Freiburg (dpa / lsw) – Internally, the question seems to have already been answered who will guard the goal for the injured Mark Flekken in the first league game at VfB Stuttgart on Saturday (3.30 p.m. / Sky). Coach Christian Streich from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg made it a secret two days before the game. “You will see that on Saturday”, he left the most pressing personnel question unanswered, “the decision should not be made for a game, a goalkeeper needs trust and must also be allowed to make mistakes.”
In the case of other personnel, however, there is clarity. Shortly after the press conference with prank, the sports club announced the commitment of midfielder Baptiste Santamaria. The 25-year-old comes from the French first division club SCO Angers. According to “Kicker” the Frenchman will cost the Freiburg around ten million euros and would be the most expensive purchase in the club’s history. However, Streich previously described the fact that the new man is already there in Stuttgart as “rather unlikely”.
In the meantime, there is a lot of evidence in the gate that newcomer Florian Müller will be awarded the contract, who was loaned at short notice from FSV Mainz on Tuesday and trained with his new colleagues for the first time on Wednesday. The 22-year-old was not number one at Mainz and was therefore looking for a new challenge. Streich expressly thanked those responsible in Mainz for being so “cooperative and courteous”, “that is not a matter of course”.
On Sunday in the cup game at third division Waldhof Mannheim (2: 1) Benjamin Uphoff stepped in for Flekken at short notice, who had already been operated on after his elbow injury and, according to Streich, will be absent for at least half a year. The 27-year-old Uphoff came from second division Karlsruher SC in the summer and had said himself that he wanted to get used to the higher pace first. Müller, on the other hand, already has first division experience from 42 games.
“I don’t want to say anything about the goalkeepers, I don’t know yet about the field players,” said Streich about the starting line-up for the Stuttgart game. It is also not yet clear whether midfielder Yannik Keitel, who was replaced in Mannheim with muscular problems, can play again. And there is great competition on the offensive. “We are still in the process of finding out how to set up the basic tactics and the staff,” said Streich.
The SC coach expects a “very competitive and passionate game” and hopes “that we will finally break the series”, not only because of the 8000 spectators who will probably be there again on Saturday in Stuttgart. Streich has not won at VfB since he became the coach of the Freiburg professionals. He considers the partial return of the fans to the stadiums to be “sensible and justifiable. We have to hope that the people are sensible”.
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