VfB Stuttgart coach Sebastian Hoeneß leaves the decision on Atakan Karazor's captaincy open, with the decision to be made before the DFB-Pokal match. Hoeneß is satisfied with Karazor's two-year tenure as captain. "What's clear is that Ata has been captain for two years now and has done a great job in my opinion. So we'll just have to see how things develop," he explained. Karazor took over the captaincy from Waldemar Anton, who left for Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2024. Hoeneß is not concerned about the absence of Dennis Seimen, who is out with a muscle injury. "He's not too worried," said the VfB coach. "We have faith in our backup goalkeeper Fabian Bredlow (31) and Marius Funk (30) is also doing well. "I'm feeling relaxed and just thinking that we'll go with the players we have now and hope that Dennis will be back soon," he added. Seimen is expected to be out until the end of September. "He won't be back anytime soon," Hoeneß said, adding that he expects a normal recovery process. VfB-Sportvorstand Fabian Wohlgemuth had expressed more optimism on Thursday, saying that Seimen's recovery process would likely be faster than expected. Wohlgemuth had not ruled out the possibility of signing another goalkeeper on a short-term basis. The Stuttgarters will face Everton in their next test match on Saturday at 17.00 CET. In the Bundesliga, they will face Bayern Munich on August 28 in their opening match. VfB Stuttgart is currently 27 points behind the league leaders, Bayern Munich. In the last season, VfB Stuttgart finished fourth in the Bundesliga with 62 points from 34 games. In the current season, they have scored 71 goals and conceded 49. In their last four games, they have remained unbeaten (2 wins, 2 draws).