Last season David Nemeth made 28 league and four cup appearances for Sturm Graz. After returning to Mainz 05, he is still waiting for his first appearance of the season.
Luca Kilian or David Nemeth – that was the duel in preparation for the places behind the regular centre-backs after Jeremiah St. Juste, Stefan Bell, Moussa Niakhaté and Alexander Hack. Nemeth won the duel, Kilian was loaned to 1. FC Köln, where he has since made three Bundesliga appearances. Nemeth can only dream of that so far.
Although Niakhaté and Hack were absent from the away game in Leverkusen due to a thigh injury and a COVID-19 infection respectively, Nemeth was on the bench for 90 minutes. The 20-year-old has only been in the matchday squad twice. When selecting the starting eleven, Svensson preferred to include full-back Widmer as a right-sided centre-back and brought on another veteran in Daniel Brosinski (33) as a right-back.
Widmer in unfamiliar role: “He did very, very well “
“Brosinski earned it through good training performances,” said Martin Schmidt. At the same time, however, the sporting director recognised the disadvantage that “in some actions, certain automatisms that we have had in recent weeks and months were perhaps missing”. Overall, however, the defence had “coped well” with the absence of Niakhaté and Hack.
“Silvan Widmer did very, very well in central defence,” Svensson praised the Swiss international. To fit the 28-year-old in on the right of the three-man backline, St. Juste moved to the left. “There were different reasons for the variation. The deciding factor was that we wanted speed with Widmer and St. Juste,” Svensson explained.
For 70 minutes, Mainz’s defensive unit also did a good job of limiting Leverkusen’s forward momentum, but in the 20 minutes after half-time, captain Robin Zentner’s side lacked grip. With only three goals conceded, however, FSV still have the best defence in the league. The chances of Nemeth slipping into the team for the home match against Union Berlin (Sunday, 15.30 UHR, LIVE! on kicker) don’t seem too great…
