Over the years, the Bundesliga has earned its reputation as a go-to league for young players looking to take the next step in their career. Premier League clubs are especially known to closely track the developments of those youngsters, ready to pay massive fees for signing them. Sébastien Haller and Joelinton are just two recent examples of this. Nevertheless, despite these regular losses of key players, Bundesliga clubs still manage to discover and attract new talent from around the globe and also in this season, there are some very interesting players showing their potential.
In this data analysis, we will examine fledging U23 players that have made a major impact in the Bundesliga 2019/20. Besides that, in this analysis, we will take a closer look at attackers that stand out and point out what their capabilities are.
What does the data say?
We’re all familiar with the seasons that the absolute stars, such as Timo Werner and Jadon Sancho, are having. All of them made the next step in their career and are ready for a big move next summer. But what about other rising stars of the Bundesliga? While attention is mostly paid to the stand-out performers, we tend to overlook a plethora of youngsters, who have fallen beneath the radar, yet still have the potential to flourish or already do.
The easiest way to examine the attacking contribution is through players shooting and their ability to create chances. This can be measured by Expected Goals (excluding penalties) and Expected Goals Assisted through data from fbref and whoscored. In order to receive more meaningful results, I excluded players that have played less than 900 minutes.
As we can see, Timo Werner and Christopher Nkunku are apparently the absolute high-flyers when it comes to Expected Goals and Expected Goals Assisted respectively. Besides them, you would have expected Borussia Dortmunds Jadon Sancho and Bayern Munich linked Kai Havertz to have good numbers as well. But did you know that Christoph Baumgartner averages the second-highest xG-value per 90? Or that Breel Embolo has recovered so well from his disappointing time at Schalke amassing 0.63 Goal Contribution per 90 this season? In the next few sections, we will dig deeper into the data and capabilities of four players that stand out.
Christoph Baumgartner
Christoph Baumgartner was the biggest surprise to me in this list, playing in a weird Hoffenheim team with many questionable lineups. While the discussions with Hoffenheim usually revolve around the positions of individual players, such as whether Robert Skov shouldnt play as a left-winger instead of left-back, Baumgartner has quietly become a regular starter for Alfred Schreuder’s side. The 20-year-old usually starts as an attacking midfielder and has put up some impressive numbers.
