Viktoria Köln have not been able to achieve their goals so far this season, but have also been badly affected by injuries. In all likelihood, new players will be added to the attack in the winter.
“Things can only get better in the new year,” said Viktoria Köln’s sporting director Franz Wunderlich about the injury plight over the past six months. Coach Olaf Janßen recently calculated in the “Kölnische Rundschau” that Viktoria had “an average of seven injured players per match day”.
One player in particular was missed: Timmy Thiele, who was still Cologne’s third-best striker in the 2020/21 season with nine goals, only played a total of 125 minutes due to various injuries. Adductor problems stopped him at the beginning of the year, then he was set back by muscular problems before he was out again after his second comeback at the end of November due to adductor problems. His return was “not foreseeable”, Viktoria announced at the beginning of December.
Only three goals by attackers
Now it is certain that the 30-year-old will not be able to play at the start of the second half of the season on 14 January. Thiele will soon have to undergo an operation, after which there will probably be a prognosis on his convalescence period. It is therefore certain that the Viktoria will strengthen their attack this winter. The seven nominally top players have only scored a total of three (!) goals in the 20 games so far.
But there is also good news for coach Janßen: the long-term injured David Philipp, Federico Palacios and goalkeeper Sebastian Mielitz are back in team training.
