Aerts in goal, while Ottl is to strengthen Hertha's midfield setup. In attacking areas the team are relying on Colombia international Adrian Ramos, Brazil midfielder Raffael and Germany U21 international Pierre-Michel Lasogga. This trio netted 38 of Hertha's 69 goals last season.

Hannover

Manager: Mirko Slomka Stadium: awd Arena Star man: Didier Ya Konan, striker League position in 2010/11: Fourth Overview: Hannover were one of the biggest surprise packages of last season. Tipped for nothing other than relegation, they almost qualified for the Champions League. Strikers Didier Ya Konan and Moa Abdellaoue were a key element in their success, as they scored goals for fun. Manager Mirko Slomka was even able to change his goalkeeper in the middle of the season, with the effect that the new one, former Manchester United youngster Ron-Robert Zieler, is looking twice as good as the man he replaced. Hannover's successful style is based on speedy counter-attacking football and although the club found it tough to sign adequate players this summer, their main strength is that none of the players who left played a big role last season.

Hoffenheim

Manager: Holger Stanislawski Stadium: Rhein-Neckar-Arena Star man: Sebastian Rudy, midfielder League position in 2010/11: 11th Overview: Hoffenheim's place in the Bundesliga is still a fairytale rise of a patron-sponsored village club. New manager Holger Stanislawski, who arrived from relegated St Pauli with the straight mission of building more on youth than on money, has no star-name new signing to speak of. Back-up goalkeeper Koen Casteels, who arrived from Genk of Belgium, has been the most expensive transfer of Hoffenheim's summer. This is different than in recent seasons when the club signed players like Demba Ba or Ryan Babel. And it is an indication Stanislawski is eager to work more on training than through spending.

Kaiserslautern

Manager: Marco Kurz Stadium: Fritz-Walter-Stadion Star man: Christian Tiffert, midfielder League position in 2010/11: Seventh Overview: It was their strong form in the final weeks of last season, in which they won five out of six matches, that earned Kaiserslautern an impressive finish of seventh in their first campaign back in the Bundesliga. Over the summer, general manager Stefan Kuntz and manager Marco Kurz, the men behind the revamp of the South West German team, have worked very hard on finding suitable replacements for outgoing first-team regulars. They clinched Israel international duo Itay Shechter and Gil Vermouth from Hapoel Tel-Aviv, a striker and a midfielder, hoping these two players will be capable of filling the boots of Srdjan Lakic and Jan Moravek. The main target for the new season is still to avoid relegation, according to Kuntz.

Mainz

Manager: Thomas Tuchel Stadium: coface-Arena (new stadium) Star man: Sami Allagui, striker League position in 2010/11: Fifth Overview: Last season, everyone expected Mainz to fail, just because the minnows had been brilliant the previous season. They did not. Young manager Thomas Tuchel proved the club's previous success was no one-time achievement. Ahead of this season it is much the same. German football followers do not believe the South West club will again be able to overachieve. As much as Tuchel will try to prove them wrong, he will have to admit there is a difficult task ahead of him. The club lost three key players this summer and despite picking up money for all of them, funds are no replacement for quality on the pitch. Mainz have signed 10 new players and most of them are youngsters from other leagues, such as former Aston Villa reserves Zoltan Stieber. Mainz will also have to contend with the demands and fixture congestion of a campaign in the Europa League.

Nurnberg

Manager: Dieter Hecking Stadium: easy-Credit-Stadion Star man: Horacio Javier Pinola, full back League position in 2010/11: Sixth Overview: It has been a bumpy ride at Nurnberg in recent seasons. In 2010/2011 their policy of loan signings paid off. Striker Julian Schieber was a huge success, so was midfielder Mehmet Ekici and fellow midfielder Jens Hegeler. In addition, Ilkay Gundogan was a delight in the centre of the park alongside Belgian veteran Timmy Simons. But the club's financial situation means they were not able to keep many of their stars. Gundogan was sold to Dortmund, Schieber returned to parent club Stuttgart and Bayern Munich's Ekici joined Werder Bremen. Manager Dieter Hecking consequently needs to re-start this season with a handful of youngsters and a few more new loan signatures.

Schalke

Manager: Ralf Rangnick Stadium: Veltins Arena Star man: Raul Gonzalez Blanco, forward League position in 2010/11: 14th Overview: The 2010/11 season was a campaign of mixed emotions. They have had massive success in the knockout competitions, reaching the Champions League semi-finals and winning the German Cup, but they also had a huge disappointment in the Bundesliga with a bottom-half finish. More than halfway through the season the club's authorities sacked manager Felix Magath and re-signed Ralf Rangnick. Under Rangnick the club promised to adjust costs with no less than 12 players from the first-team squad leaving this summer. The club also decided to accept a £20million bid from Bayern Munich for their Germany international goalkeeper Manuel Neuer after the shot-stopper admitted he would not sign a contract extension. Schalke signed a free agent in Ralf Fahrmann as replacement. General manager Horst Heldt feels finishing eighth this season would be a success.

Stuttgart

Manager: Bruno Labbadia Stadium: Mercedes-Benz Arena Star man: Christian Gentner, midfielder League position in 2010/11: 12th Overview: Cutting down costs in the wake of rebuilding Mercedes-Benz-Arena has been the main focus of the administration of Stuttgart. This started with the sale of Sami Khedira to Real Madrid a year ago and continued with the latest sale of Christian Trasch to Wolfsburg. The main focus of manager Bruno Labbadia remains to ensure his club have a better first half of the season after slow starts in the past decade. Labbadia is keen to avoid repeating the mistakes of predecessors Markus Babbel and Christian Gross, who were both sacked in the early stages of the season.

Werder Bremen

Manager: Thomas Schaaf Stadium: Weserstadion Star man: Claudio Pizarro, striker League position in 2010/11: 13th Overview: Life at Weserstadion could be a lot easier. General manager Klaus Allofs and manager Thomas Schaaf, who have both been in their jobs with the North Germans since 1999, have both admitted lately it has been difficult in recent months. Much of their displeasure is down to the lack of money available after an unsuccessful previous season which left them stranded in the bottom six. Hit by long-term injuries to key players such as defender Naldo and striker Claudio Pizarro, the club have had difficulties signing players. Almost the entire summer budget was spent on Turkey international Mehmet Ekici, a playmaker who it is hoped will fill the void left by the departure of Mesut Ozil to Real Madrid in 2010.

Wolfsburg

Manager: Felix Magath Stadium: Volkswagen Arena Star man: Christian Trasch, midfielder League position in 2010/11: 15th Overview: Last season was a campaign to forget for the Volkswagen Arena outfit. They spent big, they had appointed Steve McClaren and then they found themselves struggling. In the end the Volkswagen company stepped in to decide that neither McClaren nor general manager Dieter Hoeness should carry on. It was Felix Magath, the mastermind behind the club winning the Bundesliga in 2009, who was handed the task of keeping the club in the top flight and the target was achieved on the final day of the season. The recent Schalke manager has used the summer and pre-season for a squad clear-out, working to bring back the golden moments of his first spell at the North Germans.