Three things we learnt from Bundesliga Matchday 15 Konferenz – The effects of AFCON, Wolfsburg continue to improve and Dino Toppmöller can’t fix Frankfurt’s defence

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The final Bundesliga matchday of 2025, and the final one before the winter break, began with Borussia Dortmund beating Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-0. 

Saturday afternoon in the Bundesliga saw five games, with Stuttgart hosting Hoffenheim in the pick of the games, while Augsburg faced Werder Bremen, Freiburg travelled to Wolfsburg, Köln played Union Berlin, and Hamburg were up against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Here are the three things we learnt:

Bundesliga clubs suffer the effects of AFCON absentees:

Both Stuttgart and Hoffenheim have lost key players to the Africa Cup of Nations this week, with Bilal El Khannouss (Morocco) and Bazoumana Toure (Ivory Coast) both heading to Morocco for the tournament after last weekend’s games. The pair have been key players for both clubs in the first half of this season. 

The home side were better prepared for this when it came to the depth at their disposal, but they still missed El Khannouss as they struggled at times to break down the Hoffenheim defence. Via FotMob, only three chances were created the whole game, all three from Stuttgart. Christian Ilzer’s side, who have been one of the surprises of the Bundesliga season so far, struggled to trouble Alexander Nübel with a long-range effort from Albian Hajdari being their only effort on target. 

The Swabians are already looking to add depth to their attack this winter, which may solve the issues they experienced today, while they have also had to deal with a wealth of injuries. 

Both Stuttgart and Hoffenheim will be looking to have a strong start to the Bundesliga in 2026. 

Wolfsburg continue their turnaround:

Fresh off appointing Daniel Bauer as their new head coach, Wolfsburg continued to show that they have turned a corner in terms of performance since the former midfielder took charge. 

Although they lost this game 4-3, the Autostadt side has shown they are continuing to get better. Despite the absence of Mohamed Amoura, this allowed Dženan Pejčinović to score his first-ever hat-trick for the club. The 20-year-old is now the youngest German player to score three goals in a game in over 15 years, since Thomas Müller. The absence of the Algerian will give the German youth international plenty of Bundesliga game time, and it also helps that he can feed off the service from Christian Eriksen. 

The loss to Freiburg shows there is still work to be done, especially in defence as they threw away their lead three times and conceded twice in seven minutes, but the signs are there that they are heading in an upward direction.

Dino Toppmöller’s time may be up at Eintracht Frankfurt:

A big talking point surrounding Frankfurt this season has been their defence (or lack thereof), and today again showed that defending is an issue for die Adler, and either Dino Toppmöller is actively trying to fix it, and his solutions are not good enough, or it has just been ignored.

The opener against Hamburg proved that when the ball was rolled out to Nmandi Collins, but a defensive error allowed Albert Sambi Lokonga to make it 1-0. Collins would redeem himself with a diagonal ball that allowed Nathianal Brown to square it to Hugo Larsson to make it 1-1. Further Frankfurt blushes were avoided when Fabio Vieria’s winner was ruled out for offside.

But the fact that Frankfurt have the joint-worst defence in the Bundesliga and are seventh is telling. It has been a recurring problem throughout the season, and little has been done to address it. 

Granted, better squad building needs to be done to fit the team with mobile, defensive-minded midfielders, but this is also down to the tactics that Toppmöller deploys. 

If Frankfurt decides to part ways with Toppmöller during the break, I don’t think anyone would be mad at the decision.

GGFN | Jack Meenan