Pre-Season Preview: Fortuna Düsseldorf

Blog written by ad_wilkin
Published: 26th July 2024 9:45

Town will host Fortuna Düsseldorf at a revamped Portman Road on Saturday 27th July. The two clubs fans have had a relationship since 2006 when a bunch of Fortuna fans came over looking for a club to strike up a relationship with.

Since then, a group of Fortuna supporters come over once a year with the most recent trip being the home win against Sunderland last season.

Ipswich fans returned the favour at the end of the season and made the trip to watch the German side in their last game of the regular season. The last time the clubs met was at the Interweppen Cup in Meppen, Germany in 2019, having previously faced one another in friendly in Düsseldorf in 2015.

It was a disappointing end to the season for Düsseldorf fans with their club finishing third in the 2.Bundesliga. Despite winning the first leg of their relegation/promotion play-off against Bochum 3-0, they went on to lose the second 3-0 and were then defeated 6-5 on penalties.

That was the closest Fortuna have come to regaining their top flight status having been relegated in 2019/20. In addition to a solid 2.Bundesliga campaign, they also had a great DFB Pokal (German cup) run, reaching the semi-finals before losing 4-0 to Xabi Alonso’s unstoppable Bayer Leverkusen.

<h1>Goalkeepers </h1>

The man with the gloves throughout last season for Fortuna was Florian Kastenmeier. The 27-year-old German kept ten clean sheets in 33 games conceding just 38 goals.

He completed the second-most long passes in the league which hints at the direct nature that Fortuna Düsseldorf implement. His other standout characteristic is his ability to claim high balls. He stopped 9.1% of crosses into his box which was second-highest in the league and something that always provides a level of calmness to the backline in front of a keeper.

Düsseldorf have added depth to their goalkeeping department this summer with the free transfer of Florian Schock following the expiry of his Stuttgart contract and also the loan signing of Robert Kwasigroch. Both players are likely to provide cover but given their lack of experience, won’t be serious competition for the number one spot.

<h1>Defenders </h1>

Let’s start by looking at the defenders who played in the two-legged Bundesliga relegation play-off and go from there. At right-back for both games was the experienced Mathias Zimmerman.

The 32-year-old has spent his entire career in Germany across six clubs (Karlsruher SC, Borrusia Mönchengladbach, Greuther Furth, SV Sandhausen, Vfb Stuttgart and now Fortuna). He has been with Die Flingeraner since joining on a free in 2018. During that time, he has racked up 198 appearances for the club, contributing 12 goals and 21 assists. He also has a little bit of versatility and can play as a defensive midfielder if need.

The central defensive pairing for that play-off game were Tim Christopher Oberdorf and Jordy De Wijs with the German and the Dutchman providing good balance in a right-footed, left-footed combo. Both players are comfortable on the ball with Oberdorf averaging 5.22 progressive passes and 1.47 progressive carries per game.

The pair were also in the top percentile for progressive passes received which shows that Fortuna like to push their centre-backs forward to receive the ball high up the pitch.

De Wijs is also a set-piece threat averaging 1.72 touches in the opposition penalty area, so is one to keep an eye on and Town’s defenders will have to make sure he is man marked from corners.

At left-back was Emmanuel Iyoha, who has been at Fortuna his entire career and is now 26 years old. He’s quite tall for a left-back at 6ft 2in and has only recently started playing in that position this season having previously been a hybrid left winger/striker. His dribbling output is averaging 4.82 progressive carries per game and hasn’t fully toned down his attacking instincts as he still enjoys and effort on goal every now and then.

He actually featured as an inverted right wing-back against Galatasary in pre-season and scored an absolute screamer to put the German side 1-0 up.

Düsseldorf also have a more defensive left-back in their ranks in Frenchman Nicolas Davroy. He started 18 games to Iyoha’s 22 and his introduction in some of them also saw a flank switch for Iyoha.

In terms of metrics, he doesn’t stand out in many but managed four assists from left-back. His first against Braunschweig was a driven ball across the box that was tapped home, the second a lovely clipped cross that was headed home, the third a shot into the ground that was headed in close to goal by Christos Tzolis (more on him later) and the fourth just a lay-off to Tzolis, who then cut inside a curled in an effort off the post.

Davroy missed the second leg of the relegation play off with an injury but has featured off the bench in pre-season

On the right-hand side, Zimmerman’s main back-up was Takashi Uchno. The diminutive Japanese full-back only started four games but was used more often as a substitute to replace the tiring Zimmerman. His contributions were limited but he did get on the scoresheet in a 4-0 win over Osnabruck.

Two of the other centre-halves to be aware of are captain Andre Hoffman and 22-year-old youth prospect Jamil Siebert.

Hoffman has been with Fortuna since 2017 and has made 161 appearances for the club. Now 31, last season he struggled with injuries only making 14 appearances.

Twenty-two-year-old Siebert is the opposite end of that spectrum. Taking advantage of injuries to get his first season of consistent appearances and making the step up from the second team, he would have likely started the relegation play-offs had he not suffered from a ruptured tendon two games before the end of the season and hasn’t featured in pre-season as of yet.

Then there’s the two young loanees. Joshua Quarshie joined on loan from TSG Hoffenheim in January last season on a season and a half loan. He started his first five games but the Fortuna injury crisis struck again and he struggled with fitness the rest of the season. He’ll be hoping to get a good pre-season under his belt to prove he’s not a waste of a loan this season.

The other loanee is 19-year-old Belgian Noah Mbamba, who has joined this summer from Bayer Leverkusen. He doesn’t have a vast amount of career football under his belt but the experience he does have includes three Champions League games in his time at Club Brugge. He brings versatility and may actually be used slightly further forward in a defensive midfield role.

Pre-season has also seen Sima Suso feature regularly. The 19-year-old has seven caps for Germany U19s. Despite playing for his country in midfield, his natural left foot has seen him used in a left wing-back role during pre-season and with what’s looking like a switch in formation he could be given his opportunity this season.

<h1>Midfielders </h1>

Fortuna often set up in a 4-5-1 formation with a compact midfield three, the base of which was one of their best players.

Japanese international Ao Tanaka signed on loan from Kawasaki Frontale in 2021 and that move was converted to a permanent transfer in 2022. He has eight goals in 27 appearances for his national team and was able to convert that into his club form with seven goals and three assists despite the deep role that he played in midfield.

Given Fortuna’s failure to gain promotion, he could be a target for teams in higher divisions. One of his main attributes last season was the accuracy of his long balls with 78.9% of his 152 long passes.

Forming that midfield with him for the play-off games were Marcel Sobotka and Yannik Engelhardt. Sobotka has been with Fortuna since 2015 and racked up 220 appearances for the club. He’s the experienced head in midfield and keeps things ticking over.

None of the three central midfielders are particularly aggressive in tackles or interceptions, however, Sobottka is high in tackles in the defensive third which seems to imply that Fortuna will drop their midfield line deep, close to the defence and look to invite pressure on.

Engelhardt is slightly more aggressive in the tackling department and like the rest of the midfield three is handy in the ball possession department. Last season was the 23-year-old's first season in the 2.Bundesliga and he never looked like losing his place, playing 30 games and both of the relegation playoffs.

Those three all provided defensive options but weren’t overly progressive, something that came back to bite them as they tried to hold on to a 3-0 lead in the relegation play-off.

Icelandic international Isak Bergmann Johannesson was brought in on loan last season to rectify that and has converted his loan to a permanent deal recently. He contributed four goals and five assists whilst being Düsseldorf’s key creator with high numbers of crosses and through balls as well and being the German sides corner taker.

The other more attacking player in the midfield unit is Shinta Appelkamp. The 23-year-old German was another who had their season impacted by a lot of small injuries but he really found form in April with a goal and three assists in that month and some standout performances.

He’s already made 113 appearances for Düsseldorf having come through the academy and still has the choice to play for Japan if he wants to. Like his young Icelandic counterpart, he was also one of the German sides corner-takers which explains some of his 10 assists for the season.

With a midfield three, the two wide players had a bunch of freedom and their standout player last season was without doubt Tzolis, the on-loan Norwich winger who scored 22 goals finishing as joint-top goal scorer in the division.

There was an option in that loan deal that would see the Greek international's move converted to a permanent deal but then another option saw him join Club Brugge for a higher fee because the German side failed to gain promotion. Those goals will be hard to replace.

On the other side, Felix Klaus contributed a decent six goals but was a lot more defensive than his counterpart and is unlikely to fill that void. With a switch in formation, Klaus has been playing in attacking midfield throughout pre-season.

Neither is the other left winger in the squad Dennis Jastrzembski whose lack of hair makes him look at least ten years older than his 24 years of age. He did make 20 appearances last season but 16 of those were off the bench. He does have Bundesliga experience but I wouldn’t expect him to feature here.

Karim Affo is a midfielder who is looking to make a name for himself this pre-season. He is yet to make his Fortuna debut at only 18 years old but has netted three times in four friendlies so far.

<h1>Strikers </h1>

By playing a 4-5-1, chances are you need a tall striker who can hold the ball up and run the channels. In 6ft 4in Dutchman Vincent Vermeij they certainly have the first thing on that list. This all fits with the deep defending and the midfield hitting long balls.

Vermeij was very much the out ball, used to bring the ball down and hold it up to allow runners off him in behind. He managed 12 goals, four of which were headers, in what was his first season in the second tier of German football having played the majority of his football before then in the Netherlands and the German third tier. He’s currently out with a heel injury and hasn’t featured in pre-season up until now.

His back-up from last season Christoph Daferner was only on loan and hasn’t returned which just left Jona Niemic as an alternate option to the giant Dutchman. Niemic is a very different profile and actually played the majority of his football on the right wing last season.

Fortuna have strengthened their striking ranks with the loan signing of Dzenan Pejcinovic from Wolfsburg. The 19-year-old German doesn’t have a lot of senior experience but his goal record at youth level is incredible. He scored 28 goals in 18 U19 matches last season and his record across all of Germany’s youth level stands at a goal a game - 38 games, 38 goals.

He’s unlikely to start this game as he’s suffering from a metatarsal fracture but he may get game time off of the bench.

Someone who should now get match time is another new addition to the striking department, Danny Schmidt. The 21-year-old German has joined on a free transfer from FSV Mainz 05. He never played for their first team but had an impressive goal return in the German third tier last season for their reserves, scoring 13 goals in 31 appearances.

<h1>The Teams </h1>

It looks like there could be a potential formation change coming into this season with a 3-5-1-1 implemented in a pre-season friendly against Galatasary, a game that Fortuna won 5-2.

Either way, what stays the same is the width provided by either wingers or wing-back and a defensive nature. They’re happy to sit back and soak up pressure but when they get the ball, they move it nicely through the pitch and will sniff out any loose passes to counter press.

Like Town’s previous opponents Shakhtar, Fortuna are ahead in their pre-season schedule. They kicked off with wins against Holzheimer (German lower leagues) and Diosgyori VTK (Hungarian top division) and followed that up with the victory against Galatasary.

Last weekend, they split their squad across two back-to-back games which resulted in two 1-0 defeats to Offenbach (German third tier) and Kaiserslautern (2.Bundesliga). This friendly is their last before they kick-off their league campaign.

I’d expect them to go closer to a full-strength line up in this match but to potentially replicate the back five and pack the midfield with three men in there against Town’s two.

For Town, there were a few missing in the friendly against Shakhtar. Harry Clarke, Axel Tuanzebe, Janoi Donacien, Nathan Broadhead, Omari Hutchinson and Ali Al-Hamadi all missed out with various knocks, injury recoveries and personal reasons. Because of all of that I would expect the starting line-up to not be too much different from the one that started in Austria.

One player who could start is new signing Arijanet Muric. I am of the opinion that had Burnley played Muric from the start of the season they would have stayed up.

Much will be made of his high-profile mistake against Brighton where he let a back pass roll under his foot and into the net but that was very much a one -off.

In ten games he ended with a goals prevented rate of 6.48 making 64 saves. This and his ability with his feet make him the ideal profile to replace Vaclav Hladky.

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