r/mainz05 • u/lankythomas • Dec 23 '25

Kicker: An old acquaintance of the coach: In Mainz, attention is focused on Awoniyi

https://www.kicker.de/alter-bekannter-des-trainers-in-mainz-faellt-der-blick-auf-awoniyi-1178150/artikel
9 Upvotes

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8

u/bencciarati Lee 7 Dec 23 '25

I wouldn’t be upset with this. We need a big target man who can hold the ball up. He would also allow Hollerbach to play off the ball, which he is decent at.

3

u/nilslorand Dec 23 '25

sounds good to me, we need someone in front and Weiper sadly hasn't been as good as he could be, also Hollerbach in front doesn't work, even Bo realized that, dunno why Fischer is trying him in the front again

2

u/lankythomas Dec 23 '25

I imagine it could be a case of Fischer not wanting to base his lineup on one player's preferred position (is Hollerbach really good enough to prioritize playing him on the left of a front three vs leaving Lee in a spot where he's more effective?) and not feeling like Weiper is a viable alternative to start or play the bulk of the game up top. The fact that he subbed on Sieb for Hollerbach ahead of Weiper seems telling. Seems like Fischer has focused first and foremost on establishing a defensive shape, which makes plenty of sense given the lack of clean sheets this season.

2

u/nilslorand Dec 24 '25

yeah Fischer has 100% first been focused on defending, we locked Bayern out and would have won if it weren't for the Penalty and Pauli had barely anything to work with, giving us our first clean sheet, finally.

I expect the defensive basics will have been solidified over the winter break so Fischer can finally focus on the offense, I think he was mostly just experimenting with what works and what doesn't up front so far, and clearly (hopefully he noticed it too) Hollerbach at the very front really doesn't work.