Despite the fact that SC Freiburg entered last night’s Europa League fixture against FC Utrecht on a seven-match unbeaten-run, head coach Julian Schuster’s SCF had unquestionably become stagnant. In four matches since their last UEL win against FC Basel, the Breisgauer managed only three draws in the Bundesliga and a 1-1 tie against Bologna in the Europa League.
Schuster’s trick for helping the team break out of their funk centered around returning the team to its early season tactics. Summer acquisition Yuito Suzuki once again returned to the No. 10 slot while Johan Manzambi slid back into midfield. The tactical shifts were partly borne out of necessity due to Maximilian Eggestein’s preferred midfield partner Patrick Osterhage being out injured.
In any event, everything worked out quite well. Manzambi delivered a very “Toni-Kroos-like” performance pulling the strings in midfield, connecting with 97 percent of his passes. Suzuki – in his first appearance in the Freiburg XI since matchday two – finally opened his account for his new Bundesliga club with the 1-0 in the 20th-minute.
Suzuki didn’t feature at all between matchdays three and six and didn’t even dress as a member of the matchday squad on two of the four occasions. Schuster praised the four-times-capped Japanese international for dealing with his bout with adversity well whilst speaking at the post match press conference.
“[In such a situation] one has two choices,” Schuster said. “One can either play the victim and complain or start working. [The latter] is what he did and it’s no coincidence that he was able to reap the rewards today.”
