The first half of the 59th Bundesliga season is a thing of the past. At the top of the table things went as usual: FC Bayern are heading towards their tenth title in a row as autumn champions. Nevertheless, the first 17 game days offered a lot of records and curiosities. We summarize these.
Even if there is still a bit of a problem on the defensive, the offensive of FC Bayern under the new coach Julian Nagelsmann is unparalleled: With 56 goals, a new first round record was set and the old record of 1. FC Köln from the 1977/78 season was cracked . Nagelsmann was able to immortalize himself in the record books in his first half series as Bayern coach. For comparison: The mark of 56 hits was achieved in the entire preseason (after 34 match days) only seven clubs.
Lewandowski breaks records for the bomber
Although Robert Lewandowski was not allowed to take the Ballon d’Or with him to Munich, a look back cannot do without the Pole’s records. Last season it was the 40-goal mark that he cracked. In the current first half of the season there were “only” 19 goals, but Lewandowski once again surpassed a record from the “Bomber of the Nation”: The 33-year-old scored 43 Bundesliga goals in this calendar year, leaving Müller (42 goals in 1972) behind.
Once again, his ex-club Borussia Dortmund felt the unsatisfied goal hunger of the Pole. In the spectacular 3-2 away win against BVB, Lewandowski met Borussia for the eighth time several times. Record, of course! Gerd Müller held the old one with seven games with at least two hits against an opponent (HSV and Rot-Weiss Essen).
Bayern’s Robert Lewandowski was named the best scorer in the first half of the season for the sixth time in seven years (19 goals). Dortmund’s Erling Haaland follows a little behind in third place with 13 goals, who only played eleven games due to injury. But the Norwegian created a novelty with his 50th Bundesliga goal: on November 27, he scored it in the away game in Wolfsburg – in his only 50th game in the German House of Lords and undercut the age-old record by far. Timo Konietzka, who was also in the service of BVB at the time, needed 63 games to score 50 goals.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen’s Patrik Schick moved into second place, becoming the first Leverkusen player to score 16 goals in the first half of the Bundesliga. In addition, in a 7-1 victory over Greuther Fürth on matchday 14, the Czech became the first Bayer player in history to achieve a four-pack.
Lull in the referrals
The decline in expulsions is encouraging for the Bundesliga: only 16 expulsions (7 red and 9 yellow-red cards) have been issued – since the introduction of the “traffic light card” in the 1991/92 season there have never been so few after 17 match days. Maxence Lacroix from Wolfsburg was the only player to have to shower twice early. A look at the French Ligue 1 shows how remarkable this is: After 17 match days, 46 (!) Relocations were issued – making the French league the leader when it comes to red cards in the top European leagues. It is almost indicative that Sergio Ramos, the “bad guy” in European club football, has been playing for PSG since the summer: Shortly before Christmas, the Spaniard saw the 20th dismissal of his career in the league, a sad record since Ramos’ first division debut in 2003/04.
Penalty barrier broken
On December 12th, the 5000th penalty in Bundesliga history was taken in the game between Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen. Patrik Schick converted to the interim 2-0 against Kevin Trapp (final score: 2: 5) – Schick was also the 1000th shooter to appear in league history. In the first half of the season 41 penalties were given – most of them for Borussia Dortmund (six of six scored), most against VfL Wolfsburg (six).
End of the dry spell at the Ronhof
With the 1-0 win over Union Berlin, the beaten-off SpVgg Greuther Fürth achieved their first home win in the German upper house – in the 24th home game! The drought of the Franks ended on December 12th, 2021, but an entry in the Bundesliga history books is certain. Never before has a team waited so long for a home win.
The Fürth team lost twelve games in a row in their second Bundesliga season and still stuck to coach Stefan Leitl. This loyalty is also unique in the history of the Bundesliga. The shamrock will find it difficult to escape direct relegation, but the Fürth should do better than Tasmania Berlin in their record season 1965/66 (ten points according to the three-point rule).
(Goal) expectations and reality
The expected goals are no longer unknown: The model shows how high the chance of a goal really was and calculates a value (xG value) for each conclusion based on several factors. The decisive factors include where on the field the closure was made, what the angle to the goal was and how many opponents were still between the ball and the goal. So much for theory. But who exceeded expectations the most?
The answer is Bayer 04 Leverkusen. The Werkself scored 40 goals, the expected goals model had only calculated 25.7 goals. Thus, the Rhinelander were around 14 goals above (goal) expectations. Patrik Schick played a large part in this. He only had an xG value of 9.9 goals, but ended the first half of the season with 16 goals – the biggest plus (almost 6 goals). Incidentally, Robert Lewandowski stayed almost on target: the model calculated 19.6 goals, he also netted 19 times.
The “under-performers” of the league come from Wolfsburg: 26.7 goals would have been expected, but the reality looked bleak: The Wolves only scored 17 goals and were almost ten goals below the xG value. As players, Karim Onisiwo from Mainz and Andrej Kramaric from Hoffenheim were least able to meet expectations: Both should have scored just under six goals, but ended the first half of the season with only two meager goals.
Lars Wiedemann
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