European football roundup: A preview of this weekend's games

Bayern Munich v Hannover 96, Saturday 1430

Bayern Munich have strangely overhauled their setup this summer after establishing themselves as Europe’s best side last season in completing a Bundesliga, Dfb Pokal and Champions League treble. Their manager Jupp Heynckes had already been announced as being replaced this season by Pep Guardiola in January and so left after a hugely successful season. Whilst Guardiola was the most in-demand coach in football when he announced his return to coaching, he has only known coaching at Barcelona where he understood the club from top to bottom and fitted in.

He has already gone about changing the playing style at Bayern and I think it may take a while for this to fully work, if it does. Signing Thiago Alcantara shows he wants to put in his ball-playing deep midfielders from Barcelona and this could even be done at the expense of one of Bayern’s best players, Bastian Schweinsteiger. Change isn’t always a bad thing, but some of this seems totally unnecessary to me and I’m not sure Guardiola and Bayern will be a great fit.

Hannover are a very similar side to Mainz, in that they regularly appear amongst the European places and give most sides a tough game. They are a well run club where players are brought in to fit an existing system so that things don’t need to change too much when they are already working well. They have so far won all three matches at home and lost their sole away match. I’m not sure they’ll win this match at all, but Bayern seem incredibly short in a match against a very decent side.

Trabzonspor v Karabukspor, Saturday 1830

Trabzonspor are one of the traditional big sides in Turkey, along with the three Istanbul sides. However, in recent seasons they have steadily slipped back as they’ve become a very mediocre side with no flair or goal threat. The main reason for this was that they built the side to supply striker Burak Yilmaz, and he delivered, but it left the side lost when he left for Galatasaray last summer. The previous flaws in the side in all areas were masked by his incredible goalscoring record and they now look a mid-table side. This summer has seen little done to improve that predicament. They have started the season with a tight home win and getting spanked for five goals in two away losses.

Karabukspor kicked on last season to emerge as challengers for European football and got some great results against the big sides. They kept the majority of the side together over the summer and have started the season very well. They are, in fact, the only side other than Besiktas who are still unbeaten. They have won both home matches and drawn their sole away match. They have a decent defence to build from and should have a good chance of repelling Trabzonspor.

Sivasspor v Eskisehirspor, Sunday 1600

Sivasspor were a mess two years ago, but emerged last season as a much more reliable outfit. They may not score nearly as many or be as entertaining as others, but they tightened up at the back and started grinding out results. It was their horrible away form last season that kept them in the lower part of the table, at home they went nine wins, five draws and three defeats. So far this season they have won their sole home match 2-0 and lost both away matches. Looks like they may well end up in a similar state as last year.

Eskisehirspor are a side who seem to always spend a good part of the season around European places before dropping away late on. They also rely on good home form to do this, but are much harder to beat away from home than Sivasspor. They were masters of the 1-0 win two seasons ago and look like they may well have reverted back to that after a less predictable first half of last season. They have started this season with a win, a draw and a loss with two goals scored and one conceded. There looks like there may well be some value in a draw to me.

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