The German Bundesliga has gone into Christmas break, with all 17 rounds of the first half of the season already played. We now have a great chance to take a look at Germany's top performing offensive players, as they are rated by IMScouting's Efficiency Report.
IMScouting's efficiency report generator calculates the number of goals plus assists, divided by the number of minutes that the player has played, in league matches only. In order to get into this list, a player must have reached at least 900 minutes on the field.
Not much surprise at finding the league's top-scorer, Bayern München's German international bomber
Mario Gomez , at first place. In 16 games played, Gomez has found the net 16 times, and adding 3 assists he is directly involved in a goal every 69 minutes. If we add his performances in other competitions, such as the Champions League and the German Cup, the powerful target man has 24 goals and 3 assists in 24 matches played this season!
The 2nd place belongs to Werder Bremen's veteran hit-man
Claudio Pizarro . The 33 year-old Peruvian international striker is in top form, scoring 12 goals and making 6 assists in 15 matches so far with an average rate just short of the first place (70.17min). Pizarro is also the oldest player in the top-20 list.
After returning to his youth club FC Köln,
Lukas Podolski has been showing some of the best football of his career this season. 14 goals and 4 assists at an average rate of 76.22 minutes give him the 3rd place and make him one of the most sought after players this coming transfer window, with Arsenal reportedly leading the race.
Reigning champions Dortmund may not have a player in the top 3, but instead they have the most players in the top 20: their leading front man, 23 year-old Polish international Robert Lewandowski , is at 4th place (12 goals, 6 assists, 79.5 avg.) followed by an array of elite offensive midfielders such as Mario Gotze (5 goals, 4 assists, 117 avg.), Kevin Grosskreutz (4 goals, 4 assists, 137 avg.) and Shinji Kagawa (4 goals, 4 assists, 146 avg.). 19 year-old Gotze is also the youngest player on the list.
League leaders Bayern send 3 players into the top 20, with 6th place Franck Ribery (8 goals, 8 assists, 82.13 avg.) and 17th Thomas Muller (2 goals, 8 assists, 141.2 avg.) joining Gomez to create a fearsome front line.
Schalke 04 have finished the first half of the season at 3rd place, much due to their prolific duo of 5th place Klaas Jan Huntelaar (15 goals, 2 assists, 80.59 avg.) and Spanish talisman Raul (10th place, 10 goals, 4 assists, 108 avg.).
Just 4 points from the top, Borussia Mönchengladbach are the Cinderella story of this season so far. After just barely escaping relegation last year, Gladbach have had a terrific start to this season, being led almost single-handedly by Germany's new Wunderkind, 22 year-old Marco Reus (7th place, 10 goals, 4 assists, 94.4 avg.).
The second and last U-20 player to make it into the list is Hertha Berlin's Pierre-Michel Lasogga . The German U-20 International forward played a major part in Hertha's bounce back to the Bundesliga last season with 13 goals, and has adjusted well to the top flight, scoring 6 goals and creating 3 more, to reach 9th place in the list.
Another name worth mentioning is SC Freiburg's Papiss Cisse . The 26 year-old Senegalese International striker scored 22 goals last season, and is keeping up the good work with 9 goals and 3 assists at an average rate of 127.5 minutes. The German media has reported advanced talks between the prolific hit-man and Bayern München.
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