In the best first half of the Bundesliga season in SC Freiburg’s history, three players played solidly, but not yet outstandingly. Significant performance improvements seem possible with Maximilian Eggestein, Woo-Yeong Jeong and Roland Sallai.
You should also be able to enjoy yourself, but that’s hard to do in the Bundesliga. Despite 3rd place after 17 matchdays and the best first half of the season in the club’s history – at least if you look at the standings – Freiburg’s head coach Christian Streich should again have a whole host of ideas for improvement. In professional sport, even the best is never enough and no one in Breisgau is likely to rest on their laurels of recent months.
A bit more room for improvement than the colleagues has a mixed trio at the Sport-Club. Consistently solid and by no means bad, but somewhat less outstanding than some other Freiburg professionals, Maximilian Eggestein, Woo-Yeong Jeong and Roland Sallai still have potential – and could really take off in the second half of the season.
Maximilian Eggestein: In the summer, the 25-year-old was the only external arrival from Werder Bremen and gradually fitted into the central midfield. Eggestein continues to overcome minor adjustment problems in Streich’s highly complex system, but the integration process is not yet complete.
Streich fielded him twelve times from the start, when Eggestein delivered his first assist (2.5) and in the 6:0 against Borussia Mönchengladbach, when he opened the scoring spectacle with the opening goal (2). Solid performances, then, but not yet outstanding. Yet Eggestein is allowed to exude a pinch more danger, especially in attacking play: He usually plays the attacking part of the double six alongside Nicolas Höfler.
Sallai is still feeling the effects of the European Championship
Roland Sallai: The Hungarian was a bench in the offensive play of the SC last season with eight goals and seven assists and also showed good performances at the European Championship (two assists). But this season, he is not quite getting into his stride: the fast dribbler has only five starting appearances, one goal and one assist to his name. Streich also blames the effects of the European Championship for this, as a knee injury temporarily stopped Sallai. One thing is clear: if the 24-year-old returns to his normal form, he will be one of the regulars.
Woo-Yeong Jeong: The South Korean jumps back and forth between light and shadow just as quickly as he is able to outdistance opponents on the football field. Jeong has the worst average grade in Streich’s squad after 17 matchdays with 3.75, overall Freiburg is only behind FC Bayern (2.97) with 3.13 in the Bundesliga. Great performances like the 3:2 against Stuttgart were followed by inconspicuous to depressing ones like against Munich or Cologne .
