Rückrunde Ones to Watch: Bas Dost
Cologne - Standing at 6'5" tall, VfL Wolfsburg frontman often finds himself being tarred with the same brush as some of the game's more apathetic strikers of a similar build.
Goal-hungry reputation
Unlike his contemporaries, however, the towering Dutchman's effort rate cannot be faulted, even if injury restricted him to just six Bundesliga appearances during the first half of the 2014/15 campaign.
Dost arrived at the Volkswagen Arena from Dutch club SC Heerenveen in summer 2012 with a glowing reputation as a textbook goal poacher, having struck 52 times in 73 appearances for his former employers. He even scored five in one game against Excelsior Rotterdam back in December 2011.
Yet after registering a modest eight goals in 20 outings in his debut season in Germany's top flight, those numbers tailed off significantly over the course of an injury-hit campaign in 2013/14 (five in eight in all competitions). Only in recent months, has he begun to rediscover his proficient old ways.
Late bloomer
On Matchday 14, Dost scored his first Bundesliga goal of the season to help the Wolves to a Lower Saxony derby win over Hannover 96. His reward was a place in the starting line-up for each of Wolfsburg's final three games of the Hinrunde. Despite adding just one more goal to his personal tally against 1. FC Köln on Matchday 17, he proved that there is indeed an alternative to Ivica Olic or Nicklas Bendtner.
The ten-time international continued his promising run of form at the Auto City Club's winter training camp in South Africa earlier this month, laying down a marker for the Rückrunde with a brace in the 4-1 friendly win over Ajax Cape Town. Indeed, for a team like Wolfsburg, whose rise to second in the Bundesliga has been built on blistering counter-attacking football, a fit and firing figurehead like Dost could be all that's needed to close the gap on Bundesliga leaders FC Bayern München.
