During the Pokalfight, Mainz and Bielefeld delivered gripping duels. That also applied to Arminia’s forwards and FSV’s defenders. 05 coach Bo Svensson had changed the three-man backline once again.
Moussa Niakhaté initially found himself on the bench. Having recently ended an injury lay-off of several weeks, Svensson did not want his captain to make three starting appearances in an English week. The Frenchman was replaced by David Nemeth, who was moved to right centre-back. Stefan Bell moved to the centre and Alexander Hack to the left.
FSV’s three-man backline almost never plays a week with the same personnel. First Niakhaté was absent due to a thigh injury, then Jeremiah St. Juste, who will be out for the rest of the first half of the season after shoulder surgery. In between, even full-back Silvan Widmer had to play, because Hack was also absent due to a Corona infection.
Svensson criticises the team in general
The 20-year-old Austrian Nemeth made his first starting appearance in the DFB Cup match against Bielefeld. He is already the number six in the 05er’s three-man backline, lasted 120 minutes, offered a solid performance, even if it was true for him, as for his fellow players, that they were at times “not strong enough on long balls”, as Svensson criticised in his general criticism. However, it was only one of many points and the FSV coach also took the personnel of the other parts of the team to task.
“It was the expected game with a wild start. We had a huge chance straight away, then we got a counter-attack directly after a corner and were chasing the deficit. After that we actually did well, had a certain control in the game despite being behind,” analysed defender Bell. “The key in extra time was then that our strikers did a better job of holding onto the balls. Overall it was an entertaining and attacking cup game,” said the veteran.
“We can’t present ourselves like that at times. “
BO SVENSSON
“For us, the content with the ball was good in parts, against the ball less so. That’s what we need to work on. Of course we are very happy that we have progressed, but we have to discuss some things. We can’t present ourselves like that at times,” criticised Svensson, who is always very critical of his team’s performance and seemed miffed despite the 3-2 win. The chance to do better will come pretty quickly. As early as Saturday, Mainz 05 play host to Arminia Bielefeld in the Bundesliga.
