Welcome to the first week following unlimited transfers - a time to get used to your line-up decisions and circumscribed purchase options taking on a bit more importance. On a weekend with relatively few marquee matchups between elite sides, it's well worth weighing up each fixture to figure out where the best values lie. Listen in as JT and Flo do precisely that. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TALKING FUSSBALL PODCAST

TF Fantasy MD9 tips - Getting the most out of your (more or less) settled squad

When other podcasts go high, we here at Talking Fussball Extra go low. In another Aufstieg edition, Nik Wilhagen convenes his crack panel of Jasmine Baba and Maik Krükemeier for a lower league chat. Where do 2. Bundeliga newcomers FC Schalke and Werder Bremen stand, 10 games in? How the hell did St. Pauli bust loose in Heidenheim and how long can they stay on top? And what stories have been roiling the lower reaches of Germany's football pyramid? Listen and find out... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Talking Fussball Extra - Aufstieg edition checking in on Schalke and Werder, St. Pauli's wild time in Heidenheim, and more

Sometimes a team puts in a performance reminiscent of an avalanche - one whose sheer power and unstoppability feels so like a force of nature that their opponent seems unlucky to be the ones standing in the way. Such was FC Bayern München's first half in Leverkusen on MD8, a performance well worth waxing lyrical over. Join Matt and Terry for a bit of that hot wax, as well as Dortmund's sunny new outlook with a healthy Erling Haaland, Cologne's coming gut-check, Union Berlin's continued rise and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Talking Fussball Direct MD8 wrap - Bayern's molten-hot half cooks Leverkusen as Haaland checks back in with a brace for BVB

Club football's only been on pause for a week and a half, but already our pundits are reaping the benefits of a wee pause in the action. We're still in the midst of an unlimited transfer period, so there's plenty of time to overhaul your squad before Match Day 8 kicks off on Friday. Listen in as JT and Flo weigh up the benefits and costs involved in all sorts of decisions surrounding some tasty match-ups like Freiburg vs RB Leipzig, Union Berlin vs Wolfsburg, and Leverkusen vs Bayern. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Talking Fussball Fantasy MD8 tips - Getting back at it refreshed, recharged and revamped after the break

An episode where we ponder a few questions with one of football media's great ponderers. What's driven little SC Freiburg to the top four this season? Will the club start thinking bigger now that they've moved into a brnd new stadium? What makes the club so preternaturally steady? Matt and Jon Mackenzie mull over these questions and more, as well as get to the bottom of what make Jon fall so hard for the club and the city. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Talking Fussball Extra Deep Dive - The slow, steady (and frankly charming) rise of SC Freiburg w/ Analytics FC's Jon Mackenzie

After seven match days in the 2021-22 Bundesliga season, Bayer 04 Leverkusen are flying high. We've seen this kind of early success from the Pharmaceuticals before of course, only to see it melt away, but this time fells like things might be different. Listen in as Nik sits down with Eric Bruehl, host of the Neverkusen podcast, about the big changes new coach Gerardo Seoane has made in the team's tactical outlook, about Patrik Schick and the blossoming cluster of attacking talent around him, and what might lay ahead as the season progresses. A deep dive into the Werkself well worth digging into. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Talking Fussball Extra Deep Dive - Is it time to get excited about Leverkusen?

As a Bundesliga-centric podcast, we here at Talking Fussball love all Bundesliga match days...just some more than others. MD7 was irresistible: a robust 3.4 goals-per-game average, two bicycle kick goals, and three come-from-behind wins - including one from Eintracht Frankfurt in FC Bayern München's Allianz Arena, a venue at which the eagles had literally never won. So Matt had more than a little to talk about with Marie Schulte-Bockum, including Leverkusen's uncharacteristically steady ascent this season, Gladbach's righting the ship in recent weeks and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Talking Fussball Direct MD7 wrap - Frankfurt shock Bayern at home to let Leverkusen go level at the top

Will he or won't he? He's a walking fantasy bonanza and he's been out of the lineup lately...but for how long? Can you afford to sell Haaland, at least until the unlimited transfers period in the international break? Listen in as JT and Flo address this pressing issue and many more ahead of Match Day 7. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Talking Fussball Fantasy MD7 tips - What to do about Mr. Haaland?

Lots of change in the second tier. We're just eight games in and already four sides - Erzgebirge Aue, SV Sandhausen, Holstein Kiel and FC Ingolstadt - have parted ways with their coaches. Listen in as Nik WIldhagen, Jasmine Baba and Maik Krükemeier weigh in on each and attempt to diagnose what could right the ship. The gang then explain why it was that fourth-tier 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig's attempt to merge with VfB Leipzig made national news in Germany. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Talking Fussball Extra - Aufstieg edition on coaching changes in the 2. Bundesliga and Lok Leipzig's reclamation project

The Bundesliga's twin towers, FC Bayern München and Borussia Dortmund, each stumbled into some 10-man adversity for half of a game of football, give or take. Only one managed to survive the ordeal and come away with a three-point haul. Matt and Terry get into the details of how it all went down and what we can learn from Gladbach's win (and Fürth's loss). They also pay a little tribute to SC Freiburg's Dreisamstadion, which will cease to be the club's top flight home from now on. All that and the rest of the antics from Match Day six... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Talking Fussball Direct MD6 wrap - Two red cards, two different results for Bayern and Dortmund; saying goodbye to the Dreisamstadion

We all had ideas about who to buy going into the season. We had ideas about who to play after the first week or two. Now, with five match days in the books, we know a few things moving forward. Bayern are such a shot (and goal) machine that it makes some of their expensive players seem affordable, Cologne's Anthony Modeste is a good value pick-up, and Freiburg defenders might be worth a flutter. Listen in as JT and Flo address these topics and much more... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Talking Fussball Fantasy MD6 tips - What we now know, and what you should do about it?

After years of resistance and denial, some in football are beginning to wake up: plenty of players take performance-enhancing drugs. That has big implications for the sport, but one of the most pressing problems isn't what you think - many footballers are mis-using legal drugs to help them with pain. Non-Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) like Ibuprofen are given out "like smarties" by football clubs and can have alarming long-term effects. Listen in as Nik Wildhagen talks to ARD doping reporter Arne Steinberg about his work and what it means for the Bundesliga... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Talking Fussball Extra - The drugs do work: how Bundesliga footballers 'dope' to manage pain, speed up recovery, and (sometimes) enhance performance

Round about five o'clock on Saturday afternoon, the Bundesliga was having a bad day. Just fifteen minutes remained in the afternoon's slate of matches, and not only had seven of the eight teams in action failed to score (snooze), but also the one team that had scored - champions for the last nine years and counting FC Bayern München - had already put six past their hapless opponents on their way to a 7-0 win. Could it be that it's true that this league is just going through the motions? Join Matt Hermann and Terry Duffelen as they wrestle with this proposition, with Dortmund's alarmingly flaky brilliance, with Jesse Marsch's future in Leipzig, and a lot more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Talking Fussball Direct MD5 wrap - The afternoon when everyone (except Bayern) forgot how to score

With all the UEFA competitions under way, the games are coming thick and fast for more than a third of the teams in the Bundesliga. And while you might wish you could copy-and-paste Christopher Nkunku's numbers from this week's Champions League game in Manchester, it doesn't quite work that way. Listen in as JT and Flo provide you with strategies for dealing with squad rotation, lopsided match-ups (there are potentially several on MD5), and more... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Talking Fussball Fantasy MD5 tips - Betting on the best after a full round of European fixtures

Ready to dig into some stories from the lower rungs of German football? Nik Wildhagen sits down with Jasmine Baba and Maik Krükemeier for a good hour's chat about the highest-impact transfers in the 2. Bundesliga, the unsettling persistence of SV Sandhausen, and much more from the 3 Liga, Regionalligen and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Talking Fussball Extra - Aufstieg edition on 2. Bundesliga transfers and what's keeping sleepy SV Sandhausen afloat

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