They looked resplendent as they walked out in their black and white-marbled tops, with the club badge in gold just above the heart. This weekend, Stuttgart were ready to walk tall.
The kit itself, designed by a renowned local artist Tim Bengel, was priced in the shop at €189.30 with only 1893 limited-edition pieces available (it being “an art object and collector’s item” is the reason for the price hike, the club’s press release said), both a nod to the year of the club’s foundation and a push to raise money for social projects in the region. The white swirl? It represented the head of Filderkraut, the Baden-Württemberg region’s white cabbage superfood, which is a recurrent theme in Bengel’s work. VfB representing the region with pride, and looking chic, is a departure from recent years.
Sweeping aside Werder Bremen, another once-great name of German football, on Saturday afternoon was typical of the new reality. Expected, graceful, routine. After their 2-0 win Sebastian Hoeness’ team sit in third place, five points behind the leaders but equally five points in front of the current occupants of fifth spot, Borussia Dortmund, who they already dispatched last month in a 2-1 win that was far more comprehensive than it appears to be on paper. It is heady stuff. The last 13 seasons, two have which have been spent in the second tier, have yielded a single sixth-placed finish. In the corridors of the club nobody is jumping the gun and talking about a full-on tilt for the Champions League – the sporting director, Fabian Wohlgemuth, has spoken just of enjoying “a worry-free season” – but this is to be enjoyed. The Cannstatter Kurve sang “Nach all der Scheiße, geht’s auf die Reise, Stuttgart International” which translates to “After all this shit, let’s go on a trip, Stuttgart International”. They could get used to this.
Of their eight home games in all competitions, this was a seventh win. It took Stuttgart to 30 points. They only managed 33 in the whole of last season – in 21 more games than they have currently played. The turnaround is remarkable, especially when you consider they lost arguably their three best players in the summer: Konstantinos Mavropanos, Borna Sosa and Wataru Endō, the latter leaving unexpectedly to Liverpool on the eve of the Bundesliga opener.
Much of the success in the early weeks of Stuttgart’s season was built around the extraordinary form of Serhou Guirassy, their centre-forward who was outscoring Harry Kane until succumbing to a hamstring injury. Against Werder he was not at his clinical best, but he kept cool. He had to wait nearly three minutes to take the penalty that eventually produced his 16th goal of the season, but the hold-up didn’t affect his nerve as he faked out Michael Zetterer, with the goalkeeper diving to his left as the Guinean striker gently lifted the ball into the centre of the goal.
Guirassy’s injury, one might argue, has ultimately made Hoeness’ side a little more durable. It has certainly worked for Deniz Undav. Sent out on loan by Brighton to get more game time – Roberto De Zerbi’s words at the time of the temporary transfer that the Premier League club “look forward to welcoming him back at the end of the season” were notable – he had been struggling to get minutes in the campaign’s opening weeks, with Die Schwaben starting in far better fettle than expected with just Guirassy up top. Saturday’s opener, greedily gobbled up after Zetterer couldn’t hold on to Waldemar Anton’s shot from range, took Undav to eight goals from his first 10 Bundesliga games. Only five of them have been starts.
The lineup for Saturday’s game was an indication of just how much he has given his coach to think about. It was the first time that Undav and Guirassy were paired together and against a defence as malleable as Werder’s, it seemed almost unfair. The last few weeks have also underlined what a thoughtful coach Hoeness is. Having begun the season in a 4-2-3-1 shape, Stuttgart shifted after Guirassy’s injury. It was hard to imagine one player, be it Undav or anyone else, effectively substituting him while he was out, so the coach experimented with the sort of 4-2-2-2 that Leipzig have popularised in recent years. Guirassy and Undav, dovetailing brilliantly with Silas and Chris Führich, were impossible for the visitors to contain.
Praise must be given to Wohlgemuth too, who celebrated a year in his role on Sunday. “It was a strenuous and busy year with many experiences,” he said, reflecting on it last week, “with events which might normally take place over five years. But because of the concentration of (these events) they have brought us together. That might be part of the reason why some things are working for us now.” He made his own share of mistakes, he admits. The first was immediately bringing back Bruno Labbadia for a disastrous second spell as coach, which produced just two Bundesliga wins in four months as the team slumped to bottom of the table. Hoeness built the foundations for this campaign under the unbearable pressure of looming catastrophe in the last one.
Darmstadt 0-1 Köln, Stuttgart 2-0 Werder, Leipzig 2-1 Heidenheim, Mönchengladbach 2-1 Hoffenheim, Bochum 3-1 Wolfsburg, Augsburg 2-1 Eintracht, Bayer Leverkusen 1-1 Dortmund, Mainz 0-1 Freiburg
There will be speed bumps ahead, including the possible exit of Guirassy. Manchester United were recently added to the list of big names showing an interest in him. He could even be sprung from his contract for a relative bargain fee of €17.5m and maybe as soon as January, although his participation in the African Cup of Nations would mean any new club would probably have to wait to get him into the team. The ultimate two tests, however, are in the post, with the visit of leaders Leverkusen on Sunday followed by a trip to Bayern a week later. Yet before Bundesliga duty resumes Dortmund arrive again on Wednesday for a DfB-Pokal last 16 tie. One in which VfB are perhaps even slight favourites. With Bayern and holders Leipzig having already fallen by the wayside in this season’s competition another win over BVB this week would have the Cannstatters dreaming of Berlin and beyond.
Whatever the results are Stuttgart are breathing rarefied air, in a different dimension to that of last (or any recent) season, with the forthcoming fixtures to be enjoyed as “weeks of celebrations,” as Gregor Preiss of Stuttgarter Zeitung wrote after Saturday’s win. The right to that state of mind, more than anything, is already a prize worth cherishing this season.
Talking point
• With Bayern’s Saturday match with Union Berlin snowed off the big attraction was Sunday’s late game, with leaders Leverkusen still unbeaten but dropping points for only the second time this season – at home to Dortmund. The visitors actually held the lead for most of it after Julian Ryerson’s early goal but spent most of the match defending (mainly very well), with Victor Boniface tapping in the equaliser from the returning substitute Patrik Schick’s set-up. “If they come here and just defend, then you can see the respect they have for us” Granit Xhaka told DAZN.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bayer Leverkusen | 13 | 27 | 35 |
| 2 | Bayern Munich | 12 | 34 | 32 |
| 3 | Stuttgart | 13 | 18 | 30 |
| 4 | RB Leipzig | 13 | 18 | 26 |
| 5 | Borussia Dortmund | 13 | 6 | 25 |
| 6 | Hoffenheim | 13 | 2 | 20 |
| 7 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 13 | 4 | 18 |
| 8 | Freiburg | 13 | -7 | 18 |
| 9 | Augsburg | 13 | -2 | 17 |
| 10 | Borussia M'gladbach | 13 | -1 | 16 |
| 11 | Wolfsburg | 13 | -6 | 16 |
| 12 | VfL Bochum | 13 | -12 | 13 |
| 13 | Werder Bremen | 13 | -9 | 11 |
| 14 | Heidenheim | 13 | -10 | 11 |
| 15 | Cologne | 13 | -14 | 9 |
| 16 | Darmstadt | 13 | -19 | 9 |
| 17 | Mainz | 13 | -14 | 8 |
| 18 | Union Berlin | 12 | -15 | 7 |
