Niklas Dorsch laments poor marking and loss of Sirlord Conteh as Heidenheim slide back into last place | OneFootball

FC Heidenheim midfielder Niklas Dorsch lamented his side’s personnel crisis after the latest Bundesliga loss against Stuttgart. Frank Schmidt’s FCH were able to secure their first league win of the campaign last week against FC Augsburg, but couldn’t carry the momentum over. This was due in part to the fact that one of last week’s goal-scorers, speed demon Sirlord Conteh, had to sit out after incurring a knee injury in training.

Heidenheim already must contend with the losses of impact players such as Leart Paçarada (ACL tear), Marvin Pieringer (ankle), and Mathias Honsak (muscular issues). Pieringer and Honsak can both work as a lead striker, as can the suspended Budu Zivzivadze. Conteh’s knee injury may potentially be serious and could also prove a devastating blow for Heidenheim. The Ostalbenschwaben are back in last place following the latest defeat.

“Conteh could have really helped us today,” Dorsch remarked in his post-match interview with DAZN. “We missed his speed, skills, and deep runs. The distances to the opponent’s goal were often very long. We were stable enough, but lacking that killer instinct up front.“

On the defensive end, Dorsch lamented that rising Stuttgart attacking talent Bilal El Khannouss was improperly marked on the play that produced the lone goal of the match. Khannouss netted the 1-0 on a simple distance effort from 18 meters out in the 65th. Poor marking ensured that the Moroccan international didn’t have to rattle off all that venomous of a shot to beat FCH keeper Diant Ramaj. El Khannouss nearly scored again later in the same fashion.

“It’s not the first time El Khannouss has done that this season,” Dorsch said. “And yet we still haven’t managed to defend it. It doesn’t do us any good if we defend it nine times out of ten. We have to manage to be stable in ten out of ten situations. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to do that for 90 minutes lately.“

Head coach Schmidt agreed with his midfielder on both counts.

“It’s the third goal he [El Khannouss] has scored like that this year,” Schmidt said in his own post-match interview. “We knew that could happen. We have to mark him inside. He can’t be allowed to get through.”

“There are four or five attacking players unavailable to us at the moment,” Schmidt added. “We had to defend very compactly and aim to score on counterattacks. I don’t blame the team. they implemented what we told them to do.“

GGFN | Peter Weis