With Bayer Leverkusen's form patchy and their highly-regarded attack failing to fire, Heiko Herrlich is under pressure. For their opponents, Werder Bremen, it's been a different story, with the northern club in form.
Image: Imago/Eibner
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Pre-season, a prediction that one of Bayer Leverkusen and Werder Bremen would be third and the other three points from the bottom would've seemed about right. That's the case, ahead of their clash at their Weser Stadium on Sunday evening, but not as most would've guessed.
Leverkusen's league season has lurched from disaster (losing their first three), through the brief recovery (winning the next two), to the chronically underwhelming (draws against Freiburg and Hannover) and the ridiculous (throwing away a two-goal, half-time lead against Dortmund).
"We've got too much on our minds," said the Werkself skipper after his team needed a late equalizer to rescue a point against fellow strugglers Hannover last weekend. "We let little things unsettle us and bring us out of our structure. We have to work on that. We need more confidence."
By contrast, Bremen have enjoyed their best start for 13 years, when they went on to finish second during the club's golden period in the mid 2000s when they also won the title.
While the pinnacle seems beyond them, Bremen coach Florian Kohfeldt and his players have consistently welcomed talk of a European challenge.
"We have always emphasized that we want to go to Europe," said in-form attacking midfielder Maximilian Eggestein after his brace was enough to beat Schalke last weekend. "We do not have to make ourselves smaller than we are."
Kohfledt's impact since taking over a year ago has been dramatic, with the 36-year-old winning an impressive 49 per cent of his matches. Eggestein, Davy Klaasen and Max Kruse have 8 league goals and 4 assists between them and form a potent attacking trio while former Dortmund playmaker Nuri Sahin, still only 30, has started to show glimpses of the form that saw him once regarded as one of Europe's best midfielders.
A home win on Sunday would put 12 points between Bremen and Leverkusen, and it might just spell the end for Herrlich.
Elsewhere on matchday 9
Borussia Dortmund are back in Bundesliga action after their midweek winImage: Reuters/W. Rattay
- After a stunning 4-0 victory over Atletico Madrid in midweek, Dortmund have a slightly more prosaic task on Saturday, when they host Hertha Berlin. The capital city club were frustrated by Freiburg last time out but have enjoyed a strong start to the campaign, including a famous Friday night win over Bayern Munich. That was the champion's first loss of the season. Could lightening strike twice against unbeaten Dortmund?
- Two wins on the bounce without conceding means things are looking a bit brighter for Bayern, though they were still a little sluggish in victory over AEK Athens. Niko Kovac's men travel to Mainz, the division's lowest scorers with four goals. In fact there have been just two goals in Mainz's last four matches. Anyone for a 4-4?
- Another team struggling for goals is Schalke. The Royal Blues have just five in the league, drew another blank in Istanbul on Wednesday and haven't hit the net in 227 minutes. They travel to a Leipzig side brimming with confidence after their win against Celtic midweek.
Matchday 9 fixtures (All times CEST)
Freiburg vs. Borussia Mönchengladbach (Friday 20:30)
Borussia Dortmund vs. Hertha Berlin (Saturday 15:30)
Fortuna Düsseldorf vs. Wolfsburg
Hannover vs. Augsburg
Hoffenheim vs. Stuttgart
Mainz vs. Bayern Munich
Nuremberg vs. Eintracht Frankfurt (Sunday 13:30)
RB Leipzig vs. Schalke (Sunday 15:30)
Werder Bremen vs. Bayer Leverkusen (Sunday 18:00)
Bundesliga matchday 8 in pictures
There were crushing wins for Eintracht Frankfurt, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Borussia Dortmund, while Bayern Munich got back to winning ways in Wolfsburg. Werder Bremen also impressed while RB Leipzig were frustrated.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Becker
Borussia Mönchengladbach 4 - 0 Mainz
Dieter Hecking's men moved up to second with a clinical dismantling of Mainz. Jonas Hofmann finished off Thorgan Hazard passes either side of the break then completed his hat-trick after Hazard scored himself. That's 10 points from the last 12 for The Foals. Things couldn't be much more different for Mainz. The Zerofivers have two points from their last five and haven't scored in 450 minutes.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Becker
Stuttgart 0-4 Borussia Dortmund
Borussia Dortmund are the only remaining unbeaten team in the Bundesliga, and that never looked like changing away at struggling Stuttgart under new coach Markus Weinzierl. Jadon Sancho (pictured) gave the visitors the lead inside three minutes before Marco Reus and Paco Alcacer made it 3-0 after just 25 minutes. Max Philipp added a fourth as full-time approached to cap off a comfortable day.
Image: Imago/kolbert-press
Hertha Berlin 1 - 1 Freiburg
The hosts started strongly on Sunday, with Ondrej Duda's sixth of the season (pictured) completing a great move to give them an early lead. Pal Dardai's side were pegged back by a deflected Robin Koch strike just before the break. Freiburg had their chances but Hertha almost won it late on when Dardai's son Palko was fouled in the box, only for the penalty decision to be overturned by VAR.
Image: imago/Camera 4/T. Wiedensohler
Wolfsburg 1-3 Bayern Munich
Robert Lewandowski (second from left) scored twice as Bayern Munich ended a run of four games without a win. The champions were reduced to ten men in the second half when Arjen Robben was shown a second yellow card (the first for diving) before Wolfsburg pulled one back through Wout Weghorst. But James Rodriguez restored the two-goal cushion to relieve the pressure on coach Niko Kovac.
Image: Reuters/F. Bimmer
Schalke 0-2 Werder Bremen
Werder Bremen inflicted a sixth defeat in eight games on Schalke and moved up to second in the Bundesliga, behind Borussia Dortmund. Maximilian Eggestein struck twice for the Green and Whites either side of half-time against a wasteful Schalke side. Mark Uth saw a header cannon back off the crossbar in the closing minutes, but it was the closest the Royal Blues came.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/G. Kirchner
Nuremberg 1-3 Hoffenheim
Hoffenheim came from behind to inflict a first home defeat of the season on newly-promoted Nuremberg. Captain Hanno Behrens gave the "Club" the lead from the spot in an even first half but a quick-fire brace from English teenager Reiss Nelson (number 9, pictured) turned the game in the visitors' favor. Adam Szalai made it three for Julian Nagelsmann's side who moved up to eighth.
Image: Getty Images/Bongarts/A. Pretty
Bayer Leverkusen 2-2 Hannover
Bayer Leverkusen left it late to come from behind for the second time in the match and rescue a point at home to struggling Hannover. Lars Bender cancelled out Florent Muslija's opener before the break but Felipe Martins restored the visitors' lead in the second half. The home fans had to wait until the 94th minute for Karim Bellerabi's equalizer but there were still boos at full-time.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Vennenbernd
Augsburg 0-0 RB Leipzig
In a match characterized by fouls and regular interruptions, both Augsburg and RB Leipzig settled for a point. The visitors thought they should have had a penalty when Jeffrey Gouweleeuw brought down Timo Werner in the box but the video assistant referee decided - four minutes later - that it wasn't a foul. RB captain Willi Orban came close in stoppage time but the match ended goalless.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Puchner
Eintracht Frankfurt 7-1 Fortuna Düsseldorf
Luka Jovic was the star of the show for Eintracht Frankfurt, who ruthlessly disposed of Fortuna Düsseldorf to move above Bayern into sixth in the Bundesliga. But this game was all about Luka Jovic, who scored five goals in a devastating attacking display. Jovic becomes the Bundesliga's top scorer with a total of seven, and the first Frankfurt player to ever score five goals in a Bundesliga game.
