Copyright: Herbert Bucco
Steffen Baumgart (here on January 18, 2023) decided on David Selke’s first Bundesliga appearance at 1. FC Köln.
1. FC Köln meets Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga opener in the new year. The focus is on newcomer and ex-Werder professional Davie Selke. Steffen Baumgart has now revealed how he plans with the striker.
That has probably never happened before! Steffen Baumgart (51) revealed his complete line-up before the start of the new year in the Bundesliga against Werder Bremen (January 21, 2023, 6:30 p.m., Sky and in the live ticker on EXPRESS.de).
The most exciting person is newcomer Davie Selke (27). Now the cat is out of the bag: The new FC-Knipser will NOT play from the start on Saturday.
Steffen Baumgart justifies the Selke decision
“He’s in the squad but he won’t start. We’ll start with Steffen Tigges and then we can bring in Davie. But he is dying to play, which he will probably have in the course of the game,” says Baumgart and explains the reasoning immediately afterwards: “It has to do with the fact that he hasn’t had much match practice in the past and we have to see that we get him still under construction. I have the feeling that he cannot go on the subject for more than 60 minutes.”
Returnee Dejan Ljubicic (25) also starts off the bench against the North Germans. Like Selke, the Austrian should come in the course of the game and would make his comeback after a three-month injury break.
“In my opinion, we have to be careful with Ljubi. We see in training that he’s going full throttle. He can’t do without. We’ll do it similar to Davie – that’s why he won’t start at the weekend but will be someone who will come from the 60th minute. That has also been discussed with the boys,” says Baumgart.
For Ljubicic, youngster Denis Huseinbasic (21) starts on number ten, supported by Florian Kainz (30) and Linton Maina (23). Ellyes Skhiri (27) and Eric Martel (20) form the double six and captain Jonas Hector (32) and Benno Schmitz (28) defend as usual on the flanks.
The FC coach had already announced the central defender duo at the beginning of the week. In addition to defense boss Timo Hübers (26), Jeff Chabot (24) takes over the vacancy of the injured Luca Kilian (23). I’m happy to announce all of this, since my counterpart Ole Werner has also published the line-up,” says Baumgart about the unusual measure.
This is how 1. FC Köln starts against Werder Bremen: Schwäbe – Schmitz, Hübers, Chabot, Hector – Martel, Skhiri – Maina, Huseinbasic, Kainz – Tigges
