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Borussia Mönchengladbach began Bundesliga Matchday 7 with a 3-2 win against Stuttgart to avoid setting an all-time Bundesliga record for the worst start ever.
Saturday afternoon was a day for the mid-table teams, with Augsburg playing Union Berlin, Köln hosting Schalke, Mainz facing Werder Bremen, Paderborn against Hamburg and RB Leipzig versus Elversberg.
Here are the three things we learnt:
Antonio Nusa is RB Leipzig’s most important player:
In the summer, Nusa was an important player for Norway’s run to the quarter-finals of the World Cup, and he has seemingly carried on this form into this season.
In seven Bundesliga games, the winger has three goals and five assists, which makes him the RB Leipzig player with the most goal involvements in the league, ahead of Christopher Nkunku.
With the Frenchman out for the game against Elversberg, Nusa stepped up again, providing two assists as Martin Demichelis’ side beat newly promoted Elversberg 4-0 at home.
If Nusa continues this form, he will likely be Leipzig’s next big sale in the summer. However, in his two full seasons at the Red Bull Arena, the 21-year-old’s main problem has been staying injury-free, as he has hit similar veins of form only for injury to derail him, and he cannot find the same form when he returns.
Werder Bremen are a fun team:
After they struggled in the Bundesliga last season, Werder Bremen have turned themselves into a team where their games may be must-watch, mainly due to the goals involved. In their past five games, they’ve had three comebacks and scored five, four, four, and today five goals after beating Mainz 3-2.
Niclas Füllkrug again pitched in with a double from the penalty spot before Anthony Caci made it 2-1 just before the break. In the second half, Ludovic Reis made it 3-1, but two minutes later Jae-Sung Lee made it 3-2, and unlike their opponents in the past few weeks, Bremen were able to hold on to secure the three points and move into sixth.
Obviously, this is entirely unsustainable, and if Bremen are going to be outsiders for a European spot this season, they need to shore up their defence.
Said El Mala should have been sent off:
After a transfer saga in the summer, and what seemed like a hot start to the season, Said El Mala’s Bundesliga campaign has stalled in recent weeks.
The 20-year-old has largely been ineffective for Köln, and that was shown today in their 0-0 draw with Schalke. However, an argument can be made that El Mala shouldn’t have even been on the pitch for the 80 minutes he was.
There was a moment just before half-time where El Mala pushed Schalke’s Soufian El-Faouzi into Robin Gosens as both were challenging for an aerial ball. This resulted in the pair colliding head-on and ultimately both being substituted off.
El Mala was punished in no way at all, not even a yellow card.
GGFN | Jack Meenan
