Continuation of “kicker’s” player rankings for the first half…

The real rise has been Bayern’s Brazilian defender Dante, coming over from Gladbach, making a huge impact. He managed to edge out Dortmund’s Mats Hummels, one of Germany’s bright young stars.

Bayern’s international Holger Badstuber was often played out of position, and then went down with an injury, so he’s disappeared from the list.

Philip Lahm still remains the premier defender, but the Germany captain had a so-so Euro, and isn’t World Class like he might have been a couple of years ago.

Leverkusen has done very well, rebuilding their defense and getting value for their money. Wollscheid, Toprak and Carvajal have started to make names for themselves.

INSIDE DEFENDERS

World Class

       (none)

International Class:

    1.  Dante                 (Bayern München)
    2.  Mats Hummels          (Borussia Dortmund)

In wider circle:

    3.  Benedikt Höwedes       (Schalke)
    4.  Neven Subotic          (Borussia Dortmund)
    5.  Philipp Wollscheid     (Bayer Leverkusen) 
    6.  Timm Klose             (1. FC Nürnberg)
    7.  Ömer Toprak            (Bayer Leverkusen)
    8.  Martin Stranzl         (Borussia M'gladbach)
    9.  Kyriakos Papadopoulos  (Schalke)
   10.  Jerome Boateng         (Bayern München)


OUTSIDE DEFENDERS

World Class

       (none)

International Class:

    1.  Philip Lahm         (Bayern München)

In wider circle:

    2.  Marcel Schmelzer    (Borussia Dortmund)
    3.  Daniel Carvajal     (Bayer Leverkusen)
    4.  Sebastian Jung      (Eintracht Frankfurt)
    5.  Lukasz Piszczek     (Borussia Dortmund)
    6.  David Alaba         (Bayern München)
    7.  Bastian Oczipka     (Eintracht Frankfurt)

Since it’s been rather slow in winterbreak, here’s something to chew on. Twice a year, “kicker” comes out with it’s Rangliste des deutschen Fussballs (Rating list of German soccer). This not only takes into consideration how players perform in the Bundesliga, but also in the Cup, Euro matches and internationals. Historically, they’ve been fairly conseravtive, so usually it’s not like having all Manchester United players as “World Class” like you might find from EPL fan boys, hehehe.

I decided to give the kicker ratings rather than my own, because I don’t get to see the players enough to make real judgements, so you’ll have to be content with my rambling rather than my own list…

“World Class” really means you’re one of the top 2-3 on the planet, and is not given out lightly. “International” means you’re worthy of international acolades, but not quite the elite.

This is a good indication of how hard kicker is grading. I’m not sure who you might consider “World Class”, as the usual suspects, like Spain’s Iker Casillas, have had less than overwhelming seasons. Manuel Neuer has only given up 7 goals so far, but rightly he gets dinged because he creates various “neuerisms” in every match, like running out of his goal and getting caught like a wanker in no-man’s land. So Neuer drops from the top spot down. The “wider circle” (my crap translation of “Im Weiterm Kreis”) means you’re good. kicker also includes another category, which is essentially a “worth watching” category, which I’ve skipped over.

Rene Adler is a strong candidate for Comeback of the Year. He came on a free from Leverkusen and has really been outstanding for Hamburg. There’s a good chance he’s back in the national squad. Kevin Trapp and Fabian Giefer have come from no-where, but young keepers usually get a chance in Germany, and they’re very good. I’m not so sure I’d rate Bengalio quite that high, but he’s been solid for the VWs…their problems lie elsewhere..

You’ll notice that Hannover’s Ron-Robert Zieler and Gladbach’s Marc ter Stegen have dropped off the top-10, but at least they made the invisible category. One critical flop has been Schalke, where the Timo Hildebrand/Lars Unnerstall combo didn’t even warrant a mention.

Hoffenheim’s Tim Wiese was picked as the Worst GK of the league, which means he should probably transfer to the EPL.

Goalkeeper

World Class:

    (none)

International class:

    1. Rene Adler           (HSV)
    2. Kevin Trapp          (Eintracht Frankfurt)
    3. Roman Weidenfeller   (Bor. Dortmund)
    4. Manuel Neuer         (Bayern)
    5. Bernd Leno           (Bayer Leverkusen)
    6. Diego Benaglio       (Wolfsburg)
    7. Fabian Giefer        (Düsseldorf)

In the wider circle:

    8. Oliver Baumann       (SC Freiburg)
    9. Sven Ulreich         (Stuttgart)
   10. Raphael Schafer      (Nürnberg)