There wasn‘t any time to ponder, or to warm up. Ishak Belfodil’s home debut came earlier than expected. After 20 minutes, Werder’s new signing came on to replace the injured Max Kruse. And his performance was convincing despite his little time to warm up. “The start wasn’t easy. He needed some time to find his feet but he showed the qualities he possesses in certain situations,” Frank Baumann said of the Algerian.
Head coach Alexander Nouri was also happy with the new striker’s first proper run-out. “He held the ball up well, his movement was good in one-on-one situations and he was very robust. I would’ve liked him to score or Fin could’ve made more of the chances Ishak gave him,” Nouri said about the 25-year-old, who was critical of his own performance in an interview with WERDER.TV: “It definitely wasn’t the best start from me. I came on straight off the bench. So it took me a while to settle into the game but I was really happy to be able to play my first proper game for the club.”
Particularly in the second half, the striker got into his stride. With 20 tackles won, he won the most duels of anyone on the field and he repeatedly troubled the opposition defence. “He played really well, his ball control was brilliant and despite his height, he’s very dynamic in his dribbling. He is a different type of player. That makes him hard to pin down,” Maximilian Eggestein said. “He is the big target man that we were missing for a long time,” Thomas Delaney explained to WERDER.DE.
Before the match, Werder coach Nouri had said due to the international break and the few training sessions that Belfodil has had with the whole team, that the new signing needed time to get used to his surroundings. “He hasn’t been with us for long and he needs to properly adapt to the way we play,” Frank Baumann said after the final whistle.
With the long-term absence of Kruse, the big, beefy but also technically strong striker will play an important role for the Green-Whites. “Ishak is a player who will be really useful for us. He uses his initiative and makes things happen on the pitch,” goalscorer Lamine Sané said. He could get his next chance to prove his worth on the pitch on Tuesday against VfL Wolfsburg.
