Club football is back, and therefore so is the NextGoalWinner Player of the Month awards. With the opening award in Europe, it’s like we’ve never been away as Germany has gotten off to a flier with their big players already putting in some stellar performances.

As a result of the performances in the Bundesliga, it was a close call between the two goal machines in the league, however it’s Erling Haaland who has pipped Lewandowski to the award this month, thanks to his 6 goals and 2 assists in 5 appearances across all competitions. Despite constant talk of his transfer and potential summer move, he has remained focussed and determined in his quest to score goals. Earning himself an average of 8.14/10 rating from FotMob, he has been sublime at several points in the month and once again will have people talking as the transfer deadline looms.

As always, if you disagree or have anything to add to our pick of the month, head over to Twitter (@NextGoalWinBlog) and let us know what you think.

Match By Match

August 7th: Wehen Wiesbaden 0-3 Borussia Dortmund – In the season opener for Borussia Dortmund and their opening match in the DFB Pokal, they brushed aside 3rd division side Wehen Wiesbaden thanks to a hat-trick from their star man Haaland. In just 51 minutes of football, the star man was celebrating his 3rd goal. Although not the biggest challenge to start their season, bagging a hattrick shows that Haaland is showing no signs of slowing this season as they aim to challenge the dominant Bayern side across domestic competitions.

August 14th: Borussia Dortmund 5-2 Frankfurt – The Bundesliga got off to a flier for Dortmund and Haaland, as they brushed aside Frankfurt, with Haaland playing a role in 4 of the 5 goals. Haaland added 2 goals and 2 assists, bringing him to a total of 5 goals for the season thus far in all competitions in only 2 games. As a result, he earned himself a 9.6/10 rating to follow on from the 9.8/10 in the previous fixture.

August 17th: Borussia Dortmund 1-3 Bayern München – In the Super Cup final, it was once again Bayern who ran away with the game, and left Dortmund playing second best to Lewandowski and the Bayern side. Haaland only managed a 5.9/10 rating as his run of scoring ended and couldn’t get himself into the game as he would have wanted. With their talismanic striker failing to get on the scoresheet, Dortmund couldn’t manage anything more than a consolation goal.

August 21st: Freiburg 2-1 Borussia Dortmund – The loss against Bayern ran through to the 2nd Bundesliga game of the season, as the suffered defeat to Freiburg. Again Haaland failed to get a goal and the pattern of Haaland not scoring and losing continued. It was a 7/10 rating in what was an average performance for the Norwegian.

August 27th: Borussia Dortmund 3-2 Hoffenheim – In the month’s final game for Dortmund, they got themselves back on track with a win over Hoffenheim and Haaland returned to the scoresheet with his 6th goal of the entire month. With 6 shots on goal, he got 3 on target and finished one to claim the winning goal in stoppage time and secure the 3 points and keep pushing on in the league.