After taking stock of what has happened in both England and Spain over the past weekend it is now time to avert our attention to the Bundesliga. Last weekend we saw a surprise team at the top of the charts as Bayern Munich do not perhaps get things all their own way, let’s now take a look if there has been much change in the past seven days

Once again thanks to whoscored.com for all the necessary data.

Here is the Bundesliga table after 12 weeks while also working out the amount of total shots taken.

And here they are when ranked in order of shot efficiency (once again smallest to largest)

So that’s the data in chart form but let’s see what it looks like when presented in a graph

Once again it is Hertha Berlin who top the charts as they require just 6.3 shots on goal before breaching the opposition’s net. What makes this average more startling is this, they have had 50% less shots than Borussia Dortmund who lie second while 126 less than Bayern Munich who find themselves in fourth.

Interestingly enough there is no change in the top four ranked teams this week while there is also no change at the bottom. Cologne may have beaten Arsenal in the Europa League this Thursday but their efforts in front of goal on a domestic level do not make for good reading at all.

They require just under 40 shots on goal before scoring in the Bundesliga. 160 efforts have resulted in a paltry four goals this season, it almost makes you wonder just how they beat Arsenal in midweek (the obvious caveat being that it was a near reserve team put out by Arsene Wenger)

Last week it was both Cologne and Werder Bremen who were cast way adrift of the other 16 teams in the Bundesliga but the latter’s situation has improved in the past week as they have doubled the amount of goals scored and in doing so they have bought their shots to goals ratio down to 20.

When you consider that Cologne and Werder Bremen have both had the exact amount of shots this season it is quite apparent that goals make a huge difference and I am quietly confident that Cologne may well have the worst record out of all the 98 teams that I will analyse this week.

Let’s now take a look at how the Bundesliga table compares to that of the shot efficiency ranking

It comes as probably no surprise that Hertha Berlin have the biggest swing they may only be 14th in the Bundesliga but they are performing 13 positions better in terms of deficiency while there are also big upward swings for both Bayer Leverkusen and Wolfsburg who profit six places.

There’s no difference in Cologne’s two rankings as they are cast adrift both on the pitch and on this chart while Bayern Munich have to make do with a variance of minus 3 after only sitting fourth in terms of shot efficency this week.

Borussia Dortmund may be in something of a small crisis after their recent form has seen them drop to fifth place in the Bundesliga but they do manage to profit here, as they are 3 positiosn better off than where they stand in the league ladder. This can be explained by the fact that they are the second highest goalscorers in the league right now.

Let’s now see how the table is split in terms of the three parameters

5 Positive
3 Neutral
10 Negative

More than fifty percent of the teams have lost out this week and are performing worse than their league position suggests, while Schalke are the biggest losers as they are only ninth in terms of efficiency but second in the Bundesliga.

They only average 12 shots on goal per game and have only scored 16 goals this season, an average of just 1.33 goals per game. The fact that they are second in the Bundesliga must point to them having a watertight defence in the first few months of the season.

Let’s take a look at how the teams rank in terms of shots this season

As you can see Hertha Berlin have by far the lowest amount of efforts this season but they don’t seem to need many to score, this in reverse to Schalke would suggest that they are being let down by their defence hence the huge disparity between the two metrics.

While Bayern Munich sit top of this chart along with their top spot in the Bundesliga, you can make the simple assumption here that they are creating far more chances than anyone else and this is having a negative effect on their shot efficiency as a result.

Let’s now take a look at how the two shot efficiency tables rank from Week 12 to Week 11

As you can see this is a much more stable graph than what we have seen in England and Spain with no fewer than 10 teams staying in the exact same position as last week. Borussia Moenchengladbach are the big winners though with a rise of six places last week while Hannover are the big losers after dropping four spots.

Next week I’ll look to implement a chart which shows the difference in terms of shot efficiency from week to week while we can also start to look at it from a shot conversion point of view, whether that is in a separate article series I am yet to decide but the project is certainly getting bigger by the week.

Next up will be articles on France and Italy – so do keep an eye out for those.

I hope this was of interest to you and if you have any football data work available then please contact me at realfootballmanwordpress@gmail.com as I am always looking to undertake additional projects to the ones I already have. Thanks, Dan.