Fabian Bredlow has a flawless cup record in goal for VfB Stuttgart this season – but he is still threatened with the bank in the round of 16 on Tuesday at SC Paderborn (31.01.2023, 6 p.m., live ticker at sportschau.de). There is no rotation in the other clubs either.
Bredlow would have very good arguments, but one of them he is not allowed to name according to the standard code of conduct in football.
That would be an indication of the not exactly great form of his colleague Florian Müller, who, for example, recently failed in a 30-meter shot by Dominik Szoboszlai in the 2-1 defeat in Leipzig.
Two games, no goal conceded
Two other arguments would be the cup rounds one and two: In the 1-0 win at Dynamo Dresden, Bruno Labbadia’s predecessor Pellegrino Matarazzo Bredlow stood between the posts and kept his goal just as clean as in the round of 16 – with a brilliant 6-0 about Arminia Bielefeld.
The division of labor between two similarly strong goalkeepers in the Bundesliga and cup is foreign to Labbadia, as he explained before the game against Paderborn: “I’ve never handled it like that in my coaching career. Flo is number one and it will stay that way for the time being.”
Flo is Florian Müller and Labbadia’s philosophy is to demonstrate trust in difficult times: “Players are allowed to make mistakes with me. Unfortunately, that’s part of football. We have to accept that. It’s also important to keep strengthening players in certain situations. I don’t change that immediately when it comes to the goalkeeper position – even if someone makes a mistake “I know how relegation battles work and how difficult it is. It’s important to keep a steady hand.”
Zingerle even from one to three
While Labbadia then expressed his appreciation for Bredlow’s impeccable attitude in training, the situation with the opponent’s previous cup goalkeeper is even more tricky. In the 5:4 penalty thriller against Werder Bremen, Leopold Zingerle was the match winner at Paderborn, and Zingerle was also in the box in the previous round at 10:0 in Wernigerode.
Now against VfB he’s not even number two anymore: Coach Lukas Kwasniok has chosen Jannik Huth as his regular, Pelle Boevink, who has returned from Osnabrück, is planned as his replacement – Zingerle has gone from being a penalty taker in round two to a grandstand stool in the round of 16.
While in the past there have always been the classic cup goalkeepers such as Tobias Sippel in Mönchengladbach, Timo Horn in Cologne, Yvon Mvogo in Leipzig, Dennis Smarsch at FC St. Pauli and this is also common internationally (at Manchester City, for example, Stefan Ortega ran in the FA Cup), things are looking bad for the substitute keepers in the remaining DFB Cup teams.
Rotation is nowhere in sight
In the interesting duel between Union Berlin and VfL Wolfsburg (Tuesday, 8.45 p.m.), Frederik Rönnow and Koen Casteels will probably also be in goal, as they are in the league. Also on Wednesday there is little to speak of a rotation in both games: Peter Gulacsi is still injured at RB Leipzig, Janis Blaswich is just as seeded as Oliver Baumann at opponent Hoffenheim (6 p.m.).
Then from 8.45 p.m. (live on the first and in the live ticker on sportschau.de) Bayern will most likely rely on Yann Sommer, even if Sven Ulreich might sense his chance.
At Mainz, the goalkeeper question would only be exciting again if Robin Zentner had cured his back problems: Then the current league and cup keeper Finn Dahmen could perhaps become the pure cup keeper Finn Dahmem.