Wolfsburg Bundesliga Season Preview

Back in the late Seventies, an American rental-car company built an advertizing campaign around the fact that the firm wasn't as big as its chief competitors. "We're number two - we try harder" was the main claim. That slogan would be an equally apt description for Wolfsburg's approach heading into the 2015/16 season.

The reigning Bundesliga runners-up and German Cup winners haven't made many changes to their squad one week before the new season kicks off, and arguably they don't need to. The Wolves' biggest acquisition of the summer was Germany striker Max Kruse, a proverbial two-bird-killing stone. His arrival provides an alternative to hot-and-cold forward Bas Dost, while robbing rivals Mönchengladbach of a player who scored 23 goals for them in 66 games. Wolfsburg are rumored to be interested in Bayern midfielder Sebastian Rode and Stuttgart's Antonio Rüdiger, but at this point that's all these two potential signings are: rumors.

The Wolves' squad is solid from front to back. On paper, the talent of the Volkswagen-sponsored club is surpassed only by Bayern Munich. Wolfsburg's coaches and managers know they won't be able to close that gap any time soon, so they're hoping that continuity and team spirit will put them in a position to pounce if the three-time defending league champs get complacent or distracted by their international duties.

On the question of whether the team is ready to make a run at Bayern, the preseason noises coming out of Germany's motor city have been contradictory.

"It would be great if we could just catch up a little," sports director Klaus Allofs said at the start of the Wolves' training camp. "Anything more than that isn't in our hands. It's down to Bayern Munich."

But Wolfsburg 's triumph over a motivated Bayern Munich side in the Supercup had Wolfsburg coach Dieter Hecking using a more aggressive choice of words.

"We're team that can always fight back," Hecking said in his post-game analysis. "We've tasted blood with our second title in eight weeks."

The man in the middle

So can Wolfsburg really claim their second-ever Bundesliga crown? Most German football experts think that if anyone is capable of toppling Bayern, it's the Wolves. Last campaign, the men in green showed that they could take down the Bundesliga's best, beating Bayern, Mönchengladbach and Leverkusen (twice). They ended up ten points behind Bayern because they squandered opportunities against the league's cannon fodder, racking up nine draws.

Away form is another obvious area for improvement. The Wolves were undefeated at home - something not even Bayern could say - but they barely had a winning record away from the Volkswagen Arena. Wolfsburg created more than enough footage for the highlight reels last season. Where they need to improve is grinding out potentially ugly wins away from home against inferior opposition.

The player who is going to be key in that area is Kevin de Bruyne. The midfielder, who set a new Bundesliga assist record in 2014/15, is not only in the thick of things in terms of his position. He has become the undisputed team leader. When he first joined the Wolves from Chelsea in the winter of 2014, de Bruyne was a reedy, if prodigiously gifted youngster. While no one would mistake him for Roy Keane or Patrick Vieira, the Belgian has visibly pumped up and now has physical muscle to complement his ball skills. If he can assert himself as Wolfsburg's man in the middle and help players like André Schürrle and Nicklas Bendtner achieve their potential, the Wolves could indeed give Bayern a run for their money.

The catch may be money of the non-figurative sort. Manchester City is rumored to be offering in excess of 70 million euros ($76.7 million) to sign de Bruyne, and the 24-year-old has refused to categorically rule out a move away from Wolfsburg this season. Whether that's because it's ludicrous for footballers to rule out anything concerning the transfer market these days, or because de Bruyne is indeed lured by Mancunian petro-dollars is anybody's guess. Common sense would suggest that a talent like de Bruyne won't be content in the provinces of Lower Saxony for his entire career. The Wolves are hoping he sees enough promise in the squad to stick around Wolfsburg long enough to earn some more silverware.