A German fan gives the run-down on the Stuttgart squad
#1 Timo Hildebrand âo" 24 years âoœ. has been our first choice keeper for 3 years now. Rather young and not a very big lad ... very good on one on ones and has good reflexes ... used to be dodgy one set pieces but he's showing signs of becoming a man ... probably our best player so far this season and could well be in contention to replace Kahn when he calls it a day ... came thru the Stuttgart youth system
#23 Dirk Heinen - 32 years old ... was signed from a Turkish team to replace the 35 year old Thomas Ernst as our reserve keeper and I was very surprised to hear he was willing to sign for us a as reserve player ... was Leverkusen's first choice keeper for a while and was in the Germany squad once or twice until he broke his skull ... good and solid reserve keeper, might even be the best reserve goalie in the Bundesliga
# 31 Diego Bengalio ... 20 years old ... Swiss u21 keeper, signed him from Grasshoppers Zurich one season ago and I think were grooming him to become our #2 ... usually only plays for the reserves and id be very surprised if he featured against Rangers
CENTRE HALVES
#4 Rui Marques ... 25 years old ... Angolan international ... the less said, the better ... a liability ... his mistakes almost cost us second place in the league and I firmly hope ill never, ever see that sorry excuse for a defender in our shirt again
#5 Marcelo Bordon.... 27 years old ... without a doubt our most important defender and one of the best center halves in Germany ... hard and solid ... was Sao Paolo captain at 23 and we signed him from Brazil ... a true rock at the back
#6 Fernando Meira ... 25 years old ... Portuguese international and our record signing at 5m pounds from Benfica ... was the Benfica captain at 21 ... has all the tools you need and is very, very comfortable on the ball ... can also play in defensive midfield ... tends to fall asleep sometimes and screws up from time to time ... very solid so far this season ... he and Bordon could be a superb duo in the heart of defence Markus Husterer ... 20 years old ... young center half we loaned from Bayern for 2 years just before the deadline ... don't know anything about him
#29 Steffen Sangelmayer ... 25 years old ... reserve center half ... came thru the youth system and was signed to a professional contract 4 years ago, but he never got to play as a serious knee injury nearly ended his career and ruled him out for 2 years
FULL BACKS
#2 Andreas Hinkel ... 21 years old ... right back ... my favourite player as he's a local lad who's made it ... pure quality ... made his full debut for Germany v Italy in August and surely is one of the biggest German talents ... very good offensively and has been playing on a very high level for 2 years now ... came thru the youth system
#12 Heiko Gerber.... 31 years old ... a left winger turned left back and the weak link of our back four.... hes good enough for the bundesliga but will probably be found out in the cl
#21 Phillip Lahm ... 20 years old ... loaned him from Bayern for 2 years and has impressed me a lot whenever I've seen him ... would quite like him to replace Gerber as the starter at left back ... was voted 3rd best player in the German regionalliga last season playing for Bayern reserves ... one to keep an eye on ... can play at left and right back
#3 Timo Wenzel ... reserve center half and left back ... came thru the youth system and was first choice during the 2001-2002 ... actually liked the lad and cannot really understand why Magath prefers Gerber
defensive midfielders
#20 Zvonimir Soldo ... 36 years old ... Croatian international ... our captain and most important outfield player ... true war horse and has been with us for 7 years ... very experienced and our secret playmaker in midfield ... hard as nails, good in the air but a bit slow
#8 Jurica Vranjes ... 23 years old ... Croatian international ... signed him for nothing from Bayer Leverkusen as they wanted to get rid of his wage ... featured during their Champions League run 2 seasons and missed all of last season with a back injury ... I wouldn't fuck with him ... were grooming him to replace Soldo when he retires in 12 months
#7 Silvio Meissner ... 30 years old ... defensive midfielder who does a lot for the attacking game and also quite often scores himself ... hasn't played too much this season as Magath has preferred Vranjes to him ... we might see him, Vranjes and Soldo for the match at Ibrox as our coach sometimes like to take a defensive approach in tough away matches
#24 ... Michael Rondo ... 20 years old. Young midfielder who usually plays for the reserves ... would be surprised if he was in the squad against you ... came thru our youth system
#25 Michael "magic" Mutzel ... 23 years old ... can also play on the right hand side ... would like to see him more often as he usually does his job well
Attacking midfielders
#15 Aliaksandr Hleb ...22 years old ... joy to watch ... his dribbling are stunning and he's scored some cracking goals ... his skill is absolutely amazing and he can tear teams apart himself on a good day ... will be playing for one of the huge European clubs one day ... Belorussian player of the year ... bit too selfish sometimes
#16 Horst Heldt ... 33 years old ... signed him in January from Austrian club Sturm Graz ... one of our coaches favourite players and he did very well under Magath in Frankfurt ... not a world beater and rather slow, but he can read a game and his passing is pretty good ... good set pieces ... has assisted on 4 of our 5 goals this season
#14 Emmanuel Centurion ... 21 years old ... signed him from Velez Sarsfield for 2m â? ... made his debut against Leverkusen u21s on weekend, played a half and scored the opening goal in our 4-0 win on a deflected shot ... only seen him in training once ... rather wee lad and it looks like hell need some more time to get match fitness ... was apparently voted best left winger in Argentina and is about to make the Argentina squad
Serge Branco ... 23 years old ... signed him on deadline day ... one of Magath's fav players ... he signed him for Frankfurt, too ... don't really understand the signing ... can play at left back and in left midfield ... won the gold medal with Cameroon in Sydney
#13 Christian Tiffert. 21 years old ... don't understand why he plays as he's rubbish ... plain and simple
Strikers
#22 Kevin Kuranyi ... 21 years old ... our star striker and the shooting star of last season.... full German international although he has a Brazilian passport as well as a German one.... good on the ball, good in the air and not afraid to take on players on his own ... also has an eye for his teammate and gets a lot of assists ... not really done well this season and yet has to get on the scoresheet in 4 matches ... came thru our youth system and is our target man
#18 Cacau ... Brazilian striker signed from Nuremberg ... didn't really set the world alight there but showed his talent and potential ... quick and pay as anything ... obviously yet has to develop but I like the signing ... has so far scored twice in 4 matches ... can play on the wings as well
#19 Imre Szabics ... 22 years old ... full Hungarian international ... signed from Sturm Graz and I actually think he played against Rangers in the CL a wee while ago ... not seen too much of him so far but he came off the bench to score 2 goals within 1 minute in our season opening 2-0 win v Hansa Rostock
#11 Yoannis Amanatidis ...22 years old ... full Greek international ... did rather well last season and scored some pretty important but lost his form after a horror tackle on his ankle by Hans Jarg Butt in March. The loser of the season so far ... more of a winger and support striker ... came thru our youth system
Our usual starting lineup is Hildebrand - Hinkel, Bordon, Meira, Gerber - Vranjes, Soldo - Heldt, Hleb - Kuranyi, Cacau.
A bit about the history of the current squad ... we're 10m in debt and money is tight ... we almost got relegated 3 years ago and an injury time winner in the next to last match from Krassimir Balakov saved us ... money was tight and we had to sell a couple of players ... turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the young lads (Hildebrand, Kuranyi, Hleb, Hinkel, Amanatidis, Tiffert) did very well and we finished 8th that season ... no one thought this was possible with our young squad ... we qualified for last seasons UEFA Cup thru the Intertoto and sensationally finished 2nd in the Bundesliga
Well, hope this is enough :)
JENS