RB Leipzig have built one of the strangest splits in the Bundesliga this season. They are one of four teams with a 100 percent home record, have won eight straight league games at the Red Bull Arena, and have not conceded a home goal. Away from home, they have lost all three league matches and were thrashed 6-1 by Bayern München in Munich.

The home record at the Red Bull Arena

The home numbers are hard to ignore. Leipzig have three wins from three in the Bundesliga at the Red Bull Arena, with 14 goals scored and none conceded. That is the kind of platform that should give a side real control over a season.

David Raum said after the Bayern game, "Today showed what again we’re capable of." The ceiling is obvious in Leipzig's own stadium, where they have set a new club record with eight straight Bundesliga wins.

The away problem Demichelis has to solve

The issue is what happens once they travel. Leipzig have lost all three Bundesliga away games this season, scoring only two goals and conceding 11. Martín Demichelis has a side that can dominate one setting and fall apart in another, and the Munich collapse was only the latest example.

The performance metrics away from home do not show a team lacking the ball. Leipzig average 53% possession away, compared with 52% at home, and their pass completion is 88% on the road and 87.7% at the Red Bull Arena. The problem is happening later in the move, when possession stops turning into threat and when the back line is exposed.

Marcel Schäfer put it after the Bayern defeat: "It’s too easy for me to talk about two sides to us." He has a point about reducing everything to a binary, but the results themselves are doing the talking. Leipzig look secure at home and vulnerable away, and until that changes, the split will define them more than any single result.

David Raum and Michael Olise lead the league on 20 chances created each, so this is not a team short of individual creativity. The bigger concern is that all 16 Bundesliga goals have come from open play, with no set-piece goal yet this season. The next league away match will tell us whether the Munich result was a one-off or part of a pattern Leipzig cannot keep carrying.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →