Difficult status since Letsch departure
With the move to Vitesse Arnhem in 2021, Markus Schubert should finally hold the role of number one after two years at Schalke 04 and Eintracht Frankfurt without sufficient playing time. If the former German U21 national keeper was set for the Dutch team in his first season, he is no longer set in the current season. Schubert missed the start of the season with a knee injury and has been behind since his return. At Transfermarkt, the 24-year-old talks about his sporting situation, a change that didn’t materialize in the winter and possible plans for the summer.
Bozdogan to Plogmann: The German Eredivisie Legionnaires
“It’s not an easy situation right now. Of course I would like to play,” emphasizes Schubert on the phone. In the course of his recovery, the club had been looking for reinforcements between the posts and found them in Kjell Scherpen. The Netherlands Under-21 international goalkeeper came on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion in August until the end of the season and is a regular. The fact that Vitesse signed a new goalkeeper was “no problem at all” for Schubert: “I could understand why a new goalkeeper was loaned out, because things weren’t going well for us in the early stages of the season and it was also the case that I wasn’t would be back in the next week or two. In the end it took two months.”
Schubert was told that there would be open competition “when I’m fit again”. He discussed this with the then coach Thomas Letsch, who moved to VfL Bochum a little later in September. “I was happy that he found his way into the Bundesliga, he’s a good coach. But he was also the one who brought me to Vitesse and gave me complete trust. Under him I could play the way I like. So of course it’s a pity for me that he’s no longer there. And I also think that the situation might be different if he were still here.”
“Having returned to training after my injury, I think I only had a slim chance of becoming number one,” says Schubert. And further: “I don’t think it’s a question of quality. But when I was fit again, there wasn’t really any more competition.” The philosophy of the game changed under coach Phillip Cocu, Schubert has been alternating between the bench and the stands ever since. The 24-year-old meanwhile gained match practice, albeit little, in the second team.
Schubert had already had experience with the role as a back-up during the stations at Schalke 04 and Eintracht Frankfurt, but these situations were different, he says. For example, with the Royal Blues, he made a conscious decision to initially be a substitute. When he was seeded in the meantime, it was his undoing that “out of ten games I played eight good games and two not so good ones. Exactly the two not so good ones are remembered by many,” says Schubert, referring to the away bankruptcies at FC Bayern (0: 5) and BVB (0: 4) in the second half of 2019/20. As a result, he was labeled from the outside and seen as the reason why things were going badly at Schalke. “In retrospect, I would resist it,” he says.
Schubert on a possible change: “It’s important how the club makes me feel”
And further: “I used to put up with a lot and didn’t defend myself, but that’s different now. Of course, I don’t say no to everything all at once, but I have my own opinion on many things, can address negative things and am much more self-confident physically as well as mentally. For me, that is a positive sign that things will soon start to improve again.” In particular, “in the last one or two years” he has made gains in both areas.
Because Vitesse didn’t have a chance with the professionals, Schubert dealt with a change in winter, as he confirms: “I approached Vitesse and we talked about a change or a loan in winter.” He spoke to several clubs and had good conversations, but in the end it “unfortunately didn’t fit one hundred percent”.
When asked about a potential new attempt in the coming transfer phase, he says: “Everything happens very quickly in football, things can look very different in six months. But as of now I’m very open to a change in the summer.” He would “like to return to Germany. But I’m not stuck in one particular club or one particular country, I’m in my second year abroad and I’ve noticed that I’m good at it too. It is important how the club makes me feel.”
To home page