No goal guarantee, no victory: At VfB Stuttgart, the focus is on Serhou Guirassy’s replacement, as is Hoffenheim’s goalkeeper Oliver Baumann.
Serhou Guirassy was in the stands in the stands wearing a black hoodie, passionately cheering on his team again and again – but it was all to no avail. Without the injured goalkeeper, VfB Stuttgart suffered their second defeat of the season, also because Guirassy representative Deniz Undav made a mistake.
“I’m extremely angry. I know that I messed up,” admitted the 27-year-old disappointedly after the bitter 2:3 (0:2) against TSG Hoffenheim. Apparently the expectations were too high.
Of course, Undav admitted, it was “a ruckus”, “I put a lot of pressure on myself. Everyone expects the same from me as from Serhou. Unfortunately, I disappointed the fans and the team. I have to do better. “
VfB Stuttgart: Did Deniz Undav lack the “looseness to shoot”?
Undav scored a goal (73rd) and prepared Chris Führich’s goal (61st) in an exemplary manner. But his penalty miss (30′) and a missed huge chance (6′) – the outstanding TSG goalkeeper Oliver Baumann made brilliant saves twice – caused a lot of frustration.
“He was totally exhausted, maybe he lacked the ability to shoot because of his previous history,” said VfB sporting director Fabian Wohlgemuth. According to coach Sebastian Hoeneß, “it was a big task for him. But he can build on it, even if he has to deal with it first.”
But it wasn’t just Undav that VfB would have hoped for the calmness of Guirassy, who had scored an impressive 14 goals in eight games before his muscle injury. “Serhou is always good for a goal. Clearly we are missing something. We missed too many chances,” complained defender Waldemar Anton and demanded that “without Serhou we have to move even closer together as a team.”
The next opportunity comes on Tuesday in the cup against Union Berlin. There is, said Wohlgemuth, “no time to complain.” Even if the surprise team from Swabia missed the chance to take the lead, at least in the short term.
Oliver Baumann drives VfB Stuttgart to despair
This was primarily prevented by TSG goalkeeper Baumann, who secured his team’s fifth win in their fifth away game. But he wasn’t completely satisfied.
He was “totally happy” about his own performance, but I also see things that didn’t go so well. We let VfB come into the box far too often. They had too many chances, that annoys me.
Hoffenheim had twice led by two goals through Grischa Prömel (4th), Wout Weghorst (21st, penalty after video evidence) and Robert Skov (66th), but had to tremble until the end. It was still enough – much to the chagrin of VfB striker Guirassy, who was unable to play in the stands.