In the last 30 years, there has only been one Bundesliga club that was even worse than VfL Bochum after eleven match days.

VfL Bochum continue to flounder in the Bundesliga after a 2-0 defeat at VfB Stuttgart. Even after the 11th matchday, VfB are still waiting for their first competitive win; it’s almost December and they still haven’t got a win under their belts.

Not even in the DFB Cup, where they were knocked out in the first round by second division side Jahn Regensburg. And a look back in time is not encouraging either. Since the three-point rule was introduced in the 1995/96 season, there has only been one club that has started the season even more disastrously than VfL.

That was SpVgg Greuther Fürth, who only had one draw to their name after eleven matchdays in the 2021/22 season. At the end of the season, the situation was clear: Fürth, who only got their first win on matchday 15, were relegated last. The gap to the relegation spot and the first non-relegation spot was a whopping 15 points.

Almost as bad as VfL was 1. FC Cologne in the 2017-18 season, the very season after Cologne qualified for the Europa League. What followed was a year to forget, with relegation. After eleven games, Cologne had only two draws to show for their efforts, and a slightly better goal difference than VfL today.

At the end of the season, things didn’t get any more exciting for Cologne either. They were eleven points behind the relegation place and fourteen behind the saving fifteenth place.