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Youri Mulder: We proved that we’ve arrived in the Bundesliga
Youri Mulder was proud of the way the team performed after taking a point off FC Bayern München on Saturday (5/9). In the mixed zone, our director of professional football spoke about the game against the record champions, Loris Karius’ performance, Luca Vozar’s professional debut and the upcoming games.
Youri Mulder on…
…the point against Bayern:
Our record against Bayern has been anything but positive in recent years. I saw a graphic on Instagram shortly before the game that highlighted the statistics of our last 10 games against them: just two goals scored and 38 conceded. However, we didn’t let that scare us. The lads fought right until the end in order to earn that point. You can’t do much better than that against such an outstanding team. In doing so, we proved that we’ve arrived in the Bundesliga.
…the approach against Bayern:
Miron Muslic chose an excellent tactical approach and clearly communicated this to the team during the previous week of training, with the team doing an excellent job of putting it into action. I’m familiar with games like this from my own playing days. We also had games against Bayern in which we had to be prepared to suffer – but that can also be fun. It feels really good when your efforts are rewarded at the end.
We really wanted to make sure that we didn’t concede. “Die Null muss stehen” (English: “The clean sheet comes first”) – Huub Stevens will have been pleased with that! Of course the next stop should be to pose more of an attacking threat in a game like that. There were a couple of moments where we could have done just that. For example, Moussa Sylla could have taken a shot from the halfway line when Manuel Neuer was far off his line. But I’m not blaming him; he put in a brilliant performance and it felt like he ran at least 20 kilometres. I also don’t want to highlight just one player, as everyone put in a very strong performance.
Miron Muslic chose an excellent tactical approach and clearly communicated this to the team during the previous week of training.
…Loris Karius’ chances of getting called up to the national team:
He proved once again what he’s capable of, and it’s not the first time that he’s done that. Loris has been performing consistently well for several months now. In my view, he’s good enough for the national team. I think it would be deserved if Loris were to receive a call up for the upcoming internationals. But that’s not a decision that I can make, that’s of course up to Jürgen Klopp.
…Luca Vozar professional debut:
Luca is a great footballer who received excellent coaching during his time in the Knappenschmiede. Over the last weeks, he’s proven that he can keep up. I’m very happy that he was now able to make his professional debut and that he’s followed in the footsteps of Mertcan Ayhan, Vitalie Becker and Mika Wallentowitz, who all came up from the U19s to the first team last season. Luca’s Bundesliga debut is once again confirmation of the excellent work done by the Knappenschmiede.
…the DFB-Pokal draw:
Playing away in Dresden won’t be easy. We know what the atmosphere in the stadium will be like and know what to expect. Nevertheless, we will be heading to Dresden in late October with the goal of reaching the next round.
There’s still some time until then, however. Right now, the priority is to place our full focus on our next Bundesliga game. What matters most is the away game at Union Berlin on Friday. The way in which we played against Bayern has left us wanting more and has heightened our anticipation ahead of our upcoming games.
