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Wolfsburg has reason to celebrate
Photo: HORSTMUELLER GmbH / imago images / Horstmüller
The second half of the Bundesliga season is here, quieter than ever, hidden in the dense Corona game plan at the end of an English week.
In order to draw attention to itself, this 18th matchday broke with the trends of the first half of the season and made the start of the second half of the season something special.
There was not a single draw at the weekend - and that in a season with as many draws as it has been in ten years: the teams shared the points 47 times in the first half of the season, the last time in the 2009/2010 season.
Evidence of balance, but also the constancy of numerous teams.
By the weekend there were seven teams with only three or fewer defeats, in the preseason there were only three: Leipzig, Dortmund and, yes, Schalke 04. This time: Bayern, Leipzig, Leverkusen, Union, Frankfurt, Gladbach, Wolfsburg.
Of those, however, three failed at the weekend, so that now only three teams are left with only two defeats: Bayern.
Frankfurt - and the extremely stable VfL Wolfsburg.
Only Bayern and Dortmund have defeated VfL
The Lower Saxony jumped up to fourth place in the table with their 1-0 win at Bayer Leverkusen, which very few would have expected them to do before the season.
Beating Oliver Glasner's team this season is extremely difficult, so far only Bayern and Borussia Dortmund have succeeded.
With 19 goals conceded, the team has the third best defense behind Leipzig (17) and Leverkusen (18).
The word “disgusting” often appears in connection with the Wolfsburgers, and that can be seen as a compliment.
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Wolfsburg coach Oliver Glasner
Photo: HORSTMUELLER GmbH / imago images / Horstmüller
The team was already compact in the preseason, but Glasner has also developed the team playfully this year.
The intelligent transfer policy of manager Jörg Schmadtke helped him last summer.
Glasner has integrated four additions into the team, all four have proven to be valuable components in the VfL team.
There is the only 19-year-old, very talented striker Bartocz Bialek, who has honed his joker qualities.
Ridle Baku became a national player in autumn, his goal in Leverkusen secured three points at the weekend.
Attacker Maximilian Philipp processes his Bundesliga frustration from his time at BVB.
The most important of the quartet is probably the Frenchman Maxence Lacroix, one of the undiscovered discoveries of this season.
Lacroix has become a constant
Lacroix, who moved to Wolfsburg from FC Sochaux, is only 20, but he plays like an old man in central defense alongside John Anthony Brooks.
An impressive calm on the ball, an overview of the structure of the game, plus a clean duel, Lacroix immediately became an integral part of Glasner's plans.
When he came to Germany in the summer, sports director Marcel Schäfer announced: “With Maxence we are consistently continuing our path of bringing talented, young and hungry players to Wolfsburg who can develop at a high level with us and take their next career step . «That sounds like a cautious development, Lacroix simply skipped this step.
VfL Wolfsburg is a team without real stars, that was different with the group club with its VW money behind it, which is always tempted to want to buy success for itself.
VfL still invests more money than most of the other Bundesliga clubs, but they are now doing it smarter than they were a few years ago.
Striker Wout Weghorst has now received his appointments for the Oranje national team, but in his home country he is still slightly under the radar.
Goalkeeper Koen Casteels took years of apprenticeship and wandering to become an undisputed number one in the Bundesliga.
Midfielder Maximilian Arnold was in the past in the extended view of national coach Joachim Löw, that was years ago.
Glasner has succeeded in building a unit out of these players, with a solid framework, nine players from the squad have already made 15 or more appearances this season, the core positions have largely been taken.
Little has been heard of grumbling from the bench so far.
Maybe it goes so well together because Glasner is one of them himself, an underrated.
Nobody in the Bundesliga is known for being upset.
Glasner earned his coaching merits at ASK Linz, an association that is not in the public eye every day.
When Wolfsburg picked him up in 2019, it was a surprising change for many.
Oliver who?
A year and a half later, that hasn't changed much.
In between, in autumn, there were brief headlines because the coach had a little trouble with Schmadtke, but getting into trouble with Schmadtke is not that difficult, the manager is known to be bulky or, to put it positively, as opinionated.
Then it was quiet again.
Glasner just works and he works well.
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