Feature | Three impactful Bundesliga signings from the last three days | OneFootball

Get German Football news is pleased to supply a piece providing some context to three highly influential Bundesliga transfers confirmed over the last three  days. VfL Wolfsburg, Werder Bremen, and Borussia Möchengladbach have all brought in players with enormous potential to make waves at their new Bundesliga clubs.

Wolfsburg’s signing of former Eintracht Frankfurt star Jesper Lindstrøm accords the Danish international a chance to revive his career. Bremen pushed their club’s record transfer fee to acquire Belgian winger Samuel Mbangula. One also salivates at the thought of Shuto Machino featuring flexibly in the Gladbach attack.

Three sections cover the respective moves.

Jesper Lindstrøm, VfL Wolfsburg

Eintracht Frankfurt head coach Oliver Glasner once deployed Lindstrøm anywhere and everywhere on the second attacking axis. Lindstrøm worked as an eight on both sides often times shifting into a service striker role later in matches. Whenever the SGE team sheets were released, one operated on the assumption that the Dane would not be staying put. Glasner clearly gave Lindstrøm free rein to roam about as he pleased.

Bundesliga watchers found themselves shocked to learn that Lindstrøm completely tanked as a player after leaving the Bundesrepublik. Some of this may relate to the fact that he was deployed much wider and deeper both with Napoli in the Serie A and on loan with Everton. One hopes that new VfL trainer Paul Simonis doesn’t fall prey to using Lindstrøm as a winger.

Whether Lindstrøm ends up displacing Patrick Wimmer (linked with a move away from the Wolves) on the right or Mohammed Amoura (also a VfL candidate for a lucrative departure) on the left, one hopes that Simonis doesn’t use Lindstrøm as a straight winger. A move to the Autostädter constitutes a huge opportunity for this attacker, who is back among “Danish friends” Jonas Wind, Joakim Maehle, Andreas Skov Olsen, and (manager) Peter Christiansen.

“I see an opportunity to quickly adapt here,” Lindstrøm noted in a club interview published on Thursday. “I want to find myself again. The Bundesliga is the right place. There are lots of Danes here. I’m regaining my confidence. I can’t wait to get started. I want to play in Europe too, and I want to work towards that in Wolfsburg.

“I missed the Bundesliga and I missed scoring goals,” Lindstrøm continued. “This appears to be the place where I can do it again. I’ve learned a lot [abroad]. Now I’ve played in the Bundesliga, Serie A, and the Premier League. The Premier League in particular is a tough league. Here it’s score a goal, defend, score a goal. That’s how I like it.”

Action naturally counts infinitely more than words, but the 25-year-old’s enthusiasm genuinely impresses. Lindstrøm never really appeared to be the best fit for more static Italian-style tactics, nor did he ever really look physically built for England’s top flight. One welcomes a professional seemingly “built” for German football back home.

Samuel Mbangula, SV Werder Bremen

Our next subject hasn’t kicked at all outside of Italy and indeed didn’t become a Serie A regular until last season. One wonders how Mbangula will cope with the more fluid aspects of the German game. The 21-year-old – expensive, yet still a bargain – picked up all of his scorer points (four goals and five assists in 32 competitive appearances) all came whilst he was stationed on the left.

Juventus trainer Thiago Motta did give Mbangula turns as both a short-striker and right flanker. In the middle, Mbangula enjoyed some success for the Belgian U21s. Now that Ole Werner’s longstanding 3-5-2 formation has departed along with the former Werder trainer, one can easily see the new addition slotting in on the left of the 4-2-3-1 constellation tested out by Horst Steffen in the pre-season.

Werder – still reeling from the Naby Keïta fiasco – are taking it slowly with Mbangula. Stress fractures caused him to miss some time late last season. The youngster also had to manage quite the load in his first full professional year. The younger is just returning from the Club World Cup with his Serie A side. Even though he didn’t feature, there were plenty of training sessions in the boiling-hot USA to tire him out.

Financially speaking, Werder have over-leveraged themselves with this deal. There may well not be enough fiscal wiggle room for the club’s front office. This can prove problematic due to both the squad’s recent raft of injuries and the thinness at the center-forward position. Young Keke Topp is the only natural nine available to lead the line at this point.

Should Marvin Ducksch (currently injured) depart the club, Justin Njinmah and Marco Grüll will have to spearhead the 4-2-3-1 in unnatural positions. Topp has certainly grown significantly from the level he displayed last year at this time, but the 21-year-old still only has 20 top flight appearances under his belt and has had a rough pre-season Young striker prospect Salim Musah (19) needs more time.

It is such that Werder administrators have been put on the defensive. Licensing head Peter Niemeyer and the man who previously held Niemeyer’s position, top managing director Clemens Fritz, haven’t garnered the most stellar reputation as executives. Fritz did engineer Bremen’s immediate promotion back to the top flight following the 2020/21 relegation, but certainly took his time getting the squad prepped for the 2021/22 2. Bundesliga.

Niemeyer and Fritz have basically admitted that the Mbangula deal may constitute Bremen’s last purchase of the summer. Niemeyer reiterated that the chances something else might happen in the final month of the transfer window remains slim when speaking to reporters after a recent friendly. The 41-year-old could only note that the club front office would “keep an eye on” the attack situation.

“[One can debate] whether [the €10m spent] on Mbangula was justified or not,” Fritz remarked in a recent interview with Kicker. “But the fact is that these are the prices that must be paid on the market. If one has the resources to do so, one should move ahead with conviction.

“This wasn’t an everyday occurrence,” Fritz continued. “One has to track the market. There’s more money circulating in the market. There are times when one encounters sums that one thinks are very large. These are prices that must be paid. It does place some pressure on it working out.

“We’ve gotten a very intelligent player who moves well in the space between players also has the courage to take on and resolve one-on-one situations,” Fritz concluded. “He can serve all over the top two axes. He can come in from the left or right side. But we also believe he can play central.”

For whatever it’s worth former Schalke 04 and RB Leipzig trainer Domenico Tedesco has spoken to Kicker Bremen correspondent Tim Lüddecke about Mbangula. German football fans – not to mention Belgians – may not be terribly interested in the opinion of the beady-eyed coach who took on unpopular appointment, but the author believes the 39-year-old’s words had some merit to them.

“Samuel has a lot of talent,” Tedesco told Lüddecke. “That’s evident from the fact that he was nominated for the national team in a position where there are a lot of really good players in Belgium. He’s dangerous when he comes in from the outside, but also from the central half space positions.”

We all await with bated breath.

Shuto Machino, Borussia Mönchengladbach

At long last, the future of the player Bundesliga lovers very much enjoyed watching last season has been settled. The mere thought of the Premier League stealing away one of our favorite names to utter out loud proved unsettling. At long last, Gladbach bit the proverbial bullet and ensured that Machino remained where he belonged brings lots of relief. All signs point to a successful tenure in the Niederrhein for the 25-year-old.

Where can Machino serve positionally? Where on the top three axes can he not serve. Marcel Rapp deployed Machino just about everywhere in attack during last year’s genuinely weird season for the Bundesliga debutants. Nothing about Kiel’s squad was ordinary. Marcel Rapp’s “Sprinting Storks” somehow squeezed blood from multiple stones. Strikers such as Jan Arp, Phil Harres, Steven Skrzybski. and Alexander Bernhardsson contributed regular goals.

Machino, of course, led the bunch with 12 tallies across all competitions and 15 league scorer points in 32 appearances. The eight-times-capped Samurai international collected four league braces, three of which featured goals scored solely from open play. Machino actually counts as a rare example of a player who can thrive in BMG trainer Gerardo Seoane’s occasionally offbeat personnel and tactical rotations.

Machino – like the departed Alassane Plea – will work just about everywhere in attack. The author hesitates to get too far ahead of himself, but Machino’s Japanese compatriot Shio Fukuda has turned in a very strong BMG training camp. Some of the budding potential discernible in the 21-year-old 18 months ago finally begins to surface. Fukada grabbed a blitz brace in Gladbach’s opening friendly.

Machino behind Fukuda once it becomes apparent that new signing Haris Tabakovic is probably destined for the bench? It gets quite tantalizing. For probably the first time since Max Eberl’s unexpected departure, one feels as if the BMG front office truly did a good job of building a balanced squad ahead of a new campaign. Once Tim Kleindienst and Nathan Ngoumou get fit again, the team could go on a European tear.

Gladbach have won two of their three pre-season friendlies thus far, even managing to look promising in defeat to Ukrainian side Metalist Charkiw. Machino watched Saturday’s 0-2 away win over 1. FC Nürnberg from the Max Morlock stands. Cameras were sure to capture the new signing looking upbeat in the bleachers. Seoane was extremely upbeat in his post match comments.

“His profile alleviates pressure on us in several positions,” Seoane – as quoted by Kicker said – “He’s dangerous on the counterattack and has a good nose for set pieces. Shuto is an unpredictable player who has already proven his scoring ability. We feel that he can give us the goals we’re looking for. It’s still early enough to integrate him into out style-of-play.“

In the humble opinion of the author, Machino won’t need all that much time at all. A player very much in the Lindstrøm mold (except much more explosive) should be in for a great season. Next month’s Bundesliga kickoff can’t get here soon enough!

GGFN | Peter Weis