In the evaluation of strikers, professional football likes to show its most irrational side. If you hit something, then you are something – Phillip Tietz and Luca Pfeiffer are also confronted with this throughout their careers. The hit rate and the associated self-esteem often rise and fall, and not every young man finds a healthy way to deal with it. When Tietz and Pfeiffer click through the web or leaf through the newspapers these days, it could appear to them that SV Darmstadt 98 has a striker problem. The two attackers, who were only signed in the summer, are each playing their best professional season by far.
Quite a few had previously considered it a Darmstadt gamble to start the round with Tietz, Pfeiffer and the long-injured Aaron Seydel, all of whom could only show moderately good second division work samples. Now Tietz has scored twelve goals in 22 appearances and prepared five, Pfeiffer has scored twelve goals in 20 appearances and assisted in three.
Since then, Seydel has already contributed three wildcard goals. In short: SV Darmstadt 98 has two players in the top 10 of the best scorers in the second Bundesliga and can already build on a total of 27 striker goals. Exactly the number with which Serdar Dursun became the league’s top scorer last season.
Above all, Tietz and Pfeiffer are decisive pioneers that the “lilies” are a serious candidate for promotion after two thirds of the season before the home game against Hansa Rostock this Sunday (1.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the 2nd Bundesliga and on Sky). It’s just that the duo’s last personal sense of achievement is a bit back.
Pfeiffer last scored on November 27 – he has had a goal break for seven games. Tietz last scored on December 3 – he has been goalless for six games. The former highly praised, who taught the league to fear with their power and accuracy, have become, according to the laws of the industry, two low scorers. Furios became calm within a few weeks.
The base of the “lily” flower
Coach Torsten Lieberknecht – what else should he say publicly – did not notice any signs of despondency in the two attackers. Every striker has such phases. However, the head coach let it be known that they both deal with the situation differently: “Luca doesn’t give the situation much thought. He knows he’ll meet again soon,” said Lieberknecht.
Pfeiffer is indeed a quiet, hard-nosed guy who is neither prone to exuberance nor gloomy. Things seem to be a little different with Tietz. “He shows a lot of effort and commitment to get his shots,” says Lieberknecht. In fact, Tietz seemed almost hyperactive in his urge to become a reliable shooter again, but that didn’t do his game any good.
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The demands have also grown in Darmstadt, you can get used to the mountain air, disappointment arises quickly. The almost uncanny effectiveness was the basis of the “Lilien” bloom in the first half of the season. At the beginning of the year, Pfeiffer missed a number of best chances against Karlsruhe (2-2) and in Ingolstadt (2-0), while Tietz has hardly been able to get into position since the beginning of the year, which of course cannot be attributed to him alone.
Internally, the assessment of the storm duo – set up together rather randomly at the beginning of the season, then unexpectedly harmonizing – is based on parameters other than the hit rate alone. Start-up behavior when opposing build-up play, commitment even in defensive duels – the two have not let up on these fields. And Lieberknecht points out that the SVD got eleven points from those six games without a goal from Tietz/Pfeiffer.
The “Lilies” have been playing their most successful seasons for several years now, when they can rely on accurate strikers. Dominik Stroh-Engel, Sandro Wagner and most recently for three years Serdar Dursun have always received trust and encouragement even in weaker phases – and have delivered plenty of goals. It would not be surprising if Tietz/Pfeiffer continued to be trusted together, especially since Lieberknecht, according to their own statement, “stands for continuity”.
But with the up-and-coming Seydel, “we created internal competition,” says Lieberknecht: “He worked hard on himself.” The 1.99-meter man was out for months due to an Achilles tendon injury. Before and after that, during his brief appearances, he seemed like a player who was stressed out by the situation and didn’t really know what to do with himself and his long legs. Now he offers himself as the first option for the starting XI – which could do the team and the Tietz/Pfeiffer duo good.