“Ones to watch” for Bundesliga Matchday 8

Good form, lucky match-up or just a special situation – here are five players you need to look out for on matchday 8 of the Bundesliga!

1.Tom Rothe (Union Berlin)

Starting off this week’s list is a player only Bundesliga (or 2. Bundesliga) experts had on their radar before the start of the season: Union Berlin’s new leftback Tom Rothe. After a brilliant season for Kiel in the Germany’s 2nd tier in 2023/24, in which Rothe contributed to 11 goals (!), he was ready for the next step and regular playing time in the Bundesliga.

His youth club Borussia Dortmund however did not envision Rothe in their first team and couldn’t promise him any game time – that’s why Rothe made the decision to join Union Berlin who just came from an underwhelming campaign in which they finished in the 15th spot.

And after just 7 games in the Bundesliga, Dortmund are likely regretting letting Rothe go: he fought his way into Union Berlin’s starting line up and already has 3 goal contributions to his name. It’s also thanks to Rothe that Union Berlin are currently the side with the biggest improvement in terms of ranks in the league out of the top 5 leagues in europe! (From 15th to 4th → +11 ranks!)

After his goal and assist in Union Berlin’s 2-0 victory over his former side Kiel last week, Rothe will be espacially motivated to keep this upward trend going. Next up: Bundesliga’s 3rd biggest surprise team this season… Eintracht Frankfurt. That means it’s the battle between the 2nd best defense (Union Berlin, 4 goals conceded) against the 3rd best attack (Frankfurt, 15 goals) – let’s see who will prevail.

2.Robert Andrich (Bayer Leverkusen)

Bayer Leverkusen are seemingly struggling to find consistency this season so far: 3 draws in the last 5 games are not enough the new expectations of Xabi Alonso’s side. While some players have a hard time finding their form of last season, others kept going like nothing happened. One of these players is Robert Andrich.

He’s been the key man in Leverkusen’s battle against Frankfurt last week, ultimately crowning his stellar performance with a goal in his side’s 2-1 victory. (If you’re a fan of tiki-taka football, you should consider rewatching Andrich’s goal before matchday 8!)

Leverkusen come up against Werder Bremen on Saturday in the Bundesliga’s match of the week; the reason for it’s placement might have to do with the last three results: Leverkusen have beaten Bremen 3-2, 3-0 and 5-0 since March 2023, meaning that this match-up is likely to include many goals again.

Bremen have shown a “never give up” mentality in their games against Wolfsburg (4-2 win after falling behind) and Hoffenheim (4-3 win after falling behind) – Andrich will be the perfect man for giving Leverkusen stability and security in midfield and defense, so that Bremen won’t also come back against “die Werkself”!

3. Vincenzo Grifo (SC Freiburg)

As mentioned earlier, Union Berlin and Frankfurt are two of the biggest surprise teams of the Bundesliga so far. The only team to top them is SC Freiburg. Nobody would have expected Freiburg to perfrom this well after legendary coach Christian Streich has departed them at the end of the 2023/24 season.

However, his successor (and long time player) Julian Schuster made sure that Freiburg fans won’t have to look into the past for glorious times: Freiburg are currently 3rd in the Bundesliga, above Leverkusen, Dortmund, Stuttgart and Frankfurt! Even though it’s difficult to give one player more credit than others, I’ve decided to highlight the (already) club legend that is Vincenzo Grifo.

The Italian winger is once again proving to be one of the most consistently good performing players in the Bundesliga: 7 goal contributions in 7 games are outstanding, even for him! His exceptional form has given Freiburg the ability to seemlessly integrate youth players into their side over the years who have now become proven Bundesliga players.

Grifo alone has been responsible for over a third of Freiburg’s current points tally (15) with his direct goal involvements (5/7 of his goal involvements led to Freiburg getting 6 points). This makes him one of the most influential Bundesliga players right now.

Freiburg come up against RB Leipzig, against whom Grifo has scored in their last match-up (1-4 loss). Let’s see if he can help his team make the jump over Leipzig to potentially 2nd or 1st place in the Bundesliga.

4.Serge Gnabry (Bayern Munich)

Bayern Munich find themselves in a difficult spot: they play outstanding attacking football, score many goals which so far have led them to 1st place in the Bundesliga. On the other hand, their new strategy has also left them defensively exposed, leading to them being far behind their expectations in the Champions League.

It seems like Bayern’s opponent play a major role in their succes this season: against strong sides, Bayern were not able to succeed as they hoped to (1-4 loss aginst Barcelona, 3-3 draw against Frankfurt, 1-0 loss against Aston Villa, 1-1 draw against Leverkusen).

When it comes to “weaker” opponents however, Bayern seem to find a lot of success with their attacking football (5-0 win against Bremen, 9-2 win against Zagreb, 6-1 win against Kiel, 4-0 win against Ulm).

While candidates like Kane, Olise and Musiala have performed outstandningly well so far in this season, I’ve decided to highlight a player who will want to get back to his best form over the next few weeks: Serge Gnabry.

A good start to the season with 4 goal contributions in his first 4 games have seemingly made Gnabry get back some of the confidence he had in his earlier years in Munich. While the last few weeks haven’t been a great success for Gnabry and Bayern, Kompany still puts his trust in the German winger and lets him start in most of the games.

Bayern have a history of scoring many goals against their upcoming opponent, VfL Bochum: 20 goals in the last 4 games are a clear sign of dominance. This could well be the game in which Gnabry can tank some confidence for the upcoming challenges!

5.Maximilian Mittelstädt (VfB Stuttgart)

After last week’s 0-4 loss against Bayern Munich, many fans feared for their club in their game against Juventus Turin in the Champions League. But against many expectations, Stuttgart were able to win the game 1-0!

This boost in morale might be what the “Vizemeister” needed to finally get going in the 2024/25 season. Similar to Leverkusen, Stuttgart are on the back of an incredible season in which they’ve finished 2nd. The club has lost some key players (Ito, Anton, Guirassy) to direct opponents, but Stuttgart are still able to play their attractive style of football week in week out – only the results have been missing so far.

Stuttgart find themselves in 10th spot in the Bundesliga – far behind where they want to be. One player who was able to keep up his form into this season has been leftback Maximilian Mittelstädt – yes, the list started with a German leftback and it will end with one! So far Mittelstädt was able to help his side with 3 assists in the league: 2nd in the Bundesliga.

His consistent perfomances give Stuttgart newly formed defense a lot of stability and head coach Sebastian Hoeneß know what he has in his starting leftback. Stuttgart now come up against Kiel who are yet to get a victory in this Bundesliga season. A stat which has been mentioned before in the “Ones to watch” articles is that Kiel have conceded at least 2 goals in every leage game so far – this remains true after their last two games against Union Berlin and Leverkusen (0-2, 2-2).

Since Rothe was able to be the star performer against Kiel from leftback, don’t be surprised if Mittelstädt achieves the same on Saturday.