SC Freiburg's furious start to the season: The successful trio Matanovic, Scherhant and Suzuki

Four games, four wins, 16:4 goals. SC Freiburg celebrated a furious start to the season. “That’s exactly how we want to continue,” said Igor Matanovic after the 4-1 (2-0) win in the Bundesliga against Werder Bremen last Sunday. The attacker is one of the faces of Freiburg's dream entry - just like Derry Scherhant and Yuito Suzuki.

What makes the trio, who previously made a decisive contribution to the successes in the DFB Cup against Fortuna Düsseldorf and in the Conference League playoffs against FC Motherwell, so strong? A short analysis.

Igor Matanovic

The center forward has already scored four times. But he not only impresses with his goals, but also with his presence. How he uses his body, how he secures the balls in front, how he puts his teammates in the spotlight - that also demands respect from Freiburg's sports director Jochen Saier. “Igor has the whole range,” he said on DAZN on the sidelines of the win against Bremen.

The Croatian international himself explained that he had gained a lot of tailwind from the strong second half of the previous season and the World Cup in the summer. In addition, Matanovic continued, he now simply knows the club, his colleagues and the processes better in his second year at SC.

The 23-year-old said he feels a lot of trust. On the one hand, success is based on hard training, but football also happens in the head. “If you are free in your head and don’t think, then something like this happens,” he said about his high.

Derry Scherhant

The winged car is also just getting going. The 23-year-old already has one goal and four assists. His flanks are particularly dangerous. “His fine little foot is well adjusted,” said team-mate Lucas Höler after Scherhant’s gala in the European Cup second leg against Motherwell last week. “He’s in a really good mood and is helping us a lot right now.”

Will Scherhant, who came from Hertha BSC in 2025, be more consistent in his second season at SC? “I feel very good,” he said last. Over the summer he was “physically well prepared” for the round and the sessions with the team - also with the help of two personal coaches.

“It was about stabilizing myself physically and going a step further,” explained Scherhant. In the last second half of the season he had problems with his patellar tendon at times and played with pain at times. Now he is increasingly competing with vice-captain and club record goalscorer Vincenzo Grifo on the left wing.

Yuito Suzuki

When the 24-year-old was substituted after his hat-trick against Werder, there was a standing ovation. After the game, several Japanese journalists were happy to welcome him in the locker room for an interview. Thanks to these three goals, Suzuki now has almost as many to his name as in the entire previous Bundesliga season - there were four.

“He definitely has a goal instinct,” said striker Matanovic. Last season we may not have always seen it that way, but Suzuki had a “very good finish”. And the interaction with him is also working better and better. Matanovic even spoke of “blind understanding” with the Japanese.

Suzuki is responsible for the creative moments in Freiburg's offensive - and is even more in demand than before following the departure of the Swiss midfield jewel Johan Manzambi to the English club Aston Villa this summer.