Stuttgart’s El Bilal Touré: From a newcomer to the stage to an indispensable player for VfB – Sport

The football week didn’t start particularly well for El Bilal Touré. He was able to see it as an honor that coach Sebastian Hoeneß sent him onto the big stage in the second half, right into the Champions League game at Juventus Turin. However, there were two or three pictures there that raised doubts about Touré’s suitability. Once teammate Enzo Millot was caught gesticulating wildly, another time teammate Deniz Undav, and in between coach Hoeneß asked him to the sidelines for a quick nighttime critique. Topic: tactical behavior and routes.

Hoeneß later said that they either wanted to attack Juventus higher or receive them lower, and “Elbi” was “always somewhere in between”, i.e. either not high enough or not deep enough. So that’s why the teammates are wailing.

For Elbi, as they have recently said in Stuttgart, the week went quite well in that he strung together three actions that were hard on the world class level in three and a half days. In Turin he appeased his colleagues with a much-celebrated goal in stoppage time, for which he was to be presented with a special prize that was to be invented immediately for the best ball receiving and taking away. And now this Saturday, in the Bundesliga game against Holstein Kiel: Touré first made a counter-attack run across half the field before, with his head held high, fending off all opponents, he sent the ball straight into the path of Deniz Undav (1-0, 19th minute ); Later he thundered the ball into the goal from 25 meters away with such force that the ball was probably dizzy for a while. El Bilal Touré, 23, needed three and a half days to change his relationship status with VfB from “uncertain” to “indispensable”.

Touré is what Undav is not and Demirovic is just a little: fast, very fast

If there is always talk at the moment that the VfB Stuttgart players still have to get used to the so-called multiple workload, this of course also applies to the coach. Hoeneß is also currently learning what it’s like to think three or four games in one; He develops a feeling for which regular players he can give a break in which competitions without endangering the business. Such dispositions are made more difficult by the fact that a newcomer to the stage like VfB cannot in good conscience allow themselves to rotate in every position – which now leads back to El Bilal Touré, the attacker that sports director Fabian Wohlgemuth hired for exactly this reason a week before the transfer deadline Atalanta Bergamo on loan.

Because he first wanted to widen the tip, as one would have to say, following Berti Vogts; because he suspected that despite the huge investment in attack (26 million for Deniz Undav, 21 million for Ermedin Demirovic) another specialist might be needed, especially one whose profile had not yet been found in this squad. Touré is what Undav is not and Demirovic is just a little bit: fast. Very fast.

VfB’s 2-1 win against Kiel wasn’t just good news for Hoeneß because he saw 66 minutes of professionally executed commissioned work. As he ordered, his team channeled the feelings of happiness they had accumulated in Turin in a highly serious performance with a few brilliant moments before defender Jeff Chabot was held responsible for being the ringleader in a pack formation with a yellow-red card – and his constantly stressed teammates were outnumbered forcing further unnecessary fighting and scratching work. “It shouldn’t happen to him or us again that we carelessly let the opponent back into the game,” said Hoeneß.

Chabot’s suspension for the next Bundesliga game in Leverkusen will now force Hoeneß to change plans, but in the game against Kiel the realization prevailed that rotation can also be fun. At least when you have an attacker like El Bilal Touré, who has made it very clear within three and a half days that he will not just replace center forward Demirovic every now and then, but will seriously challenge him.