Deutsche Welle (English edition)
Bundesliga's best and worst at halfway in 2020-21 season
Bayern Munich are still the team to beat, but the first half of the Bundesliga season had its fair share of surprises. DW sorts through the good and the bad from the season so far.
Best player: Robert Lewandowski
This seems the most obvious pick of the lot, considering he's the reigning FIFA Best Male Player. His 23 league goals this term are more than the team totals of Augsburg, Bielefeld, Cologne, Mainz and Schalke.
Bayern Munich have also been particularly reliant on their Polish superstar this season. The treble champions have dropped points in three of the four league games in which he didn't find the back of the net.
Best young player: Silas Wamangituka The 21-year-old's goal contributions (10 goals, three assists) are less than those of the highly touted Erling Haaland (14 goals, two assists). But Wamangituka has been a revelation on Stuttgart's right flank and a key part of the recently promoted club's success.
He was particularly impressive in a 5-1 win in Dortmund in December, scoring twice and assisting a third. Afterwards, Stuttgart coach Pellegrino Mattarazo said Wamangituka's potential was "limitless."
Best signing: Ridle Baku
His €10 million ($12 million) move from Mainz to Wolfsburg didn't make many headlines. But Baku has been one of the main reasons for Wolfsburg's ascent up the table this campaign.
Used mostly as a midfielder in Mainz, Baku has developed into arguably the best rightback in Germany. His rise has also caught the eye of Germany coach Joachim Löw, who gave the 22-year-old his first international cap in November.
Best coach: Peter Bosz
Leverkusen could have taken a step back after losing two attacking stalwarts, Kai Havertz (to Chelsea) and Kevin Volland (to Monaco). Instead, Peter Bosz has the club third at the halfway point.
The "Werkself" have profited from Bosz's uncompromising attacking philosophy. His side's goal difference of 14 is tied with Leipzig for second-best in the division. Though the race for a top four spot is crowded, Leverkusen remain on course to return to the Champions League.
Overachievers: Union Berlin
In just their second-ever season in the top-flight, Union have made themselves one of the Bundesliga's toughest teams to face. They have held their own against some of the division's heavy hitters, beating Dortmund and Leverkusen and earning a point against league leaders Bayern.
Urs Fischer has the side playing compact, counterattacking football. They have benefitted greatly from Max Kruse's return
to Germany but have not become dependent on the mercurial 32-year-old, earning 12 points in eight games since he went down with a muscle strain.
While Union's crosstown rivals Hertha remain a mess, the "Iron Ones" could earn a spot in the top six by season's end.
Underachievers: Borussia Dortmund
The last time Dortmund were outside the top four 18 games into a Bundesliga campaign was 2014-15. That was Jürgen Klopp's last season in the Ruhr valley, and his side spent most of the campaign in the division's bottom half, before a late surge led to a seventh-place finish.
Seventh is where they currently sit, not where a team with some of the most exciting young talent in Europe wants to be. After sacking Lucien Favre in December, Dortmund has yet to develop fresh impetus under interim coach Edin Terzic.
Last season's runners- up surely have the talent to find their way back to the top four. But with Leipzig, Leverkusen, Wolfsburg, Gladbach and even Union putting together strong campaigns, a return to the Champions League will not be a given.
Title favorite: Bayern Munich
Stop us if this sounds familiar. The reigning treble champions are a notch below the dominant form they showed at the end of last season. Their jam-packed schedule — they have played 25 game in four months — has also done its part to keep them from fulfilling their potential.
But Hansi Flick's side are still the kings of the mountain, and their seven-point cushion over Leipzig in second is enough to bet on them to lift their ninth straight league crown. Maybe someone can stop them next year?
Relegation favorite: Schalke
Their 30-game winless run in the league made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Though a 4-0 win over Hoffenheim, powered by a heroic hat trick from American Matthew Hoppe, ended the hellish run, it was only a brief reprieve from the misery — Schalke have lost all three games since that victory.
The returns of club heroes Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Sead Kolasinac may provide a muchneeded boost in the dressing room. But with just seven points in 18 games this term, the club's first relegation since 1988 appears inevitable — no team has started so poorly and stayed in the division.