Who will captain VfL Bochum for the match against Werder Bremen after Anthony Losilla’s suspension? And who will play for the 36-year-old in the centre of midfield?
The red card against Anthony Losilla only capped a used afternoon for VfL Bochum in their 0-2 loss to SC Freiburg. Coach Thomas Letsch’s team will have to make do without its captain for the time being in the relegation battle. The question is who will lead the VfL onto the pitch in his place.
Letsch’s expectation of having to do without Losilla for only two games was confirmed by the DFB sports court on Monday. “That is tough enough. He is such an important player for us, the heart in the centre,” Letsch said after the defeat against Freiburg. Losilla will thus not only be missing from VfL’s away game at Werder Bremen, but also from the following Revier derby at home against FC Schalke 04.
It will be an unfamiliar picture. Since VfL were promoted to the Bundesliga in the summer of 2021, Losilla has missed only one game. This season, the 36-year-old has been in the starting eleven in every game and has only been substituted twice. Against Stuttgart and Leverkusen, Manuel Riemann took the captain’s armband, as he did on Saturday.
The VfL keeper is vice-captain, has not missed a single minute of the game (see infobox) and is the logical replacement for Losilla. Even though he has not been able to consistently confirm last year’s top performances this season and is not without controversy in the public perception due to individual lapses, he is a vocal leader of the team on the pitch. The 34-year-old also shows this in every training session and is thus somewhat ahead of some of his teammates.
VfL Bochum: Who will play in the centre of midfield?
However, it is more important from a sporting point of view who will replace Losilla as a player in the centre of midfield. One-to-one is not possible, he said. “We’ll come up with something for Bremen,” Letsch said of the team collective.
Jacek Goralski, the only “classic” six, was not in the squad recently and should only have outside chances. Pierre Kunde, Patrick Osterhage and Patrick Förster, if he should be fit again, would be the more offensive option as an eighth. Should Letsch go for two-man strength, the defensive-minded Konstantinos Stafylidis and Erhan Masovic would come into question.
The latter was already back in training last week after overcoming illness, but Letsch deliberately did without the centre-back at the weekend. “We have not had good experiences with players who were ill when we brought them in too early.” The 54-year-old cited Ivan Ordets and Philipp Förster as examples. “They didn’t perform at the end like someone else would have done at one hundred per cent. “
Concerns about absentees due to illness
The main training days are always Monday and Tuesday, he said. “That’s when we have the highest load stimulus.” Letsch was correspondingly thoughtful when asked about Danilo Soares. The full-back had signalled at half-time in the Freiburg game that he would not be able to continue due to severe headaches.
“If Danilo has a fever at the beginning of the week and is out, it is difficult.” Letsch had given his players a day’s rest on Monday (20 February) and asks them to start training on Tuesday. Masovic will be there, Förster is still a bit of a question mark. So it will be clear early on whether VfL will have to cope with more than the absence of captain Losilla against Bremen.