Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Maximilian Arnold and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Nobody left the VfL Wolfsburg dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Tobias Schröder left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Robert Glatzel’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and VfL Wolfsburg needing him to play as if none of it matters.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Can Uzun provided it, and the 9.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Christian Eriksen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Tobias Schröder on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one VfL Wolfsburg will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason VfL Wolfsburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; VfL Wolfsburg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
6 goals in one match, Robert Glatzel on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of VfL Wolfsburg and Bayer Leverkusen.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. VfL Wolfsburg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.08 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Muhammed Damar is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Maximilian Arnold and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dani Ceballos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Robert Glatzel. 1‑0 against Union Berlin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Tobias Schröder on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason VfL Wolfsburg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Christian Eriksen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Marco Richter
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Heidenheim next, and one man in the VfL Wolfsburg dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.