In the new KMD podcast, Matthias Ginter is our guest. Among other things, the defender talks about Gladbach’s fickleness, the “surreal” European Championship, a free kick – and about his expiring contract.
There were some who were amazed. In the 88th minute, Gladbach was awarded a free kick against Stuttgart last Saturday. But it wasn’t Florian Neuhaus, Jonas Hofmann or Patrick Herrmann who took it from 18 metres – it was Matthias Ginter.
“We haven’t scored that many free-kicks yet,” says the Gladbach player in the latest edition of the KMD podcast with Alex Schlüter and Benni Zander. He also says that he practised a lot with the national team under the new and specially appointed standards coach Mads Buttgereit, “it didn’t go so badly there”. That’s why the defender said to himself: “Come on, it can’t be that difficult. But it’s not that easy either. The leather flew a metre over the goal.
Gegen Bielefeld “nicht berauschend, aber halt gewonnen “
Unpredictable is how Borussia has generally presented itself this season. Against Stuttgart, the Foals only managed a 1-1 draw, although according to Ginter they played better than in other games. “Personally, I didn’t find the Bielefeld game as exhilarating as the game against Stuttgart, but we won,” said the defender, looking back on the 3:1 against Arminia in mid-September. In general, Gladbach had “found itself” in the past three games with seven points, affirms the 27-year-old, after whom a district league club recently named its stadium (“I never thought that would make such waves”).
The success of the team from the Lower Rhine goes hand in hand with a change of tactics. While Borussia played with a four-man defence in the 0:1 loss in Augsburg, coach Adi Hütter changed to a three-man defence before the 1:0 win against BVB. Ginter takes the right part, which he prefers to the central position, “because I can play a bit more offensively and live out the striker in me better”, as he says with a twinkle in his eye. But how much offensive drive is allowed? “Of course the coach gives guidelines,” he says. But with his most recent coaches – Joachim Löw and Hansi Flick in the national team, Marco Rose and Hütter at Gladbach – it was definitely desired.
Ginter’s surreal day – and a tricky situation
Logically, Ginter does not have the best memories of the past European Championship. There was “more in it”, especially since England “didn’t play the DFB team up against the wall” in the last 16. When he had to pack his bags the day after the 2-0 defeat, it was “surreal”. “It took two, three or four days to realise that the tournament was really over. Playing under a new national coach was also “very, very strange” at first, “because we all only had international matches under Jogi Löw – and now it’s just something different. But we’re all happy and ready to take on something new. “
“A year ago I would have signed blindly. “
MATTHIAS GINTER
The question still remains: is Ginter doing something new soon? His contract in Gladbach expires in the summer of 2022, and because of the Corona situation and the associated financial problems, a contract extension has been put on hold for the time being. The situation is “the way it is” because of the pandemic, says Ginter, who has already spoken to manager Max Eberl, though not about figures. “A year ago I would have signed blindly because the club was and is important to me,” says Ginter. The situation is “incredibly tricky right now. But it’s difficult to predict anything now. Many things are open. “
In the KMD podcast, Ginter also talks about Marco Rose’s farewell speech, which clubs he was a fan of as a child – and which players he is counting on in his manager’s game team.
The podcast is available on all popular platforms, such as
– Spotify – Deezer – iTunes – audio now – Google Podcasts – Podimo
