Welcome to the inaugural edition of Month End Wrap-Up’s (name still pending)! With these [hopefully] monthly articles, we’ll take a look around the league and see how things stand, who has impressed, and whatever
other tasty tidbits of news I can dig up. Think of this article as the guinea pig for it all, testing the waters to see if this is something you devoted readers would enjoy seeing.
A Glance at the Standings
Well that’s hardly shocking. Bayern Munich sits atop the table, as per standard practice, but Dortmund has done a fair job keeping pace. Minus that unfortunate stumble against the ever resolute St Pauli, Dortmund has shattered everyone’s expectations by starting strong and not chasing the season. Furthermore, they’ve shown the winning resolve and strong tactical organization required to challenge for the title this season. It will be difficult to catch Bayern this year it seems though, with this start being a record for the first five games in the league.
Below the two frontrunners sits Leipzig, who have managed a surprisingly capable but placid start. Despite their uninspiring score lines, they’ve performed well and in the end, secured the points needed to remain close to the top, although it is doubtful they’ll challenge for the title. Below are the odd bunch: strong teams full of potential that have been struggling for a variety of reasons. Leverkusen is a mess since their off-season squad decimation, chugging along on shear force of talent. Stuttgart is still coming off a shaky season and while some of this has carried through, recent games suggest they may finally buck this trend. And Frankfurt, well, they are currently both second place in goals for and goals against. Who needs a defense anyways.
Below the European places come the “sevens”, a pack of five teams sitting all on seven points. FC Köln is a surprise inclusion here, knocking right on the door of the European places and exceeding many expectations. St Pauli also deserve some credit for their strong start, beyond the seven points they have secured, Alexander Blessin has managed to greatly improve the side’s attacking output, gaining more points, goals, xG and xGA, without sacrificing their defensive roots. Freiburg, Hoffenheim, and Union Berlin are a mixed bag, while each team has won some resounding and impressive victories, they’ve lacked the consistency and suffered equally impressive defeats.
This brings us to the bottom of the table, a combination of underperforming sides and expected relegation candidates. HSV, Augsburg, and Heidenheim were all more or less expected to be here in this basement duel, although many did have higher hopes for the promising Sandro Wagner to lead Augsburg up the table. Heidenheim should have been the clearest relegation candidate, with a lacklustre summer transfer window and already weak squad, but Gladbach saw this and thought, “I can do worse”. Zero goals until matchday four, no wins after matchday five, and a solid two points to their name for the five times Bundesliga champions. Their only redemption thus far has been the WWE smackdown that was their last game, where they conceded 6 goals in 50 minutes, only to come back and score 4 goals in the final 30. Truly wild stuff. Wolfsburg, despite showing some promise and undergoing a partial rebuild, have been unable to score enough goals and are being punished for that. The Carnival club is in a similar boat, having lost their top goalscorer in the Bundesliga, Jonnie Burkhardt to Frankfurt, and record signing Benedict Hollerbach to injury. Hardly regarded as a attacking-centric side, they have struggled to make do this season without their star striker. Finally, Hospital FC, Werder Bremen, have had to contend with a brutal injury crisis early that ate up SIX of their defenders, and despite this all, still succeeded in getting both Erik ten Haag and Gerardo Seoane fired.
Team of the Month: FC Köln
Given Bayern Munich’s historic start, it feels almost insulting not to talk about them. But beyond their thumping of Leipzig 6-0, Bayern’s match-ups haven’t exactly been remarkable. While many could have predicted the Bavarians flying out of the gate hot, few would have guessed the success freshly promoted FC Köln would enjoy. To give some reference with a similar shock performer, lets take a look at the 2023/2024 season and everyone’s favourite underdog, FC Heidenheim. In their debut season, where they would qualify for the Europa Conference League, they sat in 13th by matchday five, with 4 points. Not since Stuttgart’s promotion in the 2020-2021 has a promoted team sat as high as Köln in the table. Most importantly though, none of Köln’s games have been against easy opponents, with three matches against teams in the top half of the table, and the other two against struggling but strong sides, Wolfsburg and Mainz. While seven points and seventh place might not seem like much, it is their performance in these matches, even their defeats, that lends to their praise.
Under new head coach Lucas Kwasniok, Köln have set out to become a defensively compact side that relies on explosive transition play to score goals. The wingers have been their shining gems, eight of their ten goals have been scored by them, through the likes of Jan Thielmann, Jakub Kaminski, Marius Butler, or Said El Mala. These wingers deploy wide in the build-up play, using their pace or dribbling talents to move the ball up the field. Near goal however, they tighten up and provide a goal scoring threat, either hanging back behind the striker, or making the far post late runs. The rapid shift from the flanks to striker territory often allows them to lose their fullback markers, leaving them open to shoot on the exposed keepers. This offense has been a capable threat every match the team has played, evidenced by the fact that even in their defeats, they’ve always inflicted a goal on their opponents.
While Köln have been impressive, it is important to note that its only the early season. Stuttgart and Bremen, who both attained similar results in their early debut seasons, finished 9th and 13th respectively. Still, I doubt any Köln fan would complain if they achieved similar results, survival in the Bundesliga is the goal above all.
Honourable mention to Borussia Monchengladbach, who also surprised everyone, but for all the wrong reasons.
BVB Player of the Month: Karim Adeyemi
The winner of the inaugural Player of the Month Award, courtesy of FeartheWall, is Karim Adeyemi. Continuing his solid run of form from the latter half of the last season, Adeyemi has been steadily improving over the past months and his performance’s have shown it. With 3 goals and 3 assists across all competitions, he has made a definitive impact and can be given substantial credit for contributing to BVB’s good run of form. Most importantly though, he has matured under Kovac and has shown a remarkable amount of composure, awareness and consistency to his game that he always struggled with before. The game against Heidenheim highlighted this change: he resisted efforts by Benedikt Gimber to goad him into a second yellow after recieving an early card, then after a superb run in behind the line, he got his head up and made the pass to Maxi Beier, who scored an easy goal as a result. In the match against Juventus, he proved he can carry this form against top competition as well. His individual talent was on full display with the brilliant goal he crafted for himself, and while he earned an assist, it was his rapid passes with Beier and Guirassy that were more impressive, setting up the latter with a gift of an opportunity. At the rate Adeyemi is playing, he is well on his way to becoming the star player of BVB, and if they are to challenge Bayern for the title, they’ll need everything he can give.
Your thoughts?
Is this a series you’d all like to see in the future? Any categories you’d like added or removed? We’d appreciate your feedback in the comments below, along with any snippets from the opening month(s) of the season you found interesting.
