Dennis Seimen will make his Bundesliga debut for VfB Stuttgart in Saturday's away match at SC Paderborn. Manager Sebastian Hoeneß confirmed the 20-year-old as the undisputed number one goalkeeper, having missed the entire pre-season and the start of the campaign with a thigh injury.
"He will play," said Hoeneß. "Dennis is our number one, that's how he went into the season, nothing has changed about that." Seimen replaces Fabian Bredlow, who deputised for the first four games and did a good job according to the coach. The match in Paderborn (kick-off 15:30) is particularly important for Stuttgart after a very moderate start that has yielded just three points and left them 15th in the table.
Workload must be managed
The young keeper's return comes at a key juncture. The game at Paderborn begins a period packed with fixtures across the league, Champions League and cup. Hoeneß stressed that Seimen's workload must be managed carefully. "We had a tough opening schedule, but we still would have wished to come out of it with more points," the manager admitted. Bredlow will continue to get playing opportunities in the coming weeks.
The team has recently regained some confidence with two clear home wins against 1. FC Heidenheim (3-0) and SpVgg Greuther Fürth (5-0). These two victories form part of a recent run of WWLLW. However, Stuttgart remain nine points off the top with a goal difference of 6:9. A look at the upcoming fixtures shows the density of the schedule. The injury list is manageable with Luca Jaquez, whom the team can rely on again according to Hoeneß.
Against promoted side Paderborn, a club with strong Baden-Württemberg connections, Stuttgart now aim to carry the momentum from their last games and push on for the coming weeks. The team travels with the clear objective of securing a third consecutive three-point haul. Seimen's debut against his former club is the first step in that mission.
The report in full is at sportschau.de
