With a strong performance and his debut goal for TSG defender Stefan Posch is staking his claim again after an interim low.
It was easy to see that goal celebrations are not one of Stefan Posch’s core competencies. When the Austrian realised that his dream header for the 5:0 win against 1. FC Köln had hit the corner, the defender wanted to celebrate his first Bundesliga goal appropriately. But in order to glide elegantly across the pitch on his knees, Posch had chosen too steep an angle of approach. So he rammed his knees deep into the Sinsheim turf, was abruptly slowed down and pitched forward. One had to worry for a moment about the health of the euphoric scorer, who would not have been the first professional to suffer a serious injury while celebrating. Another lucky escape …
In search of consistency
It was, however, Posch’s only urgently improvable action in this game. Otherwise, the 24-year-old was equally reliable defensively and one-on-one as a build-up player. This time. That is precisely Posch’s problem. To bring such performances on the pitch consistently and without phlegmatic mistakes. After an interim low, Posch is now back and staking his claim for a regular place.
Three-man backline with Grillitsch proved to be spot on
He always had one under coach Sebastian Hoeneß. Whether as a centre-back in various positions or as a right-back when there was a need. Posch was always in the starting eleven on the first four match days of the current season, before Hoeneß substituted him at the break in the 0:2 defeat against Mainz. Posch then sat on the bench three times, did not play at all against Bielefeld (0:0) and in Stuttgart (1:3) and only played five minutes against Wolfsburg. It wasn’t until Cologne that Hoeneß put his trust in him again. Firstly, Chris Richards was on the bench after his late international match in the USA, and secondly, Kevin Vogt, who had been on the bench until then, was also on the bench. Instead, Florian Grillitsch directed the action and the build-up of the TSG game from a three-man backline. A formation that proved to be spot on, at least for this match.
It remains to be seen whether Hoeneß also favours this variant on Saturday at FC Bayern. Posch’s chances of starting have not only increased due to his strong performance, but also due to the injury to Pavel Kaderabek (ankle), for whom Kevin Akpoguma has moved to the right side and is likely to be missing as an option on the inside for the time being.
In the national team, too, new perspectives have recently opened up for Posch. After more than a year, including the European Championship without a single minute of action, the Judenburg native was back in Austria’s starting eleven for the first time in the narrow 1-0 defeat against Denmark. If Posch can bring even more consistency to his performances, he could be a permanent fixture. In the club as well as in the national team.
