Last Saturday, the 2024/2025 Bundesliga season came to a close.
Over 34 matchdays, many surprises, many non-surprises, and many emotions were once again the driving force behind one of the most exciting leagues in European football.
In the end, most of the final results came as expected, with Bayern Munich winning the title and Harry Kane winning the Torjägerkanone for the best goalscorer in the Bundesliga.
Behind that, a lot of things happened that many people did not expect before the season started.
There were a lot of big storylines this season, like Omar Marmoush turning into a world-class striker for Eintracht Frankfurt and leaving for Manchester City in the winter transfer window, Borussia Dortmund’s rise back to the UEFA Champions League under Nico Kovač or the end of the career at FC Bayern for Bundesliga legend Thomas Müller, but that’s not what we are going to focus on in this article.
What makes the Bundesliga so special and dear to its fans is the fact that the small clubs pour their hearts into the seasons, and these teams can surprise expectations through their hard work.
Therefore, this tactical analysis and scout report will examine 3 Bundesliga players who had a great season over the past year but did not get the attention and media coverage they deserved.
We will examine Werder Bremen skipper Marco Friedl, SC Freiburg midfielder Maximilian Eggestein, and FC St. Pauli full-back Philipp Treu and explore how they were crucial to the success of their respective teams.
Marco Friedl Scouting Report At Werder Bremen
Werder Bremen barely missed out on the European places for the second season in a row, but their season can still be considered a huge success.
51 points in 34 games and eighth place in the final Bundesliga table in just their third season after promotion, Werder has had an amazing development after their relegation in 2021.
A big part of this progression was Marco Friedl, a player who was relegated with Werder four years ago but decided to stay and then went on to achieve amazing development himself.
Friedl had a rough start to his Bundesliga career in a Werder team with many problems.
He played as a left-back at first but was then put back into the centre-back spot.
At first, Friedl played as the left centre-back in a back-three, but his coach, Ole Werner, put him into the central role last season.
He then took another leap in his performances and grew into his role as captain, which he has held for the past three years.
Werder has had some defensive troubles under Werner in the last couple of seasons since returning to the German top flight, but Marco Friedl has been an exception for the Northerners.
The Austrian centre-back has a relatively lean build for his position, and his past as a full-back often shows, but his intensity and pace make up for it.
He is one of the best players in defending duels in the entire Bundesliga and knows precisely how to utilise his strengths.
In the situation above, Werder was still chasing European places in the Bundesliga and barely managed to win 1-0 against a VfL Bochum side facing relegation.
Still, the team lost the ball high up the field, and their counter-press failed miserably, allowing Bochum one final counterattack deep into stoppage time.
Friedl recognises the situation earlier than all the other players on the pitch and gets moving towards the ball quickly, having a slight advantage over the fast Moritz Broschinski.
Friedl uses his pace to close the distance and manages to get a shot at a tackling.
Looking at the tackling, then, it’s just beautiful.
Perfectly timed, with high intensity, he plays the ball even though he comes in from behind.
He manages to get to the ball and stop the dangerous attack.
What makes this situation a perfect description of Marco Friedl happens afterwards.
The ball bounces up in the air and is loose towards the sideline.
Broschinski is taller and has a broader build than the Austrian, so it should be hard for him to win that duel now.
But Frield just uses his body perfectly, shielding the ball away, muscling the German striker away from his position, and letting the ball go out of play for a Werder throw-in.
He then gets fouled by a frustrated Broschinski, but instead of making a fuss out of it, he celebrates with the fans and laughs in the Bochum players’ faces.
Friedl is very confident but never cocky.
He is emotional but never lets that out on others—he is a true leader of men.
In the 25 games with Friedl headlining the backline, Werder conceded 29 goals; in the nine games without him, Werder conceded 28 goals.
His importance to his team can not be understated.
His 2.58 successful tackles rank in the 99th percentile amongst Bundesliga centre-backs in the past season, along with 1.42 interceptions (70th percentile) and 1.71 blocks (80th percentile).
These statistics show how good of a defender Friedl truly is, especially in direct defensive duels.
Friedl just extended his contract a couple of weeks ago, so Werder will also be able to rely on their best centre-back for a long time next season.
It will be interesting to see if they can improve the rest of their defence.
Maximilian Eggestein Scouting Report At SC Freiburg
The next player we are going to examine is Maximilian Eggestein, Marco Friedl’s former teammate.
Eggestein attended the Werder Bremen Academy and made his professional debut for the club at just 17 years old.
He went on to become a regular starter for Werder and even got a call-up from the German national team once.
However, he ultimately decided to leave his boyhood club in 2021 after the team got relegated and joined SC Freiburg, a team in the Black Forest.
For both Werder and SC Freiburg, Eggestein just plays.
He barely misses games due to injury or suspension, and this season was the eighth consecutive season in which Eggestein played 31 or more games in the Bundesliga.
This just shows what a guy Maximilian Eggestein is: fully professional, hardworking on and off the pitch, and doing everything his teammates need him to do to win games.
The 28-year-old central midfielder is not a playmaker in a traditional sense.
If you expect him to have a lot of flair, dribble a lot, or perform a lot of eye-catching actions, you will be disappointed.
His data profile also looks a bit iffy.
He’s pretty much average in every statistic relevant to a central midfielder, above average against the ball, and pretty average with the ball.
Still, Eggestein carved out an extraordinary Bundesliga career for himself and now will once again play in the UEFA Europa League next season.
How does he do it?
For starters, he ranks seventh in terms of total distance covered this season in the Bundesliga after ranking first overall in that regard last season.
Eggestein is everywhere on the pitch.
There is no action without him.
He is a true box-to-box, do-it-all midfielder who glues his team together.
He won’t wow you with anything he does, but he also has no fundamental weaknesses.
Eggestein is a decent passer with good ball security under pressure and can find progressive solutions in the passing game.
He might not be an archetypical holding midfielder, but he covers a lot of space in front of the defensive line and is able to get to the ball often.
In terms of creativity, he will not create many chances, but you will find him in and around the box in every attack, putting pressure on defenders and collecting second balls like it’s nothing.
He does the dirty work the players around him need him to do.
Here we can see a situation against Bayer Leverkusen, which showcases these abilities in a short period of time.
Patrick Osterhage, Eggestein’s partner in Freiburg’s usual double-pivot in midfield, loses the ball at the edge of the box.
Still, Eggestein has already positioned himself perfectly to cover for his teammate and now just has to move a couple of steps forward to collect the ball.
He then doesn’t panic under pressure.
Eggestein stays calm at the edge of the box, uses his body well to keep the ball and allows his teammates to get back into position to build up the next attack.
Leverkusen now underestimates him a bit and falls back into a deep block without putting any more pressure on Eggestein, and he shows his quality again.
He uses the space given to him and just whacks out a shot. His shooting technique has been a thing of beauty ever since he worked on it at Werder Bremen when it was still a weakness.
He scores an absolute screamer here.
This shows what Eggestein is to his teammates: He recovers the ball after a high loss, stays calm, controls the pace of the game, and then uses the space he has for a moment of individual brilliance.
Maximilian Eggestein won’t get a lot of attention due to his playing style, but the calm and composed Northerner is the glue that keeps this young Freiburg team together and allows them to be as successful as they are.
Philipp Treu Scouting Report At St. Pauli
Talking about SC Freiburg, their U23 team managed to get into second place in the 3. Liga two seasons ago, a very strong showing from their academy players.
One of that team’s integral parts and captains is the third player we will examine in this piece, Philipp Treu.
Treu is originally from the South-West of Germany, but he decided to join RB Leipzig for the U17 team and then went back to his roots and joined SC Freiburg in 2019.
After very successful seasons for their U19 and U23 teams, Treu decided to leave Freiburg to join FC St. Pauli in the summer of 2023.
Treu was promoted to the Bundesliga in his first season with his new club and established himself quickly this past season.
Treu is a prototypical modern German full-back, and watching him play makes it obvious that he will have a long and successful Bundesliga career.
Like Maximilian Eggestein, Treu’s data profile shows no extreme positives.
Still, he was about average in every major statistical category compared to other full-backs in the Bundesliga this past season.
Just like Eggestein, Treu does not have a weakness in his game.
He is relatively small but still strong.
He has elite short-area quickness and good pace.
He is able to carry the ball and take on defenders, but he is also annoying to play against and uses his body and low centre of gravity well in defensive duels.
Treu finds solutions in the passing game on a regular basis.
He does well in the build-up to connect with his midfielders or even dribble past the first line of press, but his direct passing style also allows him to be part of combinations in the final third.
To top all of this off, Treu is two-footed. He can play on the left and right side, as a wing-back in a back-five or as a traditional full-back in a back-four.
He is insanely clever, very aggressive and physical in his playing style.
He is an asset in the counter-press and can defend forward really well in the attacking press.
He can also fall back into a deep block and moves well when defending in his own half.
Treu can just do it all compared to other full-backs.
This makes him a player every coach would love to have in their team.
Here we can see a situation in their game against Werder Bremen that shows what Treu does so well at all times.
It all started out with a long ball by Werder’s goalkeeper, Michael Zetterer.
Instead of falling back and attacking the player, Treu anticipates the pass towards his side and instantly moves forward with perfect timing to intercept the ball.
At this point, he has already oriented himself.
He gets his body between the ball and the defender and dribbles away from the pressure with good pace.
Treu now scans the field and shows his best pattern of play.
The full-back finds his teammate between the lines and plays a powerful pass towards the centre of the pitch, which Werder is never going to be able to defend.
Instead of waiting now, Treu instantly takes action again by keeping his momentum and moving forward to put pressure on the Werder defenders.
While he does not receive the ball again in this situation, this run opens up an opportunity to turn towards the goal for his teammate and keeps the Werder defenders busy and falling back.
Philipp Treu ranked fourth in terms of total distance covered in the Bundesliga last season and, therefore, was the highest-ranked full-back, and these situations show why.
Talking about unlocked potential, Treu is not calm in front of the goal, and while finishing is not a key ability for a full-back, he definitely needs to sort that out at some point.
Treu has scored just one goal since he was 17; that is horribly bad.
Overall, Treu lacks a true stand-out strength but does everything that coaches want their full-backs to do well and was one of the best full-backs in the past Bundesliga season.
It will be interesting to see if the 24-year-old will take the next step in his career this summer.
Conclusion
Most international fans only look at the top clubs in the German Bundesliga, but they miss out on what this league is actually about.
Emotions, storylines, small teams defying all odds to play great seasons, hard-working players giving it their all for their clubs and storylines that are just absolutely lovely.
We could have looked at more unsung heroes from this past season; there have been even more great players who did not get enough recognition.
Mainz 05 played a fantastic season and qualified for the UEFA Conference League.
While their attacking players get all the spotlight, summer signing Kaishu Sano was the heart of the team’s engine.
Rasmus Kristensen considered ending his career before joining Eintracht Frankfurt this past summer.
However, he has now found his love for football once again and will have a chance to compete in the Champions League again next season.
There have been so many emotions and stories in this Bundesliga year that we can’t look at them all here, but I just wanted to showcase some players who have poured their heart into this season and did not get the recognition they deserved so far.
I can’t wait for the next season to start and for another batch of players to come into their own.
