Since taking over the helm full time, Andre Schubert has led a staggering revival at Gladbach. His only two defeats in his 17 games in charge have come against Manchester City in the group stages of the Champions League. Gladbach were bottom when Schubert replaced Lucien Favre midway through September having lost their opening five matches of the season. However, since then, no team has won more points than Gladbach (26).
On Saturday evening they will have another chance to cement their place in third and, maybe even, close the gap on Borussia Dortmund in third, who go into this weekend nine points ahead. In their way stand a Bayer Leverkusen side who are yet to fully hit full stride this season, yet remain a constant threat. WhoScored.com take a look at who dominates the combined XI from those to have made at least seven league appearances and are free from injury and suspension.
Despite having scored seven league goals in his 12 appearances since moving from Manchester United to Leverkusen over the summer, there is no place for Javier Hernandez in attack. Instead, he is sidelined in favour of Raffael, who has seemingly carried on all his good work from last season into this one.
No player has registered more assists in the Bundesliga than Raffael (8) and only Douglas Costa (7.98) and Henrik Mkhitaryan (7.99) have garnered a higher WhoScored rating than Gladbach’s main creator so far this season (7.75).
Raffael is joined by a number of his Gladbach teammates as Schubert’s men dominate the XI. There are notable inclusions for Granit Xhaka, who is playing more long balls per game (9) than any other outfielder across Europe’s top five leagues this season, and Ibrahima Traore, who is completing more dribbles per game than any other player in Germany’s top-flight (4.3).
