BACK in 2019 you would 20 minutes of a Bundesliga game at the weekend, you’d watch all the goals at the end of the weekend, and click on a tweet saying “OMG INCREDIBLE SANCHO SKILLS”, but redesigning your whole weekend around the best Germany’s top-flight has to offer was the realm of the purist and the continental expert.
No longer; this weekend sees the Bundesliga return for what is technically matchday 26 but what is in actual fact THE RETURN OF BIG FIVE LEAGUE FOOTBALL. The last thing you want is to look behind the curve when it all kicks off on Saturday so here’s a quick guide to some number-based trends you can fall back on.
The Bundesliga is still goals central, right?
Yes. If you enjoy goals you’ll be right at home here. The Bundesliga tends to outscore all of the other big European Leagues most seasons but this campaign has been verging on ridiculous. 3.25 per match is miles, sorry kilometres, ahead of the next highest, Serie A on 2.91 and that BL scoring rate is the highest the German top-flight has seen since 1984-85. Leading the way are Bayern with 2.92 just by themselves, higher on their own than the average game in Italy, England, Spain and France.
I suppose Bayern are going to win the league again?
It’s eight years since someone other than the Bavarians won the title, and they are four points clear as it stands, but there’s a tight pack of Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, Borussia Monchengladbach and Bayer Leverkusen behind them. Leverkusen have taken 19 points from the eight games so far in the second half of the season, tying a club record set in 2000 while Dortmund are the only unbeaten home team left in the top three divisions in Germany. Facing their local rivals Schalke in the first game back will be a test of that record, though.
Ah yeah, Dortmund. Jadon Sancho’s Dortmund
That’s right. Sancho has scored in each of Dortmund’s last seven Bundesliga home games, which is… decent. He’s also racked up 15 assists so far this season, putting him only one behind leader Thomas Muller in the charts. Overall, Sancho’s league numbers at Dortmund are 27 goals and 33 assists and he only turned 20 in March. In fact, of the goals and assists provided by the 224 players born in 2000 or later to ever play in one of Europe’s big five leagues, Sancho has is responsible for 22% of them. That’s reasonable.
20 – Since August 2018, only Lionel Messi (21) & Kylian Mbappé (21) have been involved in more goals following a ball carry within the top 5 Euro leagues than Jadon Sancho.
We look at what makes the young English forward such an exciting prospect. Ace.https://t.co/XkQQDXgHQe pic.twitter.com/DrPwpsrnUL
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) May 13, 2020
And now he’s supplying Erling Haaland…
Yes, Haaland has eased himself into the Bundesliga with nine goals and an assist in his first eight league games for the club. On his own so far this year Haaland has racked up an xG of 5.62, which is more than Werder Bremen have as a team in the same period.
Robert Lewandowksi is still the end of level boss, though?
It looked like an injury against Chelsea in the Champions would cause the Pole to miss a fair bit of the rest of the season but the lockdown pause has allowed him to alternate between regaining fitness and spending some quality time on TikTok. 25 goals so far is the most by a player at this stage since Gerd Muller in 1972. Lewandowski has scored 20+ goals in eight of the last nine Bundesliga seasons and has scored 34 goals in his last 34 league appearances. The Last Dance? We can but hope.
Thomas Muller is still effective then?
16 assists after 25 games would suggest so. It’s the best rate at this point in the campaign since Kevin De Bruyne had 16 at this stage in 2014-15. The Belgian ended that season with 20 for the campaign, a total that Muller could obliterate if he comes out of lockdown in fine fettle.
Enough with the heroes. Who’s on the slide?
After matchday 18 Schalke were only three points behind Bayern but haven’t won any of their last seven games have are now 18 adrift and look like they’ll struggle to even hang on to a place in the top six. Is this the worst run manager David Wagner has ever endured? Possibly not. Meanwhile bottom club Paderborn have only 16 points this season, no club with a total that low at this stage has ever stayed up.
I am feeling much more enlightened. Before you go, can you hit with me a massive load of possibly useful information?
Of course. Union Berlin goalkeeper Rafal Gikiewicz has had two shots so far, something for Bayern to watch out for in their first game back. Another Union player, Robert Andrich, had had the most shots without scoring this season (40) so perhaps Bayern don’t need to watch out for him. The unluckiest creator so far has been Mainz’s Aaron Martin who has served up 28 chances for his teammates this season without seeing any of them scored.
Tottenham and Chelsea slayer Serge Gnabry has been involved in 15 goals in 14 BL games under head coach Hansi Flick, oh and Paderborn’s Dennis Srbeny has lost all four Bundesliga games in which he has scored so far. No player in Bundesliga history has ever lost the first five matches in which he has scored. Keep going Dennis.
