Stats Analysis: Bundesliga Pass Masters

Three games to go, and finally, a lot has been decided in the German game.

Borussia Dortmund will get their hands on the 'Salad Bowl', Kaiserslautern are already down and another one, possibly two, will join them in the coming weeks. And now the time comes for Bundesliga-lovers to analyse the 'movers-and-shakers' of the season so far.

At the top of the goal-charts, we have 'The Hunter' and Gomez but some of the interesting figures and names are drawn from passing statistics.

Hamburg's Czech midfielder David Jarolim has been a bit-part player this season with just 20 appearances in total but has been in impressive form for Thorsten Fink's side over the last few months.

With the season approaching a nervous end, Jarolim has brought experience and composure in a very young side at the Imtech Arena. The midfielder averages 46 passes per game and has an average pass completion of 92% from 922 attempts.

In Hamburg's usual 4-4-2 system, Jarolim brought defensive assurance when the likes of Gojko Kacar and Tomas Rincon went off-form towards the end of the first-half of the season.

Sticking with defensive midfielders, FC Bayern's Ukrainian midfielder Anatoliy Tymoshchuk has been another player with excellent passing statistics this season. The 33-year-old has also played just 20 games this season, mainly in the absence of Bastian Schweinsteiger, and has a 6.85 WhoScored rating.

Tymoshchuk enjoyed European success with Zenit St Petersburg which alerted the interest of Louis Van Gaal in 2009 to sign the player and he has been a good addition in Bavaria. The midfielder averages 51.6 passes every match and an average accuracy of 90.9% from 1030 passes.

Given the overall dominance in matches, FC Bayern, unsurprisingly, have three players in the top five passing ratio's in the Bundesliga. But ignoring the likes of Toni Kroos, Schweinsteiger and Robben, some of the most accurate passers are stalwarts in Jupp Heynckes' starting eleven.

Captain Philipp Lahm has had another superb season in Germany with 30 appearances in the league for FC Bayern. The full-back has had no problems adapting from right-back to left-back across the year and averages 76.8 passes per game from a defensive position. Lahm's average pass completion ratio is 90.3% from an incredible 2305 attempted passes. The German international has managed three assists this season and has an average of 1 key pass per match.

Another cornerstone of FC Bayern's success this season has been defender Holger Badstuber, who has not missed a league match for Heynckes' side. The left-footed central defender has excellent technical ability which perhaps out-weighs his defensive game. The 23-year-old has an average completion statistic of 89.5% from 2152 attempts and has 1 assist this season from central-defence.

The sheer number of defenders with incredible passing statistics shows the development of tactics in the German domestic game with most teams opting for a more expansive style with the defenders usually involved in starting the attacks.

Borussia Monchengladbach's Dutch defender Roel Brouwers has an average completion ratio of 89.4% from 727 attempts and, in eighth and ninth, both Dante and Martin Stranzl have impressive passing statistics. Dante has played 30 matches this season and his completion percentage stands at 88.2% from 2067 attempts and Stranzl has just less with 87.8% from 1121 passes.

Interestingly, the first Borussia Dortmund player that appears in WhoScored's passing statistics is German-Turkish midfielder Ilkay Gundogan who has enjoyed a very good spell in Jurgen Klopp's side over the last month or so.

The former FC Nurnberg playmaker has made 23 appearances in the league this season with a pass completion percentage of 84.5% from 1081 attempts. Before Gundogan, in 21st place, there are another 10 FC Bayern players with more accurate passing statistics.

In the battle for dominance at the top of the Bundesliga, this highlights the differences between the current league-leaders with FC Bayern. Both teams play similar 4-2-3-1 formations but Dortmund put a higher emphasis on pressing in the attacking third of the park with the dynamism of Kagawa, Gotze, Grosskreutz and Lewandowski, more suited to that sort of style.

However, in comparison to FC Bayern, the Reds are more focused on dominating the game from the centre of the park. The likes of Kroos, Schweinsteiger, Gustavo and Tymoshchuk have huge importance on how FC Bayern play from the midfield and they boast some of the best passing statistics in the league. With Mario Gomez in attack, there is less opportunity for Heynckes' men to press as high as Dortmund.

The statistics for key passes in the Bundesliga throw up some interesting names from a host of different clubs in the league.

Schalke 04's Peruvian winger Jefferson Farfan has had a tough time with injuries this season and has made just 20 league appearances but his contribution to The Royal Blues' prolific attacking side is there to see. Farfan has a WhoScored rating of 7.48 and has eight assists, with an average of 2.7 key passes per match.

Both Juan Arango (Gladbach) and Tamas Hajnal (Stuttgart) are joint on 2.6 key passes per game with the Venezuelan contributing 12 assists this season and the Hungarian with eight in four fewer appearances than the Gladbach star.

Following the aforementioned duo, Marco Reus and Arjen Robben have an average of 2.3 key passes per game, with already relegated 1.FC Kaiserslautern's Christian Tiffert on 2.2 per game. Robben's FC Bayern team-mate Franck Ribery has been in dazzling form this season with a WhoScored rating of 7.74 and he has an average of 2.2 per game, with Leverkusen right-back Gonzalo Castro on 2.1.

The most accurate passers are perhaps not as surprising, but the names with the most key passes are interesting across the league. Not only are central-midfielders almost non-existant in the top-10 but you have versatile defenders like Gonzalo Castro and Dennis Aogo who are influential in the attacking third for their respective clubs.

The incredible changes in German Football over the last decade have brought a more dynamic, expansive domestic game and the very high passing statistics in the Bundesliga show that the short, passing game is not just for FC Barcelona alone.