Three things we learnt from the Bundesliga afternoon kick-offs | OneFootball

The Bundesliga returned after the international break with no indication of anything from the title race, relegation spots or European places being resolved anytime soon. That continued today.

The results:

Bayern Munich 3-2 St.Pauli

Borussia Mönchengladbach 1-0 RB Leipzig

Hoffenheim 1-1 Augsburg

Holstein Kiel 0-3 Werder Bremen

Wolfsburg 0-1 Heidenheim

Here are the three things we learnt:

Bayern Munich receives a warning sign:

If the warning Bayern received today were compared to a weather warning, it would be an amber one – an increased likelihood of impacts which could disrupt your plans.

The performance today was good overall; they won, thanks to goals from Harry Kane and a double from Leroy Sané, but as expected with the injuries, Bayern’s defense was not the best. Against a St.Pauli side, who are the worst in the league going forward, they were able to score twice when both goals were avoidable. The first from Elias Saad saw the Tunisian left wide open in the middle of Bayern’s box as no one picked him up to mark, while the second from Lars Ritzka saw the German never closed down and allowed to shoot from outside the box.

In a moment of deja vu (Burnley), Kompany may need to become slightly more conservative, especially against better sides, to avoid hairy moments like today.

Bayern also struggle to be clinical in some instances, which is a surprising thing to say considering they have Kane up front, but these are issues that earlier in the season is not a big deal, but now, they could be the difference between winning the league and finishing second, with the gap only at six points.

The revival of Alassane Plea:

I could, and I probably will, throw around superlatives here: Alassane Plea, on his day, is one of the most underrated players in the Bundesliga.

The 32-year-old is having one of his best Bundesliga seasons in a while and has slowly reinvented himself from a striker to an attacking midfielder (Plea 3.0). His performances this season have resulted in the creation of the Kevin Stöger paradox, as Stöger is too good to be benched, but with Plea playing in the Austrian’s place, Gladbach looks a lot better.

Before the international break, he produced close to a masterclass to beat Werder Bremen, and today his header was the difference maker against Leipzig and has seen Gladbach rise to fifth in the table, only two points off the Champions League places. If Gladbach do the unlikely and qualify for Europe’s premier competition, Kleindienst will most likely get most of the plaudits, but Plea will also deserve his flowers.

Today was also Plea’s 200th game for Gladbach in the Bundesliga. Rather fitting that this game, and his performance, most likely confirmed former Gladbach head coach Marco Rose will be sacked by the end of the season. We never forget that Rose’s decision to jump ship basically caused a butterfly effect, which now means we are in this current situation (a real Inception or Cooper into the blackhole in Interstellar moment).

Heidenheim causes the relegation fight to take another turn:

In recent weeks, it had looked like Heidenheim were destined for relegation as Bochum gained steam, but Bochum’s loss last night against Bayer Leverkusen did Heidenheim a favour, as did St Pauli’s loss to Bayern.

Granted, they had to hold on after an early Marvin Pieringer penalty, but three points are three points, am I right? Especially as today was Frank Schmidt’s 700th game in charge of the club.

The win now means that Heidenheim are only two points off of St Pauli.

Before the international break, I would have said Bochum are the team most likely to make it at least into the relegation playoff. Now? I have no clue. I am probably still leaning towards the side in the Ruhr who will avoid automatic relegation as they have more quality, but I do not write this with full conviction.

Up next:

In midweek, we have the semi-finals of the DFB Pokal:

Arminia Bielefeld vs Bayer Leverkusen

VfB Stuttgart vs RB Leipzig

Please now join me, in whatever religious conviction you have, as we hope for a final of either Bielefeld vs Stuttgart or what is objectively the most exciting game in German football at the moment, Leverkusen vs Stuttgart.

GGFN Jack Meenan