Sahin v Schweini:Battle of the midfield metronomes will decide Dortmund – Bayern

The top two in Germany battle it out this weekend and with the quality of players on display, it is sure to be a fantastic battle. If Bayern win, and keep up their unbeaten record, they’ll open up a seven point lead over Borussia Dortmund. Marco Reus, Franck Ribery, Thomas Muller, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Robert Lewandowski and Mario Gotze are all set to fight for a vital three points. But it is two other players that may decide how the game goes.

Nuri Sahin and Bastian Schweinsteiger are two superb footballers capable of controlling a football game by themselves. They possess immense technique and their vision combined with a superb range of passing places them amongst the top bracket of central midfielders in world football.

Sahin made a name for himself at Dortmund before moving to Real Madrid, then Liverpool, until finally returning to Germany on loan where has had a renaissance. The Turkish midfielder has been capped 44 times by his country and has played in all 12 Bundesliga games this season, scoring once.

Schweinsteiger has missed two league games for Bayern but has also scored once. Both Sahin and Schweinsteiger play a similar style of play; collect the ball, head up, play the ball. Simple but effective.

Sahin has completed 80% of his passes while Schweinsteiger has completed a mammoth 92% of his. Some difference. You could attribute some of the blame on Sahin’s poor percentage down to the type of passes that he attempts. While he keeps it simple and tidy most of the time, he does attempt the ‘Hollywood’ pass now and again. It is also backed up by the fact that the Turk has played 25 key passes, considerably more than Schweinsteiger’s 10, who is more suited to sitting deep and controlling the flow of play from back to front.

Nuri Sahin’s Bundesliga season so far

Bastian Schweinsteiger’s Bundesliga season so far

The German is more than capable of playing the role that Sahin does but, instead, allows the forward players at Bayern to flourish and attack. Dortmund’s counter-attacking style of play also suits Sahin’s style as he can play a ‘key pass’ that leads to a counter attack, hence the high figure of chances created.

Sahin’s average passing length (20m) is also 2 metres longer than Schweinsteiger’s (18m).

Schweinsteiger’s shooting has been much better than Sahin’s so far this season, though, with 44% accuracy from 9 shots. Sahin has a poor 26% accuracy from 19 shots – only five have hit the target.

However, the only telling statistic from shooting is level as they both have just one goal, of course.

In terms of statistics, using Squawka’s Performance Score system to judge their overall performance this season would be the best way to rate them. Bastian Schweinsteiger has scored 304 from his 10 appearances and Sahin has hit 311 from 12. The German is ranked 9th at Bayern Munich whereas Sahin is sat in third position at BVB.

The reason Schweini is so far down at Munich is because of the squad’s amazing depth and talent. Sahin would also be 9th at Bayern with his score due to the incredible squad assembled by the German champions.

When the two sides face each other at the weekend, Sahin and Schweinsteiger will come head-to-head in a battle in midfield. Who comes out on top may well decided the outcome of the fixture.