© AP
In the Bundesliga there is a winter break. The teams played the first round successfully, despite the fact that in the last rounds of the Bundesliga there were already missing football fans in the stands. In the German championship, "Bayern" leads confidently, with a 9-point advantage over the main competitor, Dortmund's "Borussia", who entered the winter break with only 4 points from 12 possible in the last 4 matches. "Borussia" has also dropped out of the Champions League early in the season, but it seems that coach Marco Rose's seat is safe and more warm than hot. The sensation of the season so far is the "Freiburg" team, coached by Christian Streich for over 10 years. It's unlikely that these Bundesliga underdogs will stay in the top four until the end of the season, but dreaming about other European tournaments is definitely possible.
The "Bayer" game is currently based on the performance of the young German sensation Florian Wirtz and the highly productive Czech Patrick Schick. F. Wirtz has scored 8 goals and made 11 assists for Leverkusen this season. P. Schick has 16 goals in the Bundesliga. Teams worth mentioning are "Hoffenheim" and Berlin's "Union". The Berlin team shows stable play, despite struggling in the early part of the season in the Conference League. And "Hoffenheim" seems likely to return to its better times when the team was coached by Julian Nagelsmann.
Frankfurt's "Eintracht" is one of the teams that has managed to bounce back after a tough start to the Bundesliga season. One of the reasons for the difficult start to the season was that former Wolfsburg coach Oliver Glasner took over the team during the offseason. Apparently, the new strategy needed time to settle in, as in the last 7 matches "Eintracht" won 19 points in the Bundesliga, compared to just 8 points in the previous 10 games. In the Europa League, however, the Frankfurt team looked successful and advanced to the next stage.
The underachievers of the first half of the season are "RB Leipzig", Borussia Moenchengladbach, and Wolfsburg. All of these teams have already changed coaches, except for "Borussia", who still trust Adi Hutter. The new "RB Leipzig" coach Domenico Tedesco has only had a few games at the helm of the new team, while "Wolfsburg" new coach Florian Kohfeldt had more time but did not make any difference, replacing head coach Mark van Bommel.
It will be interesting to see what the Borussia Moenchengladbach team will do next. It is likely that they will continue with Austrian A. Hutter as head coach, but it is doubtful that they will be able to dream about European tournament positions in the second half of the season. The team looks solid, but currently struggles to find its game. The absolute underachievers in the league are the newcomers "Greuther Furth". This Bundesliga team managed to get 4 points in the last 3 rounds and recorded their first victory against Berlin's "Union". However, the question remains whether this will lead the team to stay in the Bundesliga.
In this season, Robert Lewandowski is currently leading the race for the Bundesliga top scorer, with Patrick Schick following closely. The Pole has scored 19 goals, while the Czech - as mentioned - has 16. Erling Haaland, who has been sidelined with an injury for a month, has 13 goals. The player with the most assists in the Bundesliga is Thomas Muller with a large number of 13 assists. Following the "Bayern" creator are these players: Florian Wirtz (8) and Andrej Kramaric (7). The Bundesliga returns on January 7th in Munich, when "Bayern" will face Borussia Moenchengladbach.
