Hoffenheim’s Luca Philipp prepares to fill Oliver Baumann’s large boots: “He said, ‘You’ll rock this’!” | OneFootball

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim’s struggles this season were recently rendered worse by news that talismanic team captain Oliver Baumann will be out for four to six weeks with a foot injury. The TSG keeper – who also made his German national team debut this year – is the squad’s main liaison to both the media and the fans. The team’s fight against the drop looks to get harder without their stabilizing skipper.

The very thought of Hoffenheim lining up without Baumann remains unthinkable to most German football watchers. The 34-year-old literally hasn’t missed a day of league work in well over three years. Not since match-day 13 of the 2021/22 campaign have the Sinsheimers had another keeper in net. Baumann has amassed an incredible 479 Bundesliga appearances for the club he’s represented since 2014.

Germany U21 international Luca Philipp – himself part of the TSG academy since 2013 – became the first keeper not Baumann or his long-time back-up Philipp Pentke to start between the sticks for Hoffenheim since September 25th, 2018 on Sunday afternoon. Interesting enough, it was current Borussia Dortmund keeper Gregor Kobel who served as the #1 under current German national team trainer Julian Nagelsmann on that day.

Philipp made his Bundesliga debut in place of Baumann. The 24-year-up ended up being not much of a factor in the 2-2 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt. He made a total of five saves among his 34 touches of the ball. He played 21 passes out of the back to 90 percent success, connecting with 71 percent of his seven long launches and all seven of his throws.

Two goals conceded against a 2.39 Eintracht xG rate constituted a serviceable enough performance. There wasn’t much Philipp could do against Hugo Ekitiké from the penalty spot in the 26th or the SGE “fabulous Frenchman” from open play in 71st. Philipp at least made o major mistakes and earned praise from head-coach Christian Ilzer.

Philipp himself revealed that – true to form – Baumann had exercised his famous leadership skills with him personally. Baumann, Philipp noted in his own DAZN interview, had very precise messages to convey when it came time to hand over the gloves.

GGFN | Peter Weis