Last season’s Bayern Munich U-17s head coach Leonard Haas has moved up to the U-19s, meaning he has had to be replaced. In a shocking turn, that replacement has turned out to be Lars Bender, who possesses over a decade of experience playing in the Bundesliga. Furthermore, the former Bayer Leverkusen player has had experience managing in the fourth division of German football, leading SV Wacker Burghausen into 51 games. How Bayern secured him as a manager is anyone’s guess.
Just because Bender is a huge
name does not mean he will be a success, though. First he will need to showcase his mettle by working to improve on last season’s slightly disappointing results. The team fared excellently in the first phase of the U-17 Bundesliga season, but blew exclusively hot or cold in the second phase, scraping to the next phase before unceremoniously being dumped out in the Round of 16.
Bayern’s official website provides a good look at what lies ahead, before the season even truly begin, starting with a review of the coaching staff:
Lars Bender, a former Bundesliga professional and national team player with extensive experience, will take over as head coach. He has also coached at both the youth level (assistant coach for Germany’s U16 and U17 teams, head coach of Unterhaching’s U17 team) and at the senior level (SV Wacker Burghausen). The coaching team is completed by Philipp Deppner, previously assistant coach of the U19s, and Benjamin Kauffmann, most recently head coach of the U14s, who will now serve as assistant coaches.
Bender: “I am very satisfied with the start and I am looking forward to getting to know the guys gradually. I am also taking enough time to have individual talks with each of them. You can feel a great willingness and excitement for the time ahead from everyone.”
Preseason schedule
Naturally, preseason is filled with a lot of intensive training and multiple friendlies. The Bavarians have schedule 3 friendlies thus far, as well as two tournaments in the Bundesliga Cup and the Red&Gold Global Trophy tournament, and will go through an intensive preseason before the season official begins on the weekend of August 9th (to be terminated more exactly on a later date:
July 4 : vs Stuttgarter Kickers U-17s (8-1 win)
July 10: vs Augsburg U-17s
July 18-19: U-17 Bundesliga Cup
August 1: vs Slavia Prague U-17s
August 4-6: Red&Gold Global Trophy tournament
Weekend of August 9: Season start
First phase group opponents
If one is not familiar with the format of Germany’s U-17 and U-19 leagues, one can read about it here. In short, though, there are three phases to each season. The first phase consists of 14 league matches in groups of 8, with Bayern set to play against each of the 7 opponents twice. This season, the first phase starts on August 9 and ends on the weekend around December 6th (just like the U-19s).
Bayern have been drawn into Group C with these other teams:
- FC Augsburg
- 1. FC Nürnberg
- SSV Jahn Regensburg
- FC Ingolstadt 04
- SpVgg Unterhaching
- SSV Ulm 1846
- TSV 1859+1 München
A main criteria for choosing teams is how close each team is to the other, which is why Bayern have been drawn to play against the likes of 1859+1 Munich and Unterhaching again.
Bender has this to say about the opponents, via Bayern’s website: “It’s a good group – we had already prepared for this or a similar constellation. For us, the focus is now on preparation before we look forward to the preliminary round in the youth league.”
Full squad list, promoted players
The transfer window is now open and one external transfer has been made in VFB Stuttgart talent Kemi Seudie. This is a list of all the players currently registered for the U-17s. Of course, there will be changes to this list. There is every chance new players/returning loanees will arrive over the course of preseason or even after the season has already started. Or a few of these players could be let go, loaned out or promoted to the U-19s/U-23s over the course of the window. Furthermore, there are multiple players out injured that are listed as part of the squad yet cannot participate in any of the training sessions or games.
Still, at the time of writing, here is the full squad list:
Goalkeepers
Michael Steiner, Amar Omerovic
Defenders
Timo Dachgruber, Tim Ebert, Atakan Etüz, Noah Fichtl, Niklas Herber, Thibault Maspimby, Joyce Nduka, Skender Nuraj, Lamar Rama, Tim Schreyer
Midfielders:
Roko Ciglar, Franz Hoffmann, Maximilian Mahr, Tarik Mujic, Noah Rieber, Kemi Seudie, Deni Zubovic
Forwards:
Daniel Abade, Isuf Hiseni, Florent Krasniqi. Linus Ludwig, Veded Turbic
Analysis
Immediately, the squad seems very balanced. There could be a need to add one more forward and move on one or two midfielders, but otherwise the squad looks strong heading into the season.
Friendlies
At the time of writing, Bender’s men played three friendlies.
8-1 vs Stuttgarter Kickers U-17s
Season goals
Unlike the U-19s, the U-17s are in just one competition: The U-17 Bundesliga. The goal will be to prioritize youth development, of course, but also to surpass the Round of 16 exit from last season.
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