Salih Özcan was replaced injured in Wolfsburg
Salih Özcan has not had an early substitution for a long time. Until the guest appearance at VfL Wolfsburg: The midfielder of 1. FC Köln was even replaced in the second half. Injury-related, as is now clear.
“Özcan had problems with his calf,” revealed FC coach Steffen Baumgart in the aftermath of the game. The 23-year-old would have bitten his teeth on his own and continued to play, “but we then said that we would not do that”.
You can tell the player in the last few meters of the first half of the season that one or the other break is important. Özcan had played through all of the previous nine competitive games in Cologne.
The billy goats still have one game to contest this year, on Sunday against VfB Stuttgart. Then it’s winter break.
Baumgart issues sixth Jonas Hector special praise
In Wolfsburg, instead of Özcan, Baumgart didn’t send a defensive midfielder onto the field, but left-back Jannes Horn. He moved into the rear left, Jonas Hector went to the center. A role that the former national player had played for a long time before Baumgart took up his post in Cologne, but not this season anymore.
For this reason, the trainer Sechser Hector wanted to emphasize: “It is not that easy to have a cold start in defensive midfield after such a long time, and it is still so good. That’s my special praise today. “
Source: press conference
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