While rowdy rabbles of carpenters, electricians and part-time window cleaners are busy knocking the Premier League heavyweights out the FA Cup, and Harry Redknapp is scouting Europe – and more likely Football Manager 2007 – to try and find a January bargain, all is quiet in Germany.
With no action on the pitch and the For Sale signs gathering dust on the transfer market, it seems a good time to take a look back at some of the key – and less key – numbers from the Hinrunde.
Following their transfer dealings this summer – which included bringing in Robert Lewandowski, Xabi Alonso, Mehdi Benatia and Pepe Reina – Bayern Munich were 500,000€ up. They’re just good at everything, aren’t they?
Dortmund’s average attendance of 80,438 is the league’s best.
Possession monster Xabi Alonso has touched the ball a staggering 1773 times.
Swiss, and ex-Arsenal, defender Johann Djourou has played 1530 minutes so far. No player has been on the pitch longer than the Hamburg centre back.
VfL Wolfsburg have peppered their opponents with 207 crosses.
The cheapest season ticket for the terraces at Bayern Munich will set you back only 140€. Ridiculous.
The highest number of clearances made so far was 121, by Johann Djourou. Are you reading, Arsene?
Xabi and his mates at the Allianz Arena have a pass completion rate of 86.2% – the highest in the league, obviously.
Karim Bellerabi of Bayer Leverkussen has had 47 shots on goal.
Raphael Wolf of Werder Bremen has the unfortunate honour of having conceded the most league goals amongst the regular first choice keepers. He’s picked the ball out of his net 33 times.
There are currently 30 points between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
Eintracht Frankfurt’s Alexander Maier tops the scoring charts with 13 league goals to date – three clear of Arjen Robben in 2nd place.
Chelsea reject and Prince Harry Doppelganger, Kevin de Bruyne of VfL Wolfsburg has laid on 13 goals for his team. I guess that explains some of the 207 crosses.
Bayern Munich have kept 13 clean sheets, all with Manuel Neuer between the sticks – or wandering around the halfway line somewhere.
Dortmund have lost 10 league games so far this season – the same as Burnley, having played fewer games.
HSV Hamburg have only found the net 9 times in the league – 2 less than Paul Lambert’s advocates of Total Football at Aston Villa.
Augsburg’s Paul Verhaegh has taken 5 penalties (scoring all five).
Manuel Neuer has conceded only 4 goals in the league.
Danish Torjäger Nicklas Bendtner has notched 1 goal since joining VfL Wolfsburg from the Gunners.
0 teams will get anywhere near Bayern this season.
Of course, there is a tendency nowadays to get too carried away with statistics. Personally, I can’t get enough of them. However, if ever we needed reminding of the importance of taking them with a pinch of salt, then we could do worse than to consider the following quote:
“The average human has one breast and one testicle.” – Des MacHale
englische woche 