5️⃣ big questions ahead of the Bundesliga's return 🇩🇪 | OneFootball

The Bundesliga is back! And here are the burning questions we have as elite men’s football returns in Germany.

Can the season’s surprise packages keep it going?

SC Freiburg sit second, just four points behind Bayern Munich and the team most likely to mount a title charge. As mad as that sounds.

Christian Streich’s men have been brilliant all season, looking solid as ever at the back and leaning on the magic of Vincenzo Grifo and Ritsu Doan, either side of the grit of Michael Gregoritsch, in attack. Oh, and they’re superb from set-pieces. Honestly, yes, Freiburg can keep this pace up and compete for a top four spot. Just don’t bet on them catching Bayern.

As for Union Berlin, they have dropped off already after a flying start. The Unioner will make life hard for any opponent but they lost three of their last five before the break to sank to fifth.

Maybe they can rally in 2023 but it looks like their race has been run and it’s hard to imagine them rekindling their early season form.

How much of an impact can Sebastién Haller have?

Dortmund have been poor at the back and at the front this season, suffering with the loss of Erling Haaland and having a tricky adjustment period to new boss Edin Terzić.

With just 25 goals — only four teams have netted more but only eight sides have scored fewer than 24 — there will be some onus on either Youssoufa Moukoko or Sebastién Haller to regularly find the net, especially as Donyell Malen’s struggles continue and Karim Adeyemi has failed to make an impact so far.

Haller is back after his battle with testicular cancer and looks determined to make up for the time he has missed, training long and hard to be ready this soon.

A return this early was not reckoned with by anyone within the club but the Ivorian has battled his way through gym sessions and looked sharp in a warm-weather training camp, netting a hat-trick against Basel.

But he will either have to share the burden with 18-year-old Moukoko or Dortmund need to figure out how to use them together. Getting regular goals from at least one of the pair is the quickest route to improvement.

Is Xabi Alonso about to prove himself as a coach?

Without too much pressure and with Florian Wirtz returning, Xabi Alonso has a great chance to assert himself as a coach to watch in the future.

The Spaniard has already done a fine job with Bayer Leverkusen, arriving after their dismal start to the season, but Spanish-style football is an odd clash with the pressing-obsessed German top flight.

Still, with top four miles off and Leverkusen now looking down on the relegation zone, Alonso has a fantastic opportunity to implement his way of doing things and get a tune out of one of the league’s most talented squads.

What exactly does he have up his sleeve?

Can big names avoid the drop?

Schalke, VfB Stuttgart, Hertha BSC, FC Köln.

They rank third, eighth, fourth, seventh for average attendance so far this season. Yet they’re all staring at a relegation scrap.

Some of the biggest names in German football seem to drop out of the top flight year on year and 2023 looks no different.

Schalke, currently bottom, are in big trouble immediately after their return and Stuttgart have changed coach in hope of a revival.

Something’s got to give or, given the financial precariousness at some clubs, it really could be lights out.

Who will win the golden boot?

The Torjägerkanone, the small cannon on a plaque awarded to the league’s top scorer each season, is up for grabs.

It has been a while since that has been the case, with Robert Lewandowski needing a separate suitcase for his haul — he won five in a row and seven of the last nine — when he moved to Barcelona in the summer.

It’s wide open this year.

Christopherr Nkunku is on 12 goals so far, Niclas Füllkrug and Marcus Thuram are on 10.

Jamal Musiala and Vincenzo Grifo have nine, Serge Gnabry eight.

Then there are three players on seven goals and six, including Sadio Mané, Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting and Moukoko, on six.

Let the games begin.