After last seasons disastrous Bundesliga campaign, Hoffenheim are team striving to improve on their league standing. Their 16th place finish meant they had to go through the Bundesliga relegation playoff in which they narrowly avoided relegated after defeating Kaiserslautern 5-2 on aggregate. With so many experienced pro’s on big wages not pulling their weight such as Eren Derdiyok, Matthieu Delpierre and Tim Wiese to name a few, it was a travesty for the club to be positioned so low. But with all the negatives there are always some shining lights and in this case it saw the emergence of two players, Kevin Volland and Roberto Firmino.

Kevin Volland was bought in 2012 from 1860 Munchen, the young German has been capped many times by the German under 21 side and has risen through the German youth setup gaining caps at nearly every level. Frimino came from his native Brazil in the winter of 2010 from Figueirense and made is debut in early 2011 after the German winter break.

Both players offer Hoffenheim a variety of options with their versatility with both being able to play on the left and the right, with Volland able to play as a the striker and Firmino able to play as a number 10.

Volland over the last season became one of the first names of the Hoffenheim team sheet with his dribbling skills and tricks causing Bundesliga defenders many problems. Hopefully Roberto Firmino can join him in doing so if he eventually changes his billy big boys attitude and he could certainly learn to model himself after Volland. It is amazing how to young kids at one club can have to completely different personalities.

This season I don’t foresee a relegation battle for Hoffenheim with these two in the team, a good midtable finish should be easily within grasp for them. With both players tearing Hamburg apart at the weekend in a 5-1 victory at the Imtech Arena with Firmino scoring twice and laying off three assists whilst Volland scored the second goal after Rafael Van Der Vaart’s equalizer.

I’m really excited about seeing the continued development of the two players who could make a decent name for themselves in the future both domestically in Germany and potentially for their national teams.

So remember the names Kevin Volland and Roberto Firmino!

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