2. League before the 8th matchday: Few favorites have so far fulfilled expectations

The 8th matchday is already in the 2nd league. Many clubs that you had to climb on the piece before the season still have (big) problems. Who of them could still climb?

Six teams had the 2nd Bundesliga on their website before the season as a supposed promotion candidate on the piece and presented them in more detail: Holstein Kiel, VfL Bochum, Fortuna Düsseldorf, 1. FC Kaiserslautern, Hertha BSC and Schalke 04.

Associations such as Düsseldorf and Hertha aggressively expressed their promotion to promotion before the season, but also clear statements about return plans in the upper house were heard from the Bundesliga leaves Bochum and Kiel. In Lautern, too, the top 6 were publicly issued as the goal, at Schalke you were there, branded from the recent past, more careful. It is no secret that the traditional club actually wants to go back to the Bundesliga as soon as possible.

Schalke 04: Strong defensive and the fans in the back

After seven game days, these six teams actually only represent Schalke 04 among the top six teams in the 2nd Bundesliga and a maximum of a victory from a direct promotion place. The Schalke are one of the surprises of the season – under coach Miron Muslic, the “royal blue” provide the best defensive of the 2nd league – then eight scores shot are enough to score 15 points.

The Schalke team impresses with excellent work against the ball and also has the goalkeeper in Loris Karius with the best defense rate of the whole league. New additions such as the Soufiane el-Faouzi or Timo Becker, taken from the 3rd division, who will now be missing, have been fully broken. S04 must still go a step forward to really be in the promotion race until the end of the season, but this is also quite imaginable in view of the short time that Muslic is sitting on the coaching bench. However, those responsible have already achieved two important things that make the season forecast in the area look rosy: the team looks extremely stable due to the strong defensive and has the fans in particular behind – two pounds that may even be able to reach for the big throw in this narrow league.

1. FC Kaiserslautern: Heim Hui, away from Pfui

The FCK ended the past season in seventh place, and even after seven match days the “Red Devils” are seventh. Also a form of consistency. At home, Torsten Lieberknecht’s eleven has been a power so far, scored nine points from three games, and the balance sheet looks much worse on foreign space. However, the away opponents of the Lauterer were so far in Hanover, Paderborn and Elversberg three teams from the top 5, against whom the team around top scorer Ivan Prtajin also lost. There were also four victories against poorly placed teams and in the home game against leaders Darmstadt.

Above all, the newcomers Prajin, who convinced openly right -back Paul Joly and Spielnacher Naatan Skyttä and surprisingly well -captured the departure of striker Ragnar Ache. The Lieberknecht -Elf also allows most of the shots on their goal from all second division teams – well that goalkeeper Julian Krahl has been playing a strong season so far. So far, the FCK has not been really constant this season, the discrepancy between home and away games is great – but the team has at least indicated the potential for placement among the top teams.

Fortuna Düsseldorf: The new squad has not yet found itself

The Fortunes around sports director Klaus Allofs and coach Daniel Thioune had aggressively announced their promotion to the new season. In Isak Johanneson, Jamil Siebert and Dawid Kownacki, three elementary pillars of the previous season had been given and also lost a lot of quality with Dzenan Pejcinovic, Nicolas Gavory, Myron van Brederode and Moritz-Broni Kwarteng. Long -standing top performers such as André Hoffmann and Marcel Sobottka had also left the club.

The squad was renewed for this, and even if players like striker Cedric Itten, playmaker Florent Muslija and clearer Anouar El Azzouzi have already shown that they belong individually to the upper class of the 2nd league, the game does not run smoothly at all in the game at all. At all corners and ends you can tell that the team has not yet been recorded, or Thioune’s system cannot be transferred to the lawn. The coach, which is so popular in Düsseldorf, is strongly counted, the home defeat against Nuremberg on match day 8 does not make the situation better. The squad is one of the best of the 2nd league on paper, on the square you can see much too little at home (only one point from four games). The potential for the climb is still there, but it is quite possible that Fortuna takes too much time with the many new players to get to the ascent.

Holstein Kiel: heavier Start schedule makes hope

After two defeats at the start, relegated Holstein Kiel has now stabilized again in the lower house. The team of Marcel Rapp then even won too zero and can now work from eleventh to climb on. It seems quite possible that this succeeds, because the game plan did not mean well with the “storks” at the start: against five of the six current top teams, the Kielers have already played and now the sixth is waiting with leaders Darmstadt.

Defense chief David Zec most recently dreamed of the return to the “Kieler Nachrichten”. The 0: 1 in the previous week against Elversberg by a penalty in added time of course hurts with these dreams, but Holstein has not been the worse team so far in any season. In view of the enemy strength, the good news for ZEC and Co. is rightly still the advancement of the Kiel life, but soon a series has to start and your own offensive act a little more dangerous: only three second division players give fewer shots than the “storks”.

Hertha BSC: Hardly any shots on goal, but the defense gives some hope

“The Hertha has the best squad of the 2nd league.” Such sentences were read in almost every season for the season before the season – and the Berliners around superstar Fabian Reese are also at the forefront in the lower house in terms of salary. But the departures of Ibrahim Maza and Derry Scherhann visibly harm the offensive. After all, the two youngsters had 23 goal participations in the previous season. And with seven goals, the Berliners are now putting the most third -party offensive in the 2nd league. Rank 13 and eight points are the result of a start of the season with which no one can be satisfied in the capital.

Reeses role in the system of coach Stefan Leitl is only one of many construction sites and now the previous top scorer is still canceled in Dawid Kownacki until 2026. 2.86 shots have to parry opposing goalkeepers against the Hertha this season per game – the second worst of all values. After all, four times the Berliners stayed without conceding a goal this season, most recently the trend at the Leitl team showed slightly upwards. The situation is similar to that of Fortuna: the squad will soon put its offensive potential on the lawn, is still everything in it, but there is not much time for it in view of the start of the season if it should still be enough for the promotion race.

VfL Bochum: relegation battle takes place Promotion race

With just one win from seven games, VfL Bochum is penultimate in the 2nd league. Trainer Dieter Hecking has long since been released, even under interim coach David Siebers it didn’t get any better, now Uwe Rösler should judge. At VfL, personnel was enormous after relegation. Myron Boadu, Tom Krauss and Jakov Medic returned to their clubs, Bernardo, Tim Oermann, Moritz Broschinski and Ivan Ordets also left the squad, just like goalkeeper Patrick Drewes.

VfL was lost almost a complete Bundesliga starting eleven, instead with the Bochumers, many young and talented new players such as Kjell Wätjen, Caejtan Lenz or Leandro Morgalla were used. The curious: The young savages don’t make it bad at all, but in the relegation battle of the 2nd league, in which VfL is now located, great talents are not enough. The Bochumers fired 107 shots on the opposing goal this season, six of them were in there, including a penalty – a horrible quota. Bochum will have nothing to do with the ascent this season, for VfL it is about survival.