Werder Bremen midfielder Torsten Frings (119.48 points) has come close to the top in the Bundesliga ranking before, and at one point the gap between him and then leader Simon Rolfes of Bayer Leverkusen was less than 2 rating points, but he never managed to cross that threshold.

Now the Germany international is once again in 2nd position. Are his chances to vault to the top any better this time around?

The answer here is not really: the current leader, Bayern Munich’s Bastian Schweinsteiger (122.41 points), has a combined plank of 46.45 rating points to beat in his next 5 games, while Frings will have to clear a hurdle of more than 69 points.

In theory, Frings could capture the lead as early as this coming Saturday, but to do that Bayern will have to lose to Stuttgart, which appears unlikely as things stand now.
We believe Frings’s overall FTBL rating will stay unchanged at the 115- to 120-point mark by the end of November.