VfL Bochum have failed to score in three of their six Bundesliga games so far. If they are to keep their place in the Bundesliga, Thomas Reis’ team urgently needs to develop more penetrating power.
The two top scorers of the promotion season are not starting. Robert Zulj, who has since moved to the Emirates, scored 15 goals for VfL, as did Simon Zoller, whose cruciate ligament rupture will keep him out until late spring 2022.
Who is currently scoring goals for VfL? Zoller has been involved in all four goals so far, the last of which came on matchday four in a 1:3 loss to Hertha. Since then, VfL have gone 211 minutes without scoring. It’s only logical that Thomas Reis is calling for more penetrating power.
No danger of scoring despite offensive players
But: Where should it come from? Certainly, the coach had his professionals practice scoring goals more during the week in the fight against the zeros, but there are no real goal scorers in the VfL ranks anyway. The two offensive wingers, for example, have recently shown a clear improvement in performance, but neither Gerrit Holtmann, who has scored four goals in 55 Bundesliga games so far, nor Christopher Antwi-Adjei, who has scored just one goal in 39 Bundesliga appearances, are real goal scorers.
Both of them, however, with their speed and dribbles created a lot of activity on the wings, but in front of the goal, the situation is generally dead. This also applies to centre-forward Sebastian Polter, who is physically robust, but also not a reliable goalscorer. In his first appearance for Bochum, the powerful centre-forward scored on the second matchday, but since then he has failed to score four times and is rarely conspicuous in the penalty area.
Although Polter invests a lot, throws himself into the duel, disrupts the opponent’s build-up with great effort, he rarely finishes, which is not only due to a lack of support. “He has to assert himself better in the centre, he has the body for it. He has to hold on to the balls better,” demands Reis. If Bochum continue to be so harmless in the opponent’s penalty area, then the dream of staying in the Bundesliga will remain a dream.
Dreaming of staying in the Bundesliga during the OP!
SIMON ZOLLER
By the way, Simon Zoller now shared that his current club, which will miss him for so long, also keeps him busy at night. Following his cruciate ligament rupture, he has now undergone surgery on his left knee at the Mediapark Clinic in Cologne.
Under his Instagram photo from the hospital, Zoller wrote: “Dreaming of staying in the league during the operation! What can I say? I do!!!” And promises, virtually lying down: “From now on, we’ll work.”
Realistically, however, the venomous Bochum attacker is not expected back until the home stretch of the season at the earliest.
