The winners
Yussuf Poulsen
Okay, so can we consider the October goal of the month award done and dusted? Anyone hoping to score a better goal than that of Marco van, sorry, Yussuf Poulsen is clearly in dreamland as the Danish forward’s sublime strike seconds after coming on in the second half against Augsburg might as well have the goal of the season vote annulled as well.
Words don’t really do his wonder strike justice, so we’ll let the pictures tell the story.
“Yussi’s goal was a beautiful one and will likely be among the ones nominated for Goal of the Month” RB trainer Julian Nagelsmann said. “It’s a difficult strike to pull off, especially with your left foot – a really nice goal”.
The player himself was equally as understated saying: “I’m really pleased with my goal. The ball from Dani Olmo came right into my path and I just thought I’d hit it. I only know that it was my first touch – I couldn’t tell you how many seconds it was!”
Marco Reus
For once it wasn’t one of Borussia Dortmund’s teenagers who grabbed the headlines, but Marco Reus. The captain came off the bench in the 64th minute at the PreZero Arena to score the only goal of the game against Hoffenheim.
It was his first goal since February after an injury has kept him on the periphery of the Schwarzgelben first team. In that time youngsters Erling Haaland, Jadon Sancho, Gio Reyna and Jude Bellingham have been grabbing the plaudits. Reus will want to prove there is life in the ‘old’ dog yet.
“It was important today that we got the decisive goal. It became apparent early on that the team that scored the first goal would have a good chance of winning the match” he said after the match. “We have always really struggled here in recent years. It was an even game. In the second half, though, we created more chances for ourselves. We attacked better and also managed to get in behind them. There were three points up for grabs today and we got them. Hoffenheim are strong at home. They play with a good system and it was very difficult for us today, as has been the case in recent years too.”
Robert Lewandowski/ Thomas Müller
Bayern’s deadly duo show very little sign of letting up on the excellent form they displayed last season on the way to winning the treble. This season has seen the pair carry on where they left off in 2019-20 and Saturday’s 4-1 win at Bielefeld was no different.
Both scored twice and provided an assist for the other with only the crossbar denying Lewandowski a hat trick ten minutes into the second half. Any worries about fatigue or burnout are clearly misplaced with the Bayern duo.
The losers
Hertha Berlin
The Autumn blues are definitely kicking in at Hertha Berlin. Saturday was supposed to see coach Bruno Labbadia join an elite group of people to have won 100 Bundesliga matches as both a player and coach, but the Berlin boss was made to wait on 99 victories after VfB Stuttgart beat his Hertha side at the Olympiastadion.
That is now three defeats in a row for the Alte Dame and the hopes of challenging for Europe this season look to be an ambitious target. The loss to the Swabians wasn’t undeserved as they looked devoid of attacking ideas and the better side emerged with the points.
At the moment, Hertha have the players, but not the team. Tine will be needed to get things right- something that plainly didn’t happen on Saturday.
The Zero Club
The Zero Club lost two of its members this weekend with both Schalke and Köln gaining draws to get themselves off and running, which leaves just sorry Mainz as the only side yet to register a single point after four matches.
The Nullfünfer went down to a 1-0 home defeat to Bayer Leverkusen and never really looked like scoring across the 90 minutes. The longer they remain pointless, the lower the confidence amongst the squad will fall and vicious cycle ensues. Things don’t get any easier with Borussia Mönchengladbach the visitors next weekend.
Corentin Tolisso
With Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Müller basking in the glory of the goals and assists, it was down to midfielder Corentin Tolisso to play the villain with his red card against Bielefeld.
His professional foul in bringing down Fabian Klos in the 76th minute was cynical, but to be fair he was really dumped in it by a very poor pass from Javi Martinez, who shoulders a lot of the blame for the Frenchman’s dismissal
Tolisso will get a ban from the DFB but will surely be secretly making Martinez pay for dropping him in it. Competition for places in the Bayern midfield is fierce and being out of contention won’t help Tolisso’s cause.
Danke Javi!
Sebastian Rudy
Hoffenheim lost the points against Borussia Dortmund, but midfielder Sebastian Rudy lost a lot more than that. The former Germany international lost a tooth when inadvertently caught in the face by the stray arm of Felix Passlack.
The home side
The lack of full stadia is clearly having an impact with not a single one of the nine home sides emerging victorious. There were five away wins (for Dortmund, Leverkusen, Leipzig, Stuttgart and Bayern) while Freiburg, Gladbach, Köln and Schalke were all held.
