The defeat constituted the first loss for the German U21s in a qualifying match in nearly four years. Way back at the beginning of Di Salvo’s tenure, the U21s fell 0-4 to Poland at the WirMachenDruck Arena in Aspach on November 11th, 2021. Since then, despite a disappointing 2023 Euros and some defeats in friendlies, Di Salvo’s youngsters went 16 qualifying fixtures without a defeat.

The search for answers was on following the Friday loss. The fact that Di Salvo’s selection remains injury-ridden certainly didn’t help. In addition to the four players who have officially departed DFB camp, Southampton centre-back Joshua Quarshie (a regular starter) was unable to play on Friday. Two players Di Salvo called up late – Eintracht Frankfurt’s Elias Baum and Dynamo Dresden’s Julian Pauli – have also had to leave camp injured. 

Bayern Munich midfielder Tom Bischof – another eagerly anticipated U21 debutant – was given the captain’s armband and did register an assist on Tom Rothe’s 2-2 equalizer. The rising FCB midfield talent nevertheless lamented the team’s sloppy start when conducting his post-match interview with ProSieben MAXX. Di Salvo, too, referenced errors in his own interview. 

“We have to be present from the very first minute onward and have enough balls to play forward,” Bischof told the German broadcaster. “We were simply afraid to play the ball forward. The spaces were too big. We should have closed down the field more. If we had done that, it would have been a better game more like the victory we envisioned.”

“I warned them [the team] about the Greeks,” Di Salvo added. “We made too many simple mistakes. Then the mistakes pile up because your confidence drops. We cannot afford any more mistakes or slip ups.“

Seimen’s goalkeeping error was emblematic of the entire error-strewn first half that simply didn’t work. Poor marking off a free-kick in the 13th enabled Konstantinos Kostoulas to score the opening goal. Less than a minute later Seimen fumbled a back-pass in front of the onrushing Stefanos Tzimas. The former Nürnberg striker collected the ball and then proceeded to out-deke Seimen for the 14th-minute 0-2. 

The clearly rattled German hosts made several more embarrassing amateurish errors before the half was out. Seimen recovered a bit to make some quality saves, but was himself spared further blushes by some lucky bounces and tight offside decisions. Seimen and the rest of the DFB defensive ranks looked out-of-sorts on Dimitris Rallis’ match-winning 2-3 in the 81st minute.

The 19-year-old Seimen certainly didn’t look like someone capable of challenging Werder Bremen keeper Mio Backhaus’ hold on the Germany U21 No. 1 slot. The current SC Paderborn loanee also almost certainly didn’t look like the net-minder his parent club VfB Stuttgart have earmarked to replace No. 1 Alexander Nübel next season.

“Of course, I’m extremely aggravated about it,” Seimen said of his mistake in the mixed zone on Friday night. “But it’s happened now and I have to put it behind me. I just thought I could kick the ball away. I’m pretty disappointed, but life goes on.“

“He knows full well that he made a mistake and there’s no escaping that,” Di Salvo added at the post-match press conference. “Logically, he had to clear the ball [out into touch], but I’m annoyed at how it came to that back pass. We simply played back unnecessarily.

“Mistakes are part of football and it happens,” Di Salvo was then sure to emphasize. “I will talk to him and build him back up, just as Klaus Thomforde [the goalkeeping coach] will. It happened. We will put it behind us. It’s all the more reason to pull together and do better [against Northern Ireland] on Tuesday.“

GGFN | Peter Weis

The 20-year-old joined Stuttgart in the summer for €3m, and the Spanish club inserted a buy-back option in the deal for Andres. 

The cost of the buy option initially is €13.5m and is valid next summer. In 2027, a year later, the price rises to around €20m and then a year later in 2028, it could rise once again. 

On whether he wishes to return to Madrid later in his career, Andres said: 

“Of course, Real Madrid is a dream for every player, and I hope to return one day.After all, everyone knows it’s the biggest club in world football. But I’m very happy in Germany and never imagined it would be so good there.”

Andres’ start in Stuttgart:

The midfielder has had an immediate impact at Stuttgart, putting increasing pressure on club captain Atakan Karazor when it comes to who partners Angelo Stiller in the heart of VfB’s midfield. 

Andres is not the only summer signing to hit the ground running for Stuttgart. Forward Bilal El Khannouss has also had an impactful start to his career at the MHP Arena, and VfB are already looking at trying to make his loan more permanent. 

GGFN | Jack Meenan

What precisely the criteria for triggering the option are remains unclear, but it if – as is common – the option is tied to appearances, it should not be long before the 21-year-old meets them. El Khannouss has started in all four league fixtures since arriving in the BaWü capital and scored three goals in six appearances across all competitions. The Moroccan international’s enthusiasm for his new Bundesliga club has quickly rendered him a fan-favorite.

El Khannouss’ penchant for scoring spectacular long range goals continues to leave VfB head coach Sebastian Hoeneß praising the new addition he remained enthusiastic about from the very beginning. After El Khannouss netted the winner in a 1-0 win over Heidenheim over the weekend, Hoeneß discussed El Khannouss in great depth at the post-match press conference.

“In the second half, you saw what he is capable of,” Hoeneß said. “He is technically strong, agile, has great first touch, and is two-footed. He’s a great goal-scoring threat with an excellent goal-scoring rate. He still has some fluctuations and needs to find balance. Sometimes he wants to make things too beautiful or ingenious. He should remain in the center as he’s really dangerous there.”

GGFN | Peter Weis

Milosevic hasn’t featured for Stuttgart since the 2023/24 Bundesliga campaign. The youngster made five exceedingly brief relief appearances under Hoeneß between August of 2023 and January of 2024. In the January 2024 transfer window, Stuttgart arranged a six-month loan-out to FC St. Gallen for the heavily capped Serbian youth international. FC Gallen would later extend the arrangement.

Milosevic technically returned to Stuttgart last January, but was immediately loaned back out to Partizan Belgrade on another 12-month-long arrangement. Back in his home country, Milosevic has finally begun to thrive. After scoring three goals for the Crno-beli  last spring, Milosevic has exploded to score 11 goals across all competitions for Belgrade this autumn. 

It is not known whether Milosevic’s current loan deal contains a purchase option. At the very least, Stuttgart will be looking to recoup the €1.2m they spent to acquire him from Vojvodina in the summer of 2023. The player’s recent form has nevertheless seen him triple his estimated market value from €1m to €3m in the last three months.

Stuttgart may want more than Partizan are willing to spend.

In light of the fact that Milosevic’s VfB contract runs until 2027, an extension of his current loan remains a possibility. If Stuttgart striker Ermedin Demirovic’s injury leads to complications with Hoeneß’ attacking corps, it might even prove the case that the BaWü club decide to lend Milosevic another playing audition.

“In general, everyone in charge at Partizan knows where I stand,” Milosevic recently remarked when asked about his future on the expertIVA podcast, “I’m currently happy with my situation. We’ll see in December. [At Stuttgart], I had the honor of sharing the pitch with incredible players. It was certainly a wonderful time, but it would have been even better if I had had more opportunities to play there.“

GGFN | Peter Weis

Whilst Stuttgart haven’t yet provided an official timeframe for the Bosnian striker’s recovery -simply announcing that he will be out ‘until further notice’ – kicker reports that it may take up to eight weeks before Demirović is back to match fitness again.

This injury will be a blow for Stuttgart, for whom the win over Heidenheim marked their third consecutive Bundesliga victory, which saw them climb into fourth place in the table. These results are due in part to Demirović’s performances, who leads the side’s goalscoring charts having netted three times in the league.

Their top scorer joins a steadily-growing injury list which already includes Deniz Undav, Finn Jeltsch, and Noah Darvich, among others.

Whilst there had been hope that Undav would be able to make his comeback from the knee injury he sustained in Stuttgart’s 1-0 victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach on Matchday 2, there’s no guarantee that the German international will be ready and available for the Bundesliga’s resumption on 18 October, when Stuttgart travel to Wolfsburg.

As such, the club must prepare for the eventuality of being without either of their star strikers.Speaking on the recent addition of Demirović to Stuttgart’s injury list, sporting director Fabian Wohlgemuth outlined the club’s strategy, announcing:

“What will be critical to our success is how we respond to the current situation. Until Deniz and Ermedin return to the team, we’ll have to spread the workload across several shoulders. We’ll need to rely on improvisation and creative solutions – something we’ve successfully managed in the past as well.”

GGFN | Sam Carey

Put simply, a move for Nübel will be too expensive for Stuttgart. Parent club Bayern Munich currently pay two-thirds of his €10m salary, and he would have to take a pay cut to make his move permanent at the MHP Arena.

On top of this, Bayern could demand €20-25m for the 29-year-old, which is too much for Stuttgart. At the same time, a third loan is out of the question. 

During his time at the MHP Arena, Nübel has played himself into the German national team, but has failed to nail down the number one position. 

Stuttgart’s Nübel successor: 

VfB already have Nübel’s replacement lined up. The club have high hopes for 19-year-old goalkeeper Dennis Seimen. The plan is that the German under-21 keeper, who is currently on loan at Paderborn in the 2.Bundesliga, will be promoted to number one if he continues his development upon his return to Mercedestraße.

Paderborn currently have the best defence in the league, keeping four clean sheets with Seimen averaging an 80.8% save percentage (via FotMob).

GGFN | Jack Meenan

Mislintat made his name in Germany with Borussia Dortmund, before moving to Arsenal and then Stuttgart as sporting director. In May 2023, Mislintat would join Ajax as their technical director, but would only last 128 days. 

Mislintat’s Ajax sacking:

The reason for his short spell in Amsterdam was due to the signing of Borna Sosa from Stuttgart. The reason it was controversial was that Mislintat was set to benefit financially from the move as the agents of the left-back owned shares in the director’s company. 

On his short spell in the Netherlands, Mislintat said: 

“I was first provisionally and then completely suspended as part of and as a consequence of the allegations. What happened from a sporting perspective: We had a weak start to the season, for which I, as Technical Director, was of course primarily responsible, along with the coach. But to be perfectly clear: two investigations, in the Netherlands that by KPMG and here in Germany that by VfB Stuttgart, came to a clear conclusion: namely, that there was no conflict of interest. Incidentally, I supported both investigations 100 percent. I was completely transparent and disclosed everything. I had absolutely nothing to hide.”

If he has benefited financially:

“No. Let’s go into detail and take it one step at a time: I am one of the five founding members of Matchmetrics. That was over a decade ago. Back then, I contributed my knowledge and received shares for my expertise in professional football. I’ve never worked in operations and to this day have never received any compensation other than access to the objective data. In the following years, but years before I joined Ajax, there were investment rounds to raise money – as is absolutely common for startups. Puma joined as an anchor investor, whose negotiated terms were binding for all subsequent investors. A private individual, AKA Global, and I subsequently acquired shares and the opportunity to purchase Matchmetrics’ services at a significantly reduced price. We are no longer shareholders in the same company. Mind you, a company that provides objective data for professional football and whose clients cover the entire football portfolio: clubs, associations, consultants. Incidentally, Matchmetrics’ structures are publicly available for inspection in the commercial register. I also disclosed my role and involvement to all employers, which was also included in all my employment contracts.”

The transfer of Sosa was ultimately a failure for Ajax, as he only spent one season in Amsterdam before being sent on loan to Torino and later sold to Crystal Palace. 

Following his dismissal as Ajax technical director, Mislintat would later return to Dortmund as technical director. However, his second spell at the Westfalenstadion would also end quickly due to a conflict and power struggle with sporting director Sebastian Kehl. 

GGFN | Jack Meenan

Hamburg Make Mince Meat of Mainz 

Hamburg made it back-to-back home wins as they battered Mainz 05 4-0 on Sunday afternoon. HSV were on top from the first minute and found themselves 2-0 up after just nine minutes thanks to goals from Albert Sambi Lokonga and Rayan Philippe. Philippe would add to his first goal in the second half, bringing his tally for the season to three goals from six games. The forward had a failed move to Mainz in the summer and mocked the situation with his celebration by mimicking a phone call. 

HSV head coach Merlin Polzin opted for a new 3-4-3 formation, and it worked a treat against a side that was so successful last campaign. 

“We’re progressing and one can see that in our play with the ball and against the ball. We’ve more steps to take, but one senses – and this is vitally important – that the team is finding out who they are and the connections are getting better. The players need to feel it on the pitch,” explained Polzin. 

HSV move up to 9th in the Bundesliga, whilst Mainz drop to 16th. 

Bayern Breeze Past Frankfurt

Ahead of this one, it was billed as Bayern’s first big test this season. However, when Bayern went 0-1 up after 17 seconds through Luis Díaz, it was anything but a real test. 

Bayern once again dominated and showed just how powerful their forward line is this season. Vincent Kompany’s side went 0-2 before the break through a Harry Kane curled effort from 20 meters out. If you haven’t seen the goal already, I urge you to take a look. 

Diaz added to his first-half goal late into the second half to make sure that Bayern go six wins from six games in the Bundesliga. 

“I don’t think these games should be used as a yardstick to evaluate the boys right now,” Toppmöller insisted when conducting a post-match interview with Sky Germany after the match. “It’s important for us to know that we still have a little room for improvement in order to compete at this level.”

“No one has been able to keep up with Bayern at their level thus far [this year],” Toppmöller continued, adding special praise for Harry Kane’s distance effort that made it 0-2 in the 27th minute. “That was a typical Bayern goal and Harry Kane’s finish was simply world-class.”

For Frankfurt, it’s now 12 goals conceded in four games in all competitions. There’s no question that Frankfurt have an excellent team, but right now, their defensive displays will be worrying head coach Dino Toppmöller. Bayern stay top as Frankfurt drop out of the European places for the first time this season (7th).  

Dortmund Leipzig Stalemate 

Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig played a rather dull 1-1 draw that was billed as “the battle of the Bayern chasers”. In fact, the final xG stats (Dortmund 0.88, Leipzig 1.05) illustrate that the final scoreline was even a little generous. 

Dortmund remain undefeated this season ahead of their showdown with Bayern after the international break. Leipzig, meanwhile, continue their undefeated run since being battered by Bayern on opening night. 

In truth, both teams will probably be satisfied with the draw as Dortmund and Leipzig stay 2nd and 3rd, respectively. 

Around The Grounds

Elsewhere in the Bundesliga, FC Heidenheim still remains bottom following a 1-0 loss to VfB Stuttgart. The Swabians scored the winner just past the hour mark from time to add even more misery on Frank Schmidt’s side. Heidenheim stay bottom, whilst Stuttgart shoot up into 4th. 

Bayer Leverkusen have put their early-season woes behind them as they go 5th with a 2-0 win against Union Berlin. It’s the first time that B04 has registered back-to-back Bundesliga wins this season as new head coach Kasper Hjulmand looks to be making a positive impact on his squad. 

Borussia Mönchengladbach still remain winless going into the international break after a 0-0 draw against SC Freiburg. Despite that and amid all the administrative turmoil at Borussia Mönchengladbach, interim head coach Eugen Polanski has been given the green light to continue his audition on the sidelines.

There were also wins for FC Köln (0-1 vs TSG Hoffenheim), Werder Bremen (1-0 vs St. Pauli), and FC Augsburg (3-1 vs VfL Wolfsburg). 

GGFN | Jamie Allen

Die Schwaben are the second Baden-Württemberg outfit Basel have faced in as many games so far in this competition, with the Swiss side having been beaten 2-1 by Freiburg last time out.

Despite being favourites for this game, Hoeneß’s side got off to a terrible start. Angelo Stiller gave the ball away on the edge of Stuttgart’s own third. He seemed to get away with it, but after recovering the ball, Badredine Bouanani put it on a plate for Albian Ajeti to tuck past Alexander Nübel. 

Ermedin Demirović squandered a golden chance for a leveller. The Bosnia and Herzegovina international found himself unmarked at the edge of the six-yard box but placed his header over the crossbar. 

Demirović would get another chance to level the game with a penalty after Tiago Tomás was fouled in the Basel box. However, thanks to VAR, Demirović was made to wait an age after setting up to take the spot-kick—never ideal for the taker—and Marwin Hitz made saving the Bosnian’s effort look easy. 

Stuttgart huffed and puffed for the majority of the second half with little success. Basel broke away late in the game and Xherdan Shaqiri looped the ball over Alexander Nübel into the net, wrapping up the points for the Swiss side. 

Lack of cohesion

It’s easy to forget that little more than two years ago, Stuttgart found themselves in the relegation play-off against Hamburg. They have achieved so much since: a remarkable second-place finish in the Bundesliga the following season, and a DFB-Pokal win in the last. Yet despite this success, Hoeneß’s team still has a very fresh look. 

With some notable absentees—including Chris Führich, Jeff Chabot, and Atakan Karazor—filling up Stuttgart’s bench in this game, only four players who started against Basel also started the Pokal final in May. 

Desperate football

Basel did very well to limit VfB to very little going forward besides the penalty. Stuttgart grew frustrated throughout the game, resorting to shots from distance and route one balls up to Demirović. 

Stuttgart racked up an astounding 29 attempts, but Hitz stood firm, and their growing desperation was plain to see. 

Hoeneß made a double change on 70 minutes, bringing on Führich and Bilal El Khannouss for a thwarted and tiring Jamie Leweling and Chema Andrés. Neither player would have the desired effect on the game before Shaqiri sealed the win for Basel. 

Post Woltemade Stuttgart

It has been intriguing to watch how Stuttgart have adapted following the sale of Nick Woltemade to Newcastle. The injury to Deniz Undav has undoubtedly not helped either. Demirović has made a decent start to the season, with three goals and an assist in the first five Bundesliga matches. 

However, on nights like this—when the Bosnian wasn’t firing on all cylinders—Stuttgart needed another source of attacking impetus. Despite dominating possession, Leweling was also kept quiet by the resolute Basel backline. Führich fared no better when he was introduced with the score still at 1-0. 

Thankfully for Hoeneß, Undav’s return is in sight. 

GGFN | Harry Good

Demirovic was among eight Stuttgart professionals who successfully converted penalties in a wild shootout win over Eintracht Braunschweig in the opening round of the Pokal this year, but that doesn’t quite erase the fact that Demirovic missed both of his Bundesliga takes last season. Angelo Stiller has also missed from the spot this year, leaving one wondering who will step forward next time Stuttgart are awarded a penalty. 

The 27-year-old did make reference to the fact that a late VAR of the 33rd-minute awarded penalty broke his concentration. When Demirovic finally did square off against FC Basel keeper Marwin Hitz in the 36th, the former Wolfsburg, Augsburg, and Borussia Dortmund professional came out the winner. 

“Of course it’s in total shit now,” Demirovic told RTL. “The [penalty taking] rate is just not good. I don’t want to make excuses, but it was a lousy situation. I thought the [VAR] check was done. That’s why I stood there and took a run-up. I was ready. Then came another check. Today was just a day during which everything went against us.“

For his part, VfB head coach Sebastian Hoeneß did praise his team for not giving up in both his post-match interview and the post-match press conference. Hoeneß made cure to credit Hitz with a fine performance. Swiss legend Xherdan Shaqiri also did a fantastic job for the underdogs on the evening and ultimately punished the profligate guests with the 2-0 “nail-in-the-coffin” in the 84th minute.

“[My team] pushed through to the very end,” Hoeneß noted at the press conference. “It was an  power play in the second half. At some point, you still have to score. Of course, there’s always the danger of a counterattack on the other side. Shaqiri briefly showed why he was world class striker for a good part of his career.“

GGFN | Peter Weis