VfB Stuttgart: The transformation of Serhou Guirassy

There are scenes with almost fateful consequences. On October 22, 2017, 1. FC Köln, then bottom of the Bundesliga, hosted Werder Bremen, the second-to-last team. The “Kicker” magazine subsequently judged that there was “little playing class” in Müngersdorf back then, although there should have been at least one goal.

Three minutes before the end, the Cologne team launched a promising attack: Tim Handwerker came quickly down the left side and played the ball sharply inside. There, Serhou Guirassy was completely free. The Bremen gate was empty. The FC attacker should have simply pushed in – but he got the ball so badly against his supporting leg that it bounced off and then flew past the goal in a high arc. Horror spread through the stands as Guirassy sank to the grass in despair.

The coach’s pride: VfB coach Sebastian Hoeneß (front left) hugs striker Serhou Guirassy

Source: dpa/Christoph Schmidt

This slapstick-like misfortune stayed with him for a long time. From then on, the then 21-year-old was no longer seen as the promising talent he was brought into the Bundesliga as in the summer of 2016, but as a “death of opportunity”. He didn’t really get rid of this label until the end of his time in Cologne. In January 2019 he left again – and was loaned to SC Amiens.

Six years later, Guirassy’s star is shining brighter than ever. Along with Harry Kane, he is the top scorer in the German elite class. He scored 15 goals, just two fewer than Bayern’s star signing. In terms of quota, he is even ahead of Kane: in his nine games this season he scored an average of 1.66 times – Kane only scored 1.5 times in his twelve games.

Kuranyi enthuses: “Great striker”

Guirassy has long since become indispensable for VfB Stuttgart. He is the symbolic figure for the Swabians’ soaring, who avoided relegation to the second division in the relegation against Hamburger SV at the end of last season and are now third in the table this Saturday evening (6.30 p.m., in the WELT sports ticker). guest at Eintracht Frankfurt.

“Serhou is really a great striker, I’m thrilled,” says Kevin Kuranyi. The former VfB attacker and national player, who scored a total of 40 goals in 99 Bundesliga games for Stuttgart between 2001 and 2005, is particularly impressed by the now 27-year-old’s presence in the penalty area. Guirassy has “a lot that not many strikers have anymore,” said Kuranyi.

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Guirassy is physically robust and very adept at retaining the ball under pressure. Added to this is his finishing strength: Guinea’s national striker, who was born in France, can be a goal threat with his right and left foot as well as his head. “That makes him unpredictable for defenders,” said Kuranyi.

Guirassy belongs to an increasingly rare breed of striker: he defines himself almost exclusively by his offensive actions, which, however, are not limited to the penalty area. When the box gets too full, he likes to move to his side, preferably to the left.

Chris Führich (r.), here against Borussia Dortmund’s Marcel Sabitzer, benefits from Guirassy

Quelle: Getty Images/Christian Kaspar-Bartke

In this way, he creates space for his colleagues who can then also become a goal threat – such as new national player Chris Führich, an attacking midfielder who usually dribbles on the left, or the fast Silas, a counterattacker who usually plays on the right. Führich already has three goals and five assists to his name – Silas has also scored three times and initiated three more goals.

But VfB coach Sebastian Hoeneß also has a second dangerous center forward in the squad. Deniz Undav, who arrived on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion last summer, is perhaps the biggest positive surprise.

Undav as a counterproposal

The 27-year-old is a classic late starter who only moved from the then third division club SV Meppen to Royale Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium three and a half years ago, where he made his breakthrough. Undav seems like an alternative to Guirassy. He is technically a little weaker, but physically a bit more robust. He also scored five goals this season and prepared three.

“It’s good for VfB to have two top strikers with this quality. In addition, the team is currently functioning. There are a lot of balls coming into the penalty area,” Kuranyi told BILD. When Guirassy was out injured for three weeks, Undav stepped in.

So far, however, Hoeneß has never let his two center forwards play together. That could change in Frankfurt, although this would probably require a move away from the successfully practiced 4-2-3-1 alignment. “I think both of them have to play in the center and not be too far away from the opponent’s goal,” said the coach.

Hoeneß said he doesn’t yet know exactly what the distribution of tasks will look like: “But I think there’s also a good chance that both of them will be on the pitch together if they’re in such good shape.” Undav will probably be a little bit playing behind Guirassy. “I have had more difficult tasks to solve,” explained the VfB coach. In fact, it is a luxury problem. While other Bundesliga coaches complain that they don’t even have an accurate center forward, Hoeneß is spoiled for choice.

The people of Stuttgart can count themselves lucky – especially because Guirassy could be a kind of life insurance for them in the long term. His goals have long since brought him into the international spotlight. That makes it very valuable. This development was not necessarily foreseeable when he was loaned from Stade Rennes in 2022 and then signed last summer for a fee of nine million euros.

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But Guirassy has matured in recent years. Above all, he no longer lets setbacks derail him – like he did six years ago in Cologne.

Last Saturday, when the Stuttgart team against Borussia Dortmund, despite their overwhelming superiority and countless chances, repeatedly failed because of BVB goalkeeper Gregor Kobel, who had already parried a Stuttgart penalty from Führich, Serhou Guirassy documented that he now has extremely strong nerves.

In the previous defeats against Hoffenheim (2:3) and in Heidenheim (0:2), Undav and Silas failed from the point. But when a penalty was decided in favor of VfB in the 83rd minute of the game against Dortmund, Guirassy, ​​who had just been substituted, stepped in – and scored safely to make the final score 2-1 (1-1). He said afterwards that he didn’t feel any pressure: “I knew I would score.” He feels this self-confidence almost constantly this season.

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In order to display embedded content, your revocable consent to the transmission and processing of personal data is necessary, as the providers of the embedded content require this consent as third party providers [In diesem Zusammenhang können auch Nutzungsprofile (u.a. auf Basis von Cookie-IDs) gebildet und angereichert werden, auch außerhalb des EWR]. By setting the switch to “on”, you agree to this (revocable at any time). This also includes your consent to the transfer of certain personal data to third countries, including the USA, in accordance with Art. 49 (1) (a) GDPR. You can find more information about this. You can revoke your consent at any time using the switch and privacy at the bottom of the page.