I don't know about where Hoff stood, but 9 goals last season is solid though not outstanding. I wouldn't say that he is the biggest talent in the youth squad currently, but he did well in the pre-season friendlies and Labbadia/Bobic seem to see some potential in him. Time will tell.
Just a few days after we eliminated wehen from the cup, our amateurs hosted them in the league and earned a point from a 0-0 draw - they finished the game with 9 men but we were unable to score; their keeper was MOTM. Our keeper, Bernd Leno, also got the highest rating if only looking at our own side.
Overall, it has been a very pleasing start to the season under new coach, Kramny. After 11 matches, VfBII finds themselves in 5th place in the 3rd division, with just 2 losses so far. The only other amateur side in the league, Bremen's, find themselves 11 points behind us in the relegation spots. Best performers so far: - Andrew Weis, the 22-year-old keeper, has little prospects in the senior side, with Ulreich and Leno (probably rightly) considered bigger talents. But one should not take away from him, he has played exceptionally well so far from what I've heard, and will no doubt be advertising himself well to other clubs. - 20-year old Thomas Geyer has improved a lot on last season and is showing much promise so far. The same can be said of Sebastian Hertner. Props to Daniel Vier, our veteran 29 year old, who has been doing a great job as a stable experienced guy at the club. Same goes for Tobias Rathgeb in midfield. - The 18 year old Austrians, Raphael Holzhauser and Kevin Stoeger, must still work on their consistency, but are certainly advanced for their age and both are names to follow closely over the coming seasons. - Sort of lacking a big scorer so far, a shame. Hemlein and Benyamina each have 3 from their first 11, and here's to hoping these tallies will increase.
This thread hasn't seen any activity for months, but with the 2011-2012 season now at a close, I've already started digging around for stats on VfB II and any up-an-comers. So I figured I'd wake up this topic again... Transfermarkt data now show Robin Yalcin (DM), Erich Berko (ST) and Lukas Kiefer (DM) moving up to VfB II from the youth ranks. I've heard of Yalcin, and seen him mentioned in here...but had not heard of the others until now. Also, joining the reserve squad now is a young Serbian-Australian DM, Milos Degenek. Barely 18, he started in a recent friendly with the big boys, so he might be one to keep an eye on. Does anyone have info on him? He's nearly 6' and came out of the "Australian Institute of Sport." He's been subbed into 2 matches for the Australian Under-17 team. But that's all I have on him. My top candidates to make the jump next season are Rüdiger (CB/WB), Holzhauser (CM), Bauer(CB), Hemlein(ST) and probably Weis(GK). But this list is based solely on the fact they've all trained with / seen a bit of game or bench time at the top level this past season. Not much else. I'm also trying to factor in our positional needs, with players leaving, etc., into these crude estimations. I figure they will move Weis up with Ziegler leaving, but maybe they'll look elsewhere for a GK backup. Riemann (ST) is probably another to keep an eye on in the next few months.
For an update, it was another good season! We finished the table in 11th on 50 points, 11 points clear of the relegation spots. The only other amateur side in the league (Bremen) got less than half of the points that we did. So, yet another season where our youth side completely outclassed all its their equivalents. Pretty cool! Player Statistics for the season: Goalkeepers: - Andre Weis (22): 29 played, 2.48 avg. rating - Jonas Weiszt (19): 4 played, 3.63 avg. - Bernhard Hendl (Austria, 19): 0 played. - Bernd Leno (20): 3 played, 2.67 avg. ------- now with Bayer Leverkusen - Odisseas Vlachodimos (18): 2 played, 2.75 avg. Defenders: - Patrick Bauer (19): 5 played, 4.00 avg. - Sebastian Enderle (22): 5 played, 3.30 avg. - Thomas Geyer (21): 29 played, 3.18 avg. - Manuel Hegen (19): 0 played - Sebastian Hertner (21): 23 played, 1 goal, 3.33 avg. - Steffen Lang (18): 18 played, 1 goal, 3.50 avg. - Patrick Maurer (20): 0 played - Benedikt Roecker (22): 34 played, 2 goals, 3.28 avg. - Antonio Ruediger (19): 17 played, 1 goal, 3.40 avg. - Felice Vecchione (Italy, 21): 33 played, 3.30 avg. - Daniel Vier (29): 28 played, 4 goals, 2.92 avg. - Ermin Bicakcic (22): 1 played, 4.00 avg. ------ now with Eintracht Braunschweig - Matthieu Delpierre (France, 31): 2 played, 5.00 avg. Midfielders: - Raphael Holzhauser (Austria, 19): 29 played, 4 goals, 3.23 avg. - Manuel Janzer (20): 31 played, 4 goals, 3.41 avg. - Ozturk Karatas (Turkey, 21): 15 played, 3.46 avg. - Moritz Kuhn (20): 3 played, 4.50 avg. - Marco Rapp (20): 2 played, 4.00 avg. - Tobias Rathgeb (30): 38 played, 2 goals, 2.75 avg. - Kevin Stoeger (Austria, 18): 23 played, 2 goals, 3.44 avg. - Rani Khedira (18): 12 played, 3.36 avg. Attack: - Alexander Aschauer (Austria, 20): 25 played, 4 goals, 3.62 avg. - Soufian Benyamina (22): 33 played, 9 goals, 3.39 avg. - Pascal Breier (20): 19 played, 4.10 avg. - Christoph Hemlein (21): 28 played, 5 goals, 3.46 avg. - Alexander Riemann (20): 34 played, 3 goals, 3.38 avg. - Erich Berko (17): 2 played, 3.50 avg. ------------- For those who have noticed the famous name, yes that is the brother of Sami Khedira. And - you've heard it here first - this one is also one day going to become a very strong player. Of this I am confident, keep your tabs on him. Khedira and Holzhauser are the most impressive rising players in this pool in my opinion, while Stoeger could is also someone to keep an eye on. Other than that, Andre Weis played an excellent season and is seriously too good to be in the third league. His chances of breaking past Ulreich would seem very slim at this stage, but I imagine some club will pick him up sooner rather than later. Vlachodimos is a hotly-tipped young keeper and we should follow him intently over the coming seasons. Of this crop, Ruediger and Hemlein have both had run-outs in the senior side (the latter even scored in the cup). Yet oddly, neither has played well for the youth this year. I don't believe that Hemlein will cut it as a strong striker. Ruediger, meanwhile, has potential - but still a long way to go. I would say Thomas Geyer was our best defender this season though, from the reports I have heard. Stoeger has a lot of talent but must also still work very hard. That's the situation.
And in breaking news, guess who they will be playing next season?? The suckers from Karlsruhe are coming down
Cool. I didn't even know that Kicker had 3.Liga player ratings. Wish they had an English-language version. Just to update the reserves a little further, several of these guys (not yet noted) have apparently moved on and are no longer with VfB II, heading into the summer and next season. Source transfermarkt... Defenders - Hegen & Maurer, Midfielder - Kuhn, Striker - Aschauer. Admittedly, most of these guys had little or no real playing time. Aschauer is the exception though. And it looks like he is going to RB Salzburg. I can't help but wonder if the Khedira name has boosted Rani a bit in the "speculative value" market -- he's very high for an 18 year-old who (I don't think) has spent the full season at the 3.Liga level (893 minutes). Hopefully, he's that good. Among our top CB in-house prospects, Geyer has way more playing time than Bauer (2523 min. to 318 min.) -- not sure why Bauer hasn't played more actually on the reserve squad, unless he was up on the 1BL bench more than I realized. Werder Bremen II is going down to the 4.RL. At the moment, it looks like Borussia Dortmund II has a decent chance to move up to 3.Liga (with one game still to play, I think). Our reserves are indeed rocking compared to the other big clubs. And it will be interesting to see if the "little bros" Kickers can do anything in 3.Liga next season. They have clinched advancement from 4.RL South. Speaking of advancement / relegation, crazy drama in Düsseldorf today!
Well it is hard to judges values with youth players, and no doubt Khedira's name helps, but he does seem to be a very solid prospect. He was only promoted to VfBII from the U19s at Xmas, hence why he only featured in 12 matches. But he seemed pretty advanced for his age in these matches, as does Holzhauser. Karlsruhe and Stuttgart Kickers in III. Liga next season, it's going to be a fun year
I’ve been digging around the VfB website (& others) and compiling some very basic stats on the current crop of youngsters in the seven May friendlies that were just played. This was just to get an idea of who the coaches may be looking at more closely heading into the summer and next season. For whatever reasons, the Austrians got the most playing time. Here’s some info on the 11 that made at least one appearance in the recent round of friendlies… Kevin Stöger, a18 = 7 appearances, 428 total min., mostly AM…but also DM & ST, 0 goals Raphael Holzhauser, a19 = 6 appearances, 340 total min., mostly DM…but also ST, 3 goals Milos Degenek, a18 = 7 appearances, 307 total min., mostly CB…but also DM, 0 goals Öztürk Karatas, a21 = 6 appearances, 278 total min., mostly AM…but also WB, 5 goals! Patrick Bauer, a19 = 4 appearances, 270 total min., CB, 1 goal Andre Weis, a22 = 4 appearances, 270 total min., GK Philipp Mwene, a18 = 3 appearances, 180 total min., WB, 1 goal Erich Berko, a17 = 3 appearances, 124 total min., ST & AM, 1 goal Lukas Kiefer, a19 = 3 appearances, 110 total min., mostly DM…but also AM, 1 goal Antonio Rüdiger, a19 = 1 appearance, 90 total min. CB, 0 goals
Player promotions made so far in the youth system for the upcoming 2014/15 season: VfB II Arrivals from U19: CB. Timo Baumgartl ST. Fabian Eisele RB. Marvin Büyüksakarya RM. Simon Wilske VfB U19 Arrvivals from U17: DM. Ufuk Akyol RW. Serkan Uygun ST. Patrick Hasenhüttl DM. Kevin Ikpide DM. Clemens Schlimgen CB. Serkan Baloglu LM. Roman Schweizer ST. Osei Owusu AM. Max Besuschkow Youth Promotions to VfB U17 GK. Philipp Köhn CB. Frieder Wagner AM. Alexander Groiss FW. Dijon Ramaj FW. Florian Ujupaj FW. Ali Ferati
Looks like Holzhauser and Sararer have been demoted to VfB II. http://www.stuttgarter-nachrichten....-ii.71fcb616-47f2-47e2-9659-af2ed4b1b411.html