Breel Embolo, Jonas Hofmann, Lars Stindl, Yann Sommer, Nico Elvedi and Alassane Plea are up for January’s player of the month award, which is presented by Cichon Personalmanagement. Fans can vote for their choice in the FohlenApp.
Because of the shortened winter break, the Foals played six Bundesliga games in January and managed to stay unbeaten all month. The first game of the year was a 1-0 victory away to Arminia Bielefle, with Breel Embolo scoring the matchwinner on his way to picking up player of the match. The Foals then overcame FC Bayern Munich 3-2, with Jonas Hofmann being awarded player of the match. Captain Lars Stindl was the best player in the 2-2 draw with VfL Stuttgart. Yann Sommer picked up a clean sheet and the POTM award in the 1-0 win against Werder Bremen, before Nico Elvedi’s brace in the 4-2 win over Borussia Dortmund saw him secure the award. The final game of the month was the recent 1-1 draw in the capital against Union Berlin, where goalscorer Alassane Plea was named player of the match.
Fans can vote for their choice for Player of the Month between now and midnight on Thursday in the FohlenApp.
Breel Embolo: The attacker almost gave Gladbach the lead in the sixth minute, but the attacker was denied by the post. Embolo had more chances as the game went on but failed to convert. However, the 23-year-old remained undeterred and kept his composure to give the Foals the lead in the 58th minute. After a long ball from Jonas Hofmann, he won out against Pieper and slotted home past Arminia keeper Ortega. "Breel earned his goal with his display of willpower," said coach Marco Rose. Embolo has three goals and three assists to his name in the Bundesliga this season.
Jonas Hofmann: As Borussia took on Bayern, the 28-year-old showed once again that he is in excellent form. "The idea was to get Hoffi into the back line, more as a striker, when in possession, to allow him to use his good deep runs," Rose explained after the game. And the idea worked: Hofmann was pivotal to the Foals' attacking play, scoring twice himself and also setting up Florian Neuhaus' 3-2 winner. Hofmann, who returned after missing several weeks through injury layoff in December, has been directly involved in 12 goals in just 13 Bundesliga games this season.
Lars Stindl: Borussia's captain was directly involved in five goals for the Foals in December and picked up where he left off after the turn of the year. After registering two assists in the 3-2 win over Bayern, Stindl converted a penalty and set up a Denis Zakaria goal in the 2-2 draw with Stuttgart. The 32-year-old has scored 9 goals and provided 6 assists in the Bundesliga this season. "Lars is really fit at the moment and delivers consistently strong performances. He scores a lot of goals and gets just as many assists and works extremely hard for the team. That justifies why he wears the captain’s armband," praised Rose.
Yann Sommer: Sommer impressed in the narrow 1-0 win over Werder Bremen, especially in the first half, pulling off a world-class save to deny Romano Schmid. The 32-year-old once again was more than safe at the back and helped the Foals to their second win-to-nil this calendar year. Sommer was also in superb form in the rest of the month’s fixtures and was one of the reasons that Borussia remained unbeaten throughout January.
Nico Elvedi: Elvedi scored the first brace of his professional career in the eventful 4-2 win over BVB. "I'm very happy that I was able to score the two goals. Even as a defender, it's always good to score goals," said the centre-back, who also carried out his defensive duties solidly. In the previous game against Bremen, the Switzerland international also found the back of the net with a header to give Borussia the lead. This season, Elvedi has three league goals to his game and five in all competitions – making it the highest scoring season of his professional career.
Alassane Plea: With five goals in six UEFA Champions League group stage games, Plea demonstrated his goalscoring prowess, but was made to wait almost two months for his next goal in the Bundesliga. Plea’s last league goal came at the beginning of December in a 2-2 draw at Freiburg. Since then, the Frenchman had been hampered by injuries but has now been able to get back to his old ways – scoring the equaliser against Union Berlin. Receiving a ball from Jonas Hofmann, plea finished into bottom right corner from the edge of the area for his third Bundesliga goal of the season.
Player of the Month winners 2020/21:
