Heading into the rückrunde, Borussia Mönchengladbach have won once in their previous five Bundesliga games and are struggling for goals. However, could the answer be within their U23 setup with Japanese youth international Shio Fukuda?
The 19-year-old striker featured in Gladbach’s 3-2 win over Dutch side Go Ahead Eagles last weekend despite only playing 15 minutes.
The youngster is going strong with Gladbach II in the Regionalliga West this campaign, scoring five in his last five appearances before Christmas.
Compared to Gladbach’s two central strikers, Tomáš Čvančara (23) and Jordan (27), the duo have only scored one goal between them this season.
Čvančara has been sidelined with injury for the majority of the season and is only due back to team training this month. Likewise, Jordan is returning from a muscle injury and featured in the game against Go Ahead Eagles. However, head coach Gerardo Seoane admitted that the striker’s return wasn’t exactly electric: “He played 45 minutes, but he didn’t touch many balls. He couldn’t show much. There’s still a lot of catching up to do.”
This certainly opens the door for Fukuda, who is in a rich vein of form and clearly impressed when playing with the first team this week.
GGFN | Jamie Allen
