Sinsheim – He came at a time when everything was at stake for Werder Bremen – and helped ensure that things turned out well in the end. Kevin Vogt (29) played a total of 17 competitive games for Bremen in the preseason, only after the last of which was relegation perfect – and the defensive all-rounder returned to 1899 Hoffenheim.
If Werder Bremen on Sunday in Sinsheim at the TSG Hoffenheim must Kevin Vogt watch locked. In an interview with the DeichStube Nevertheless, he revealed that he maintains close contact to Bremen to this day, what his ex-teammate Marco Friedl would advise and why it was never an issue for him to stay longer at the Weser.
You saw your fifth yellow card last weekend and are now suspended. How annoyed you are that you cannot play against your ex-club Werder, Kevin Vogt?
The lock annoys me a lot. Of course, I realized right away that I would now be out. Against Werder, of all places, the worst possible time after having carried the four warnings around with me for weeks.
You were there in the first leg at the Weserstadion. What memories do you have of the 1: 1?
Werder started well and scored an early goal. We didn’t get into the game well, but then stabilized and equalized in the middle of the first half. All in all, the result was fair in the end.
Hoffenheim’s Kevin Vogt on wire to Ex-Club Werder Bremen: “Very intensive contact in a WhatsApp group”
Are you still in contact with your former colleagues from Bremen?
A very intensive contact even in a WhatsApp group that has formed. Sometimes we are even active almost every day and exchange ideas.
Who is in this group?
Marco Friedl, Davie Selke and Leo Bittencourt, for example. I also still have a very good connection with the entire coaching team.
Communication in the group in question has certainly been a bit sparse this week, hasn’t it?
No, why should I? Of course we will leave the talks on the evening before the game. But at the beginning of the week we still communicated. We don’t just talk about football, we also talk about other things.
A year ago you joined SV Werder Bremen as a loan player. How did you experience the following six months?
It was a very demanding but also instructive time for me. In Hoffenheim we had played in Europe in previous years and were back on track this season. So, figuratively, it went out of the comfort zone to a club that was involved in the relegation battle. I felt the pressure increase from week to week. It was an exciting time. I had decided to bring in new elements at Werder, to convey my experiences and to help the team. I think I have largely succeeded. That it was enough to stay in class in the end was of course huge. I wanted to say goodbye to Bremen with a smile. It worked.
Would you have liked to stay longer?
There have never been any discussions in this direction. Especially since the agreement was clearly defined and the loan was only fixed for half a year. Back then, I spoke to our new trainer in Hoffenheim, Sebastian Hoeneß, early on, who showed me the prospects. So it was clear that the journey with Hoffenheim was not over for me.
You did not get along with Sebastian Hoeneß’s predecessor, Alfred Schreuder, from the Netherlands, so you started your short-term commitment in Bremen. Had it not been for the change of coach from Schreuder to Hoeneß, would Werder’s chances of retaining you in the long term might have been better?
You’re right, if Alfred Schreuder were still a coach at Hoffenheim, Werder might have had a better chance of keeping me.
From the Bremen environment it is said that your relationship with Werder coach Florian Kohfeldt was excellent.
It’s true, I got on very well with Flo from day one. We were on the same wavelength. I am a person who is direct and open, so I think it fit between us very well. He also probably liked the fact that I brought in new components and put my strengths at the service of the team. An elf with incredibly good characters who, by the way, accepted me very well and very quickly.
Like Kohfeldt, your current coach Sebastian Hoeneß is one of the younger generation of trainers. Are the two similar?
Indeed, I have had good experiences with young coaches. I was allowed to work with Julian Nagelsmann, also a representative of this new generation. The three already have parallels in how they want to shape football.
These soccer teachers are often disparagingly referred to as laptop coaches who make the sport too scientific. A current example: Nuremberg’s trainer Robert Klauß, who communicated his match schedule over the weekend in a language that not everyone understood. How is it with you? Did you understand everything that your young superiors asked for?
I could understand that, I’ve heard this language before. Robert Klauß was Julian Nagelsmann’s assistant in Leipzig, so this type of instruction was not entirely unfamiliar to me. (laughs)
Last season Werder Bremen developed into the league’s shooting gallery. In this game year, a newly gained defensive stability distinguishes the team. Are you surprised at this development?
I am no longer close enough to name the causes. But the fact is that the Bremen team is currently defending very well, hardly conceding any goals. Which of course sometimes comes at the expense of the attacking game. But it seems to have grown together a little, especially since the stability is continuously emerging. That is a good basis for success.
You are very flexible in your game and have already shone as a central defender or in the sixth position. Do you have a favorite role?
Nowadays, with a lot of system changes in a team, it is extremely important to be as flexible and variable as possible. I feel quite comfortable in the center, even though I’ve played as a half-back before. But I believe that in this central role I can also help the eleven the most.
Before seeing Werder Bremen again: does Hoffenheim’s Kevin Vogt trust his ex-colleague Marco Friedl to move to Bayern?
Marco Friedl, your former teammate and friend from the WhatsApp group, has just been connected to Bayern Munich. Do you trust him to be mature enough for a top club? And do you advise him to do so?
I think a lot of Marco, also a very fine guy in human terms. A player with great qualities, who is still young, has now brought more consistency to his game. If he would ask me what, by the way, he has not done so far, my advice would be: Keep collecting your experiences, keep trying to stabilize your performance! It is important to achieve above-average performance in the long term.
About the duel on Sunday: Werder Bremen immediately overtook Hoffenheim in the league. Just a snapshot?
The current situation is like this. We expected a little more in Hoffenheim before the start, but it didn’t quite go that way because a lot has broken down due to Corona and other adversities. We had ten to twelve failures in the first half of the season. You have to take this into account when evaluating. But we’re slowly getting back on track, picking up points and catching up.
Is Europe still a realistic goal?
That’s out of our heads right now. We’re playing in the European Cup this season, we should be happy about that.
At the weekend you and Haaland from Dortmund created a scene after which the video assistant was discussed again. Foul not whistled by you, a goal recognized in return. How did you see it
On the pitch, I perceived it differently than what the TV pictures later showed. The ball comes from outside, we both face the goal, we collide. As was then determined, the situation did not result in any intervention by the video assistant.
And basically: How do you rate the work of the often criticized VAR?
Hard question, normally we should be friends with it. Everything has become fairer, they say. However, there have recently been an increasing number of cases in which errors have not been corrected. I’m a proponent of more emotions in the game, so I’m not that big of a fan of this development.
