One player is causing a surprise at VfL Bochum because he always played. But two professionals are in danger of missing important matches soon.
He had to sit out training from time to time due to minor injuries, but when things got serious, he could be relied on. Goalkeeper Manuel Riemann, our WAZ Player of the Year at VfL, hasn’t missed a second so far. That’s not really surprising – more so in the case of Bernardo, who has also played all 16 games (1440 minutes).
The Brazilian new signing only arrived from RB Salzburg in August and was an instant starter, shining in particular as a left-back after a number of games in central defense. The 28-year-old, who has been repeatedly set back by injuries throughout his career, was VfL’s top transfer last summer and his contract runs until 2025. Bernardo has long been on the radar of several clubs.
Takuma Asano also started all 16 games (14 substitutions/1191 minutes), Anthony Losilla (1222 minutes) and Kevin Stöger (1193 minutes) missed out once and Erhan Masovic (1117) twice.
Bernardo is the best Bundesliga two-way player
Coach Thomas Letsch used a total of 24 players, including Simon Zoller, who moved to FC St. Pauli at the end of August. Seven players did not play at all: the injured Lys Mousset and Mo Tolba, talented Mats Pannewig, the sale/loan candidates Moritz Römling and Jordi Osei-Tutu as well as goalkeepers Niclas Thiede and Michael Esser.
With 223 tackles won, he is number one in the Bundesliga, well ahead of Hoffenheim’s Anton Stach (206) and Heidenheim’s Tim Kleindienst (190). Bernardo, who can analyze matches in such a refreshingly relaxed manner even after hotly contested games, long fought a duel for the top spot with team-mate Ivan Ordets, who has been out injured since the 2:2 draw against Mainz at the end of October. Ordets is due to return to team training in January. Bochum’s second-best duelist is the eternal running wonder Anthony Losilla (146/league-wide rank 21), followed by Kevin Stöger (143/25).
The running performance
Bernardo also leads in terms of overall mileage with 167.4 kilometers (18th in the league) ahead of Losilla (156.7/33). The captain has always been in the top ten in the league, but missing one game due to illness and seven substitutions saw him slip to 33rd place. Bochum’s number three in terms of total distance covered is Takuma Asano (147.1), just ahead of Kevin Stöger (144.7). The best player in the Bundesliga so far is Granit Xhaka from leaders Bayer Leverkusen (189.7 km).
Bochum are not on the fast track
Takuma Asano, Christopher Antwi-Adjei, Gerrit Holtmann, who has been on loan since the summer: fast attacking players have twice played a decisive role in helping VfL avoid relegation. They remain fast, but have been left behind in the league so far in the first half of the season. No Bochum player made it into the top 20 in the measured top speed, with Erenk Dinkci from FC Heidenheim leading the Bundesliga ranking (36.41 km/h).
Asano is in 31st place with 34.62 km/h, the second fastest Bochum player is a young defender: Tim Oermann (34.2 km/h) ranks ahead of Christopher Antwi-Adjei (34.17). However, Asano is a strong third in the number of sprints (474), on a par with Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz (first: Bayer’s Jeremie Frimpong, 587). In the team ranking, VfL is in eighth place for sprints.
Goals, assists and chocolate
Takuma Asano has scored five goals in his 16 appearances; his last goal made headlines around the world because he ate chocolate thrown onto the pitch by Union Berlin fans, which he said gave him the strength he needed. Asano and his management took advantage of the chocolate hour and the Japanese player advertised a chocolate from his home country on his Instagram account. As is well known, however, he now wants to score for his country at the Asian Cup and will miss up to five Bundesliga games for VfL.
Kevin Stöger could displace him from first place in the first few games of the year and is number two at VfL with four goals, including three converted penalties, followed by Gonaclo Paciencia with three – albeit with significantly less playing time.
Stöger is ahead in terms of assists (3), while Philipp Hofmann, who is still without a goal and was dropped from the squad for the last few games, has two assists and all other players have a maximum of one, including Asano. In the scorer rankings (goals/assists 1 point each), Stöger leads with 7 points ahead of Asano (6) and Paciencia (3).
Consolation for Hofmann: He is still number three in the Bundesliga in terms of headers won with 75, followed by team-mate Bernardo (70).
Schlotterbeck with high yellow quota
Keven Schlotterbeck leads the way at VfL – as a verbose leader. And also as a defensive boss who gets down to business. As a result, the defender, who is on loan from SC Freiburg, has already picked up six yellow cards – only Dominik Kohr (Mainz), Eren Dinkci (Heidenheim) and Grischa Prömel (Hoffenheim) have received the same number. Schlotterbeck was only in the starting eleven for nine of the 16 matches, seeing a yellow card in an average of two out of every three games.
Kevin Stöger picked up his fifth yellow card shortly before the final whistle in the strongest game of the season so far against Union Berlin (3:0), missed the 4:0 defeat in Leverkusen – and is therefore ready to return for the important home game against Werder Bremen on Sunday, January 14. The same goes for Erhan Masovic and Cristian Gamboa, who are on the verge of a forced break after picking up four yellow cards so far. Anthony Losilla, Bernardo, Matus Bero and Christopher Antwi-Adjei all received three yellow cards.
With 46 yellow cards, Bochum have received the second most in the league after Mainz (47) and ahead of Darmstadt (45). The strong Stuttgart team have only received 21 yellow cards, FC Bayern 22. No Bochum player has yet seen yellow-red or red