Three things we learnt from the Tuesday evening games in the Bundesliga | OneFootball

An English week in the Bundesliga as we round off the first half of the season. Borussia Dortmund lost to Holstein Kiel in the early kick-off while Bayer Leverkusen saw off Mainz, Eintracht Frankfurt came from behind to beat Freiburg and Wolfsburg comfortably beat Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Here are three things we learnt:

Borussia Dortmund need to start splashing the cash a bit more:

If we look at the Dortmund side and look at the players who you could imagine playing for a title-winning side who are the names you think of: Gregor Kobel, Nico Schlotterbeck, Serhou Guirassy, Jamie Gittens and Karim Adeyemi (on his day)? That should tell you enough. This Dortmund team is not good enough to be challenging for a Bundesliga title in the near future, unless they actually make smart moves in the market, similar to Leverkusen, and invest in their lack of winners in the squad (a mentality problem), lack of quality at full-back (a long term problem), extra centre-backs, and reliable creative players and these should all be long-term options, not six months into the new season when they realise they have issue and sign players on loan in the winter for a quick fix.

Most of this can be helped if you stop buying average Bundesliga players and are more adventurous in their spending and squad planning.

If you want more to learn from the Kiel-Dortmund game, read here.

Bayer Leverkusen look unstoppable:

Mainz was set to be a hurdle for Leverkusen, they were high-flying and caused problems for Bayern Munich and Dortmund already this season. Although Die Werkself needed a tremendous free-kick from Alejandro Grimaldo to win, it got the job done and that’s all that matters. Leverkusen dominated the ball and peppered the Mainz goal with chances but they just were not able to convert them as Patrik Schick had an off day. The win, once again closes the gap on Bayern to one point ahead of their game against Hoffenheim tomorrow.

Now you are thinking, what did we learn?

Leverkusen are like a freight train that cannot be stopped they continue to do what champions need to do and win the difficult games, it may not be pretty but it gets the job done. You can tell that their title win last season has taken them to a different level where unlike a certain team that wears black and yellow you never get the sense that they shoot themselves in the foot. What this means is that the title race will likely be decided by Bayern’s ability to not slip up. This is a different Bayern team from the past who usually would slip up but due to Dortmund having already slipped up, it wouldn’t matter, this Leverkusen team is a different breed.

Eintracht Frankfurt will greatly miss Omar Marmoush:

Words cannot describe the immense season that Marmoush has been having. A goal and two assists for the Egyptian, in what could be his final game for the club before he moves to Manchester City. This performance showcased his importance to the side and the brunt of the creative burden that he carries.

The big question mark over his departure is whether someone will be able to step up and at least carry some of the brunt or will Frankfurt have to make another smart signing in the transfermarket. In this game, Mario Götze (6) and Hugo Larsson (5) both created more chances than Marmoush.

If you want my opinion on the potential move of Marmoush to City. I think it is possible career suicide, we have seen the track record of Frankfurt strikers who leave Deutsche Bank Park and the Egyptian will have to adapt to Pep Guardiola’s style of play and he also will not be able to be used at his best due to the nature of City’s style of play. On top of this, if you are City you are quite stupid to pay what Frankfurt demand which is said to be around €80m after only six months of this form.

We (I) will be back again tomorrow for the Wednesday games to round off the second half of the season.

GGFN | Jack Meenan