Bayern Munich opened up matchday 15 of the Bundesliga, the final one before the winter break, with a 5-1 thumping of RB Leipzig.
The goals and surprises continued to flow on Saturday afternoon, Mainz despite being down to 10 men beat Eintracht Frankfurt 3-1, St Pauli won their first-ever game against VfB Stuttgart 1-0, and there were goals galore for Holstein Kiel who beat Augsburg 5-1 and Werder Bremen who beat Union Berlin 4-1. While to round of the afternoon kick-offs, Borussia Mönchengladbach beat Hoffenheim 2-1.
Here are 3 things we learnt:
The strength of the Bundesliga midtable shows:
If Bayern Munich were not looking so strong, this would be an all-time Bundesliga season. The gap between third and 11 is currently only six points while Bayern are nine points off of third in first. The strength of the teams in the mid-table were shown again today as Mainz once again put in a strong defensive performance, whilst also taking advantage of several mistakes to beat Frankfurt. Bremen also rose into the European places today as they comfortably beat Union.
These teams have replaced Stuttgart and Dortmund who have been victims of performances from the midtable sides. On top of this, we have also seen the resurgence of both Gladbach and Wolfsburg this season to close the gap.
The constant tripping up of the ‘bigger’ sides has resulted in Bayern’s only challenger being Bayer Leverkusen. However, Bayern themselves are not prone to this as they too dropped points against Mainz last weekend.
Eintracht Frankfurt hit the buffers:
Frankfurt ends the year on a sour note. Not only did they fail to make use of their dominance against Mainz but they practically gifted the 05ers the win due to several errors. Die Adler have also not won since the beginning of the month and ended the year on a five-match winless run.
This form has brought Frankfurt back down to earth (insert clipped bird wings pun), whilst it has also at times shown their overreliance on the front two of Omar Marmoush and Hugo Ekitike. The winter break will give Frankfurt the chance to regroup, potentially make further additions to their squad and continue their hunt for Champions League football, which is a much more realistic goal than being thrown in the mix with Bayern and Leverkusen for the title.
Werder Bremen are underrated:
As previously mentioned, Bremen are not sixth in the table and it has been a quiet rise under Ole Werner since they were promoted back into the Bundesliga. Last season was a glimpse of it as they finished ninth, but now they end the year in the European places. This season alone they have drawn with Leverkusen, Stuttgart and Dortmund showing that under Werner they have developed into a difficult team to beat and are also no longer reliant on Marvin Ducksch as Marco Grüll, Mitchell Weiser and Jens Stage all chipped in with goals.
Why Bremen are underrated is hard to point out. Despite winning the Bundesliga 20 years ago, they lack the type of ‘aura’ that Stuttgart carried with them last season as their football is not as free-flowing and fun but it gets the job done and as Bremen are currently three places ahead of Stuttgart, it kind of makes everything I have just said redundant.
As it is the holiday season, you can get one more thing we learnt (but the title won’t change as it will ruin the continuity of the piece).
Holstein Kiel give themselves hope:
Did I the writer write off Kiel last weekend, yes, yes I did. Do I now look like an idiot, potentially.
The most surprising result of this weekend was Kiel’s 5-1 win against Augsburg, mainly due to the fact that they were leading 4-1 at halftime. This type of result will give the most Northern side in Germany a much-needed boost knowing that come the second half of the season they have the ability to try and close the gap on Heidenheim, Hoffenheim and St Pauli.
One thing is certain, Shuto Machino will be a Bundesliga player next season.
GGFN | Jack Meenan
