After all, coming from Regensburg as captain, 26-year-old Benedikt Gimber had to sit at the back of the promoted team 1. FC Heidenheim for a long time.
In the middle of it all, rather than just there: Benedikt Gimber on his Bundesliga debut. IMAGO/Sportfoto Pack
The broad grin just wouldn’t leave Benedikt Gimber’s face, the joy of what he had experienced and achieved was enormous after Heidenheim’s important home win against VfB Stuttgart on Sunday evening. “This game is extremely important to me, it was my first game in the Bundesliga,” said the 26-year-old, delighted about his delayed debut in the upper house. And what a thing.
Coach Frank Schmidt had the defensive player, who was more at home in the six spot in recent years, this time assigned to the central defense alongside captain Patrick Mainka and entrusted him with a complex tactical task. “Depending on whether we played with or against the ball, we acted flexibly,” revealed Gimber, “when we went into a back three, I played the middle man; against the ball we were usually in a back four.” This requires a lot of strategic sense, and Schmidt had “replaced the entire left defensive side” after the recent setbacks. Nevertheless, the Heidenheim group harmonized and once again showed those qualities that had temporarily been lost. “All eleven of us defended together with all our might, that’s what we had planned, that that was exactly our base, where we had to find our way back to, and we managed that really well,” summed up Gimber, who classified his own performance as follows: ” We kept a clean sheet, so that’s fine.”
The debutant even earned special praise from the coach. “Huge compliment, he hasn’t been allowed to play so far, you can criticize the coach, why not?” Schmidt joked, “but sometimes you have to wait for your chance and then go through the door, that’s what he did for this game. But It goes on, that applies to everyone else too. It’s an incredibly beautiful moment because it feels so worked on. We were very honest with each other, but still didn’t doubt, and that’s the art of then moving on and taking on every task again , and Gimbo played a big part in that.”
“It’s foreseeable that you’ll need a certain amount of time to get started.”
As a leading player and captain, Gimber joined FCH from Regensburg on a free transfer in the summer, but initially had to take a back seat with the Bundesliga newcomer. Right at the back. “It hasn’t necessarily been easy for me so far because I wasn’t even in the squad at times,” Gimber gives a little insight into the stressed-out emotional world, “but I kept pushing and got into a functioning team, so that was it “It’s perhaps foreseeable that you need a certain amount of warm-up time. I’m happy that we got back on track as a team and were able to win against a strong opponent like VfB.”
On Saturday, Schmidt revealed to him the premiere in the Heidenheim starting eleven. Has he settled now? Or will this remain a flash in the pan? “Individual fates don’t count that much,” assures Gimber in captain mode, “it was important that we as a team achieve success again, because the table is pretty tight and everyone behind us scored points, so it was our turn, also knowing full well, that we have a very difficult away game in Munich next week.”
Schmidt had also relied on Gimber’s experience as a manager and told his current captain Mainka: “Gimbo was captain of Regensburg, you can see that in a situation like this, he has already experienced a bit and also won cup battles with Regensburg against Bundesliga teams.” In any case, on Sunday against Stuttgart the plan worked out completely, both tactically and personnel-wise.
2023-11-06 11:31:39
#Gimber #making #remarkable #comeback
