Freiburg are on the march. Saturday's 2-0 triumph over Schalke was their third win on the spin - and that's of no doubt down to the patience shown in head coach Christian Streich to find the best system to suit his squad.

10 tough weeks without a Bundesliga victory came to an end last weekend in Cologne when Vladimir Darida's spot-kick ended what appeared to be a troubled run for the Black Forest club. But the early sprouts of progress were already beginning to take shape before Matchday 10.

The inconsistent starts are nothing new to Freiburg fans. Last year, before their strong second half of the season, Freiburg went 11 weeks without winning. The breakthrough match was against Nuremberg, with Vladimir Darida scoring his first goal in German football.

Two seasons before, Freiburg won just one of their first six games. It seems, they're the perennial slow-starters in the Bundesliga.

Waiting on key returns

There are several factors for Freiburg's recent revival: the return to fitness of Admir Mehmedi cannot be overlooked considering the attacker missed six weeks of action. During that time, Streich wasn't able to discover a particular combination that worked; Mike Frantz, Maximilian Philipp, Karim Guede, Philipp Zulechner and Felix Klaus were all tested up-front.

24-year-old Mehmedi, the club's record signing, was the top scorer last season with 12 goals, but his contribution to the team has evolved this season. Not only intent on being a penalty-box frontman, Mehmedi is the deeper of the two forwards, preferring to bridge the transition between defense and attack. He willingly takes responsibility on the ball.

When Mehmedi drops deep, or hangs fire on joining the attack, that facilitates the likes of Sebastian Kerk and Jonathan Schmid to break ahead with top acceleration. For example, in the case of Freiburg's first goal, left-back Christian Günter pushing forward to pop up in the penalty area and slam home like a penalty-box striker does in his sleep.

Meanwhile, one question worth asking is: what effect did the absence of Julian Schuster, the club captain, have? There's no tangible answer, of course. Perhaps others have been forced to grapple with responsibility without their captain, their talisman in midfield, who relieves some pressure.

Fitting the defensive jigsaw puzzle

A consistent selection policy is just one factor in facilitating a cohesive defensive structure: the players begin to understand each others strengths; the central-defenders know when full-backs will leave their position, and that sense of trust in the defensive triangle between the central guys and the goalkeepers appears.

In the last three games, Streich has made one outfield change - wiry attacker Schmid, the scorer of the second goal, returning for Felix Klaus on the right-hand side. No changes whatsoever to the defensive structure. The settled back-four for the Black Forest side looks like this: Sascha Riether, Marco Torrejon, Serb Stefan Mitrovic and Christian Günter.

In previous weeks, Streich chopped-and-changed between three different alternatives until this back-four provided a cohesive foundation. The arrival of 31-year-old Riether brings more than 200 Bundesliga games worth of experience as a league-winner at Wolfsburg, while the strong centre-back Torrejon was the recent captain of Kaiserslautern and partners the extremely impressive 24-year-old Mitrovic.

There's also been a change in terms of defending from the front: the high-pressing strategy with blistering transitions high up the pitch has receded. Still, Freiburg are defending positively from the front, focusing on narrowing the passing lanes for the full-backs and channeling the pair on either side as close to the touchline, as is possible. Kerk and Schmid did a sterling job, in that regard.

Freiburg appeared to be comfortable with Roman Neustädter, a combative midfielder by trade, and Benedikt Höwedes bringing the ball out of defense. In the 43rd minute, the latter strolled to a point, at least, 35 yards from goal without a sign of Freiburg looking to apply pressure on the ball-carrier.

What's the alternative for Schalke? Neither Jan Kirchhoff nor Marco Höger would penetrate a defense from deep, notwithstanding the two central-defenders. Roberto Di Matteo's substitutions had barely any influence on the outcome of the game.

Freiburg's season is now underway. A win moves them up to 13th in the table - the future can only look bright under Streich.