Is Butt the guy that used to take the penalties? Can't remember who for, Dortmund maybe?

You gotta feel bad for the guy... 2 cheap goals in 86 seconds

I'm on dialup so haven't looked at the clip but will hazard a guess that it's the Hertha goalkeeper? The guy had been subbed on moments before because the starting keeper picked up an injury. That doesn't excuse the painful defending though. That really was pretty dire.

The sad thing is that Hertha is one of Germany's Europa League teams this year.

The sad thing is that Hertha is one of Germany's Europa League teams this year.

Liking Hamburg is okay. They have lost Petric for a while though (knee injury in the same game where the Hertha keeper and defense were...not really on the job).

Bayern have lost Olic too, for six weeks. He was hurt on international duty.

Teutonic Tuesday: Lahm Lambasts Bayern Board, Leverkusen Leap Into Lead

A week ago, I mentioned just how similar the 2009-10 season is compared to last year. Just as was the case in 2008-09, the point spread was shockingly narrow and Hamburg, Leverkusen, Schalke and Bremen had missed out on good chances to go clear of their rivals. Once again, there were questions of whether or not there was a team good enough to come out as clear leaders.

But this week, Leverkusen must not have gotten their script, because their 4-0 win over Frankfurt was enough to send them at least three points clear of their faltering rivals. Last season, we had to wait until nearly May for Wolfsburg to assume the role of dominant leaders (and even then, Stuttgart beat the eventual champions 4-1), but 2009-10 could be an altogether different scenario. Despite injuries to key figures Simon Rolfes and Renato Augusto, Juup Heynckes’ men have dealt well with their rivals and have yet to slip up against lower-table teams. Leverkusen have the league’s best defence, the second-best offence and remain the only undefeated side in Germany.

Since Heynckes’ appointment as head coach, Leverkusen have gone from an assembly of raw talent to a group of mature, refined players that can now, truly, be called a team. Rather than using three attacking midfielders, Heynckes has had Arturo Vidal drop deeper to help anchor the midfield with Simon Rolfes, a tactical tweak that has had a fourfold benefit: 1) Vidal is more at home in a deeper role 2) Rolfes is no longer stuck in position and can move forward to score and assist goals 3) Tranquillo Barnetta and Augusto/Toni Kroos have a bit more freedom as full-fledged attackers and most importantly 4) the defence has a greatly increased buffer zone in midfield.

With Rolfes, Patrick Helmes and Michal Kadlec approaching returns from injury (and Augusto likely to be available by January), it’s hard to see Leverkusen becoming anything but better in the upcoming months. Then again, they’ve earned the nickname 'Neverkusen' for a reason…

After Leverkusen, the only other candidates for serious title challengers appear to be Werder Bremen, although die Gruen Weissen have serious obstacles ahead. I’ll count them as the team with best odds of ousting Leverkusen because Schalke have only managed draws against their toughest foes and Hamburg seem lost without Mladen Petric and Jose Paolo Guerrero. It is, of course, far too early to call: the real test of Werder’s mettle comes in their next five matches, which include encounters with Wolfsburg, Schalke and Hamburg.

Finally, I’d like to follow-up on an article I wrote two weeks ago regarding Bayern’s prolonged spell of underachievement. Therein, I suggested that Bayern’s players (and not coach Louis van Gaal) should be held accountable for their poor performance. Accordingly, I applaud Mark van Bommel for comments he made after Bayern’s 2-0 home loss to Bordeaux last Tuesday: “I should have been there for the first goal - it was my fault,” he said. Right you are, Mark, and right you are to admit fault. Now, if only you could avoid these mistakes in the future…

But there’s more drama from FC Hollywood. I’ll more or less ignore Luca Toni’s premature exit from the Allianz Arena during Saturday’s match with Schalke and move right on to the kind of stuff that Gossip Girl episodes are made of: Philipp Lahm’s scandalous interview with Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

Lahm raised a really valid point: that Bayern’s lack of a consistent footballing philosophy has caused the once brilliant German side to become mediocre at best. Here’s what he had to say:

“If you want to compete with Barcelona, Chelsea, Manchester United, then Bayern needs a playing philosophy. That has to be the goal of the club… Clubs like Manchester or Barcelona have a system and then you buy personnel for the system. You bring specific players and then you have a team. Something like that doesn't exist here.”

It’s true: Barca have played 4-3-3 for years, and look what it’s gotten them: two Champions League titles in four years. I wouldn’t be surprised if every Barca team down to the U-10’s uses the same set-up. The primary advantage of having a long standing philosophy is that all players understand what is expected of them, their team-mates and what they must do individually and collectively to win. Most simply put, Barca’s players know the system through and through. Bayern’s look around, shrug, make a wish and pass to Franck Ribery or Arjen Robben.

But the point of having a well-known system goes beyond creativity. When you compare Bayern’s set-up to that of the 2008-09 Manchester United, the differences are amazing: whereas United were extremely well organised and difficult to score against, Bayern’s defence has been notoriously leaky in recent years. It’s taken a turn for the better since the days of Juergen Klinsmann, but is still lacking, especially from set plays and counter-attacks, as we saw in the Bordeaux and Schalke matches.

Lahm was not done yet though:

"The club has to say, when a new coach comes, this is how we play ... We have many players that have no position now in a 4-3-3 system that our coach would like to use, for example our strikers. We have really good forwards but if you play 4-3-3, two or three of them are always on the bench…If you buy Mario Gomez, then you have to say, OK, we play with two strikers. We played the entire pre-season with two strikers. And then suddenly, we get (Arjen) Robben, a great player who fits with us - and who prefers the 4-3-3 system. You can't simply buy players because they are good."

“You can’t buy players because they are good.” Simple, but profound. Unlike many pundits, I actually think that Bayern includes a massive wealth of talent. However, Lahm is absolutely correct: the current team has been assembled from a number of individuals who were deemed “good,” but did not necessarily fit into any game plan. That was precisely how Bayern paid a record price for an unneeded Mario Gomez: the board deemed him a very good player, and it didn’t particularly matter that Bayern already had Miro Klose, Luca Toni and Ivica Olic as available centre forwards. It didn’t even matter that the new coach, Louis van Gaal, favours the 4-3-3 system in which only one of the above could play at a time. But Gomez was signed, and the others retained. It would have been easy to offload at least one striker in order to raise funds to force a swap for another top-class fullback, but the ever-stubborn Bayern board decided that if Jose Bosingwa was off the table, it would be best to recruit a one-footed central defender with no offensive prowess (Edson Braafheid) to become the new Bayern left-back. As many anti-romantics say, never commit yourself to one person if you can avoid it.

Lahm has since been fined an estimated (and unprecedented) €50,000 for telling the truth, but gets the last laugh: the fact that Bayern cannot afford to suspend him is a testament to just how right he is. One day, he’ll make a great coach…or general manager.

Bundesliga/Serie A Coefficient Watch: Round 4

Once again, the Italians won, but at least it was by a closer margin than in Round 3. On average, German teams improved upon their previous performances, earning three wins, two draws and just one defeat.

Wolfsburg were 3-0 winners away to in-form Besiktas, and now are on the verge of qualifying for the knockout stage. In contrast with the home leg, Wolfsburg struck early thanks to a 27-yard blast from Zvjezdan Misimovic, and the home side had no choice but to chase the game. Wolfsburg stuck to their game plan and struck twice on the break to secure three points.

Unlike their Bundesliga rivals, Bayern have all but failed to advance. The Bavarian ex-giants again lost to Bordeaux—this time at home—and featured an offense with all the sharpness of a butter knife. Not only must Bayern win their next two fixtures (including a match away to Juventus), but they depend on Bordeaux to hold Juventus to a point or less in order to slip into second place. The situation is dire: a look at this season’s coefficients indicates that there are 44 teams with better European records than Bayern, and that only Hertha Berlin have been worse as Bundesliga representatives/

Elsewhere, Stuttgart avoided defeat to Sevilla and were arguably the better side in Andalusia, but took just a point after falling behind early. In Europa League play, Hamburg drew with Celtic, but Hertha and Bremen beat Heerenveen and Austria Wein thanks to late heroics.

Bundesliga fans will remain disappointed, however, because Serie A remains Europe’s most successful league thanks to impressive results from Inter, Fiorentina, Juventus, Genoa and Roma. Click here for the latest coefficients.

Goal of the Week: Toni Kroos, Leverkusen 3-0 Frankfurt

Is this déjà vu? Didn’t we see the same goal a week ago? Click here to see the German U-21 international smack home a cracking effort. Take note of its “frozen rope” trajectory and precise accuracy. The Bayern loanee has really come on strong as of late, and due to Renato Augusto’s knee operation, will have at least until January to convince Juup Heynckes that he deserves a starting role somewhere in midfield. If and when he returns to Munich, maybe he won’t be stuck on the bench after all…

Most Predictable Match of the Week: Bayern 1-1 Schalke

Predictable because:
-It ended in a low-scoring draw.
-Schalke came back again.
-Bayern caved under mild pressure and failed to capitalise on their huge possessional advantage.
-18-year old Joel Matip scored in his Bundesliga debut, providing further evidence that Felix Magath is a genius.
-Central defender Daniel van Buyten was Bayern’s only attacking threat.

[n]Match of the Week: Hoffenheim 1-2 Wolfsburg[/b]

In many ways, a game of two halves. Ralf Rangnick took the right approach by using two holding midfielders, effectively eliminating Zvjezdan Misimovic in the first half. His team used its superior width and laid siege to the Wolfsburg goal, earning a 1-0 advantage at the half thanks to Vedad Ibisevic. Everything changed after the break. Misimovic equalized from a cross in the 52nd minute, and Grafite gave his team the lead five minutes later. A goal down, Rangnick was forced to withdraw defensive midfielder Isaac Vorsah in favour of Demba Ba, at which time Misimovic became much more free to ply his trade. The Wolfsburg machine was in full gear, and for all their efforts, Hoffe were ultimately powerless to stop it.

Clark Whitney, Goal.com

Germany and Hannover goalkeeper Robert Enke has died at the age of 32.

Hannover 96 president Martin Kind announced the death of the former Barcelona stopper on Tuesday afternoon, according to the agency dpa.

Nothing has yet been confirmed about the cause of death, but German source Morgenpost Online, early signs point towards suicide.

The website quotes a spokesperson from the Hannover police as saying, "Enke has thrown himself under a train at Neustadt am Rübenberge."

The incident is said to have taken place in the small town of Neustadt at around 18:25 local time. There has yet been no formal verdict of suicide, but police will give a press conference at 21:00 with more details.