Wolfsburg head coach explains surprising revival of German defender Moritz ‘Mercedes’ Jenz | OneFootball

VfL Wolfsburg Daniel Bauer has made the surprise choice to rely on disaffected German centre-back Moritz Jenz as his leading defensive pillar. The want-away  central defender hasn’t served as a consistent starter this season and was one of the reasons the Lower Saxon Autostädter desperately sought more central defenders during the recent January transfer window.

Jenz has nevertheless unexpectedly displaced regular Konstantinos Koulierakis in Bauer’s starting XI. Despite the fact that Koulierakis scored his first career Bundesliga goal in a matchday 21 loss against Dortmund, Bauer turned back to Jenz this past weekend against Leipzig. Bauer prefers the experience of the 26-year-old Jenz, who has started and gone the full 90 minutes for Wolfsburg in six of the team’s seven 2026 league fixtures. 

Bauer’s backing of Moritz Jenz

Bauer made clear at a recent press conference that he preferred the man Celtic fans once christened Moritz “Mercedes” Jenz to all of his other options. Jenz will be trusted to help guide Germany’s green company team out of the relegation race. Transfer deadline day arrivals Jeanuël Belocian and Jonas Adjetey will not knock Jenz out of his slot alongside Denis Vavro. 

“The important things is that we locate stability at the position,” Bauer explained at the press conference. “Moritz is already the type of [veteran] defensive leader we need. We need someone to anchor the team. That’s why he got the nod over Koulie [Koulierakis]. We don’t have the tallest team, but Moritz and Denis give us two giants on set pieces.“

GGFN | Peter Weis