Round-Up: Edson Braafheid
April 9, 2016 Bayern fans actually have many positive changes in mind, when they hear the name of Louis van Gaal: Since 2009 he implemented a thorough tactical approach and the Dutchman brought a new generation into the senior squad with Thomas Müller, Holger Badstuber and David Alaba. With one transfer in particular, however, van Gaal got it all wrong. Edson Braafheid came at the same time to Munich as LvG, the full-back had previously played in Enschede. After several appearances at the beginning of the season, it was obvious in winter 2009 that Braafheid does not have the required level for a top club. They tried it with a six-month loan to Celtic, where the defender couldn’t prevail either. After a conversation with van Gaal, Braafheid returned to Munich in 2010 and got a second chance. In November, however, it came to the final break when he insulted his coach in the dressing room. During the winter break he moved to 1899 Hoffenheim, where he met his school friend Ryan Babel, who was also just singed by Hoffenheim. In February 2011 his debut for the TSG lasted exactly five minutes before he was ejected with a red card.
After an unsuccessful loan to Enschede, Braafheid finally ended up in the famous “training group 2” at Hoffenheim, together with Tim Wiese and others players. In 2014 he moved to Lazio Rom, where he was able to get back into the starting XI in recent times.
We congratulate Edson Braafheid to his 33rd birthday!
Press review
Champions League recaps
The narrow win against Benfica produced many analytical talking points. In our MSR article Justin noticed a stong Vidal, Lahm’s hybrid role and Bayern’s poor decision making against a strong Benfica team.
Bayern Central had two pieces about the game: Juan Pablo Gonzalez put on his tactic glasses and found strong performances by Vidal and Ribery and he also defended Bernat against criticism. From a stats point of view Shantanu Paranjape explained a heavy focus on the left offensive Bayern flank and also has some positive words about Bernat’s performance.
Last but not least Stephan Uersfeld based his analysis for ESPN on Vidal’s ability to lead, Benfica’s grit and Ribery’s renaissance.
The KING is back
Raphael Honigstein sat down with Franck Ribery for a Q&A on ESPN.
BTW: Happy birthday Franck and thank you for 9 increadible years!!!
KINGsley is the best teenager in the world
Yes, that’s how Daniel Storey sees the young Frenchman in his piece for Football365.
Rather than move to one of the hundreds of clubs below Juventus in European football’s hypothetical ladder, Coman instead moved up.
Thomas Müller! Der Raumdeuter
Tristan (of spielverlagerung.com fame) did a video about Thomas Müller in the game Germany against Italy and called it “My analysis of one of the best all-round players on the planet, Thomas Müller.”
Now further words needed. Enjoy the video and see you next week.
