"Ones to watch" for Bundesliga Matchday 23 | OneFootball

1. Tim Kleindienst (Gladbach)

Who would have believed even a year ago that Tim Kleindienst would be one of the best players of the whole league? Gladbach's striker is in fantastic shape since the new year has started - no Bundesliga team seems to be able to stop him at this moment in time.

Kleindienst has easily been Gladbach's best player this season and is the main reason for their hope to qualify for an international competition at the end of the campaign; as it stands right now, they are just 3 points shy of a Champions League spot!

Having scored in the last 5 games consecutively (!), Kleindienst has quietly jumped up in the Bundesliga goalscoring chart and now holds 3rd place with 14 goals - 1 less than Frankfurt's former star Omar Marmoush and 7 behind Bayern's Harry Kane. Those 5 goals have brought Gladbach 50% of their points in this calendar year, meaning that Kleindienst is not only one of the best performing players in the Bundesliga right now, but also one of the most important ones as well!

Gladbach will come up against Augsburg on matchday 23 of the Bundesliga - a team Kleindienst has already scored against this season. Let's see if he can repeat that achievement and continue his great form into March.

2. Can Uzun (Eintracht Frankfurt)

Speaking of in-form forwards: Can Uzun seems to be on the best way to fill the gap of former teammate Omar Marmoush. Uzun, who transferred to Frankfurt from Nuremberg last summer for a fee of €11m, has shown great form in recent weeks, even scoring  twice in the last 3 games for Frankfurt.

Replacing Marmoush is certainly no easy task - maybe even impossible for just 1 player by himself. That's why Frankfurt brought in 2 new strikers in the winter transfer period: Elye Wahi and Michy Batshuayi. But who is currently Frankfurt's 3rd best goalscorer after Marmoush and Ekitiké this season? You guessed it - it's Uzun.

He's even starting to gain attraction internationally, with many Turkish fans demanding to see him in the national team on a regular basis - if he keeps up his form since Marmoush left, this would definetly be imaginable!

Frankfurt have a tough match-up ahead of themselves: they will come up against the current Bundesliga leader Bayern Munich. But ‘der Rekordmeister’ is struggling with form right now, only drawing against Leverkusen (0-0) and Celtic Glasgow (1-1); in addition to that, Frankfurt are one of Bayern's toughest opponents in recent history: from their last 4 match-ups, Bayern and Frankfurt both won once and drew twice.

Let's see if Can Uzun will be the one player to watch in this game, just like in Frankfurt's last games.

3. Matthias Ginter (SC Freiburg)

Probably one of the most surprising names on one of these kind of lists in the last months: Matthias Ginter has re-emerged as one of the best centre-backs in the Bundeslia and is one of the biggest reasons why Freiburg are currently ranked 5th in the Bundesliga!

Ginter's partnership with Philipp Lienhart in the defense has given Freiburg immense stability over the years and it hasn't gotten enough praise; coach Julian Schuster's decision to pair them up again at the beginning of February has turned out to be a golden one: 3 wins in 3 games, no goals conceded.

Ginter himself even adds the ‘cherry on top’ by being Freiburg's 4th best goalscorer this season (3 goals). If it wasn't for his love to his home-town club Freiburg, Ginter would most likely be back a target for big clubs in Germany and Europe again!

Freiburg will meet Bremen on matchday 23 of the Bundesliga; a tough, but definetly winable game for Schuster's team. Bremen have been looking for consistency in 2025, only having won 1 game, drawn 2 and lost 4. If Ginter performs like he has been this month, he will help his team to another good result and who knows - maybe he will even get Julian Nagelsmann's attention…