Fabian Wohlgemuth isn’t one to give excessive answers. The analyzes of the sports director of VfB Stuttgart are concise. This is the case with defeats, but also in the case of success. The 43-year-old would have had many reasons to be a little more talkative after the Swabians, who were threatened with relegation, 3-0 (1-0) against 1. FC Köln. “I’m happy,” said Wohlgemuth when asked about his state of mind – but nothing more.
It was Stuttgart’s first Bundesliga win since Wohlgemuth and coach Bruno Labbadia joined VfB in December. On the 32nd attempt, the club finally managed not to concede a goal in a home game and thanks to their fourth win of the season, the Stuttgart side worked their way past their rivals TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and VfL Bochum.
Stuttgart’s Labbadia: “Have to continue now”
Labbadia, who was allowed to celebrate after five unsuccessful attempts, showed more emotion than Wohlgemuth. The former striker clenched his fists when Gil Dias, who was new to Winter, made it 1-0 (10′). After the break, Borna Sosa made everything clear with a free kick worth seeing (59th) and substitute Tanguy Coulibaly (74th). “We’ve rewarded ourselves and now we have to keep going,” said the coach, who caused a stir before the game by promoting Fabian Bredlow to the position of the new first-choice goalkeeper.
“He had good charisma, was stable and played well,” said Labbadia, who surprised Bredlow with the nomination. “I found out through an article that was sent to me,” Bredlow said. Labbadia had announced his decision two days before the game at the press conference before the game against Cologne.
At 1: 2 in Freiburg, Bredlow represented Florian Müller, who was absent for a short time because of illness. Despite a 1-0 lead, the Swabians gave up a possible win last weekend. In the meantime, things also got dicey against the Domstädter. “We lacked the last bit of self-confidence to continue straight away. We could have done it earlier,” said Labbadia.
The guests were successively equipped with more security after five games without defeat. But Bredlow was on the spot twice against Schmitz and even before that the VfB defenders didn’t allow themselves any individual dropouts this time either. In the weeks before, another player had repeatedly messed up with serious consequences. “You can’t prevent such mistakes. But we explicitly said that we want to keep the zero,” said Labbadia.
Now the trend-setting game is waiting for Schalke
“It was good that no shots found their way into the goal and we scored three times,” said Bredlow. “We had the will to win the game at all costs.” Will and commitment were right. After Labbadia had repeatedly incited the reservists, Coulibaly in particular was able to cause a sensation. “It’s important for the boys to see that if the training performance is good over a longer period of time, then I’ll get my chance,” said Labbadia.
With fresh impetus, he and VfB are now heading into the trend-setting game at bottom FC Schalke 04. “That was an important victory and we will enjoy it too. But on Monday we will continue to be focused and concentrated. But it was only a first step, because there is still a long way to go,” said Wohlgemuth, who finally managed to smile.
