FSV Mainz 05’s amazing winning streak, which included victories over Bayern Munich and Eintracht Frankfurt that propelled them into the European spots, was always going to end and so it did in a 1-0 loss to reigning Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen. The loss of Jonathan Burkardt to injury in the very first minute of the match, who was replaced by Bayern loanee Armindo Sieb, was a difficult but unfortunately familiar blow for Die Nullfünfer. Unfortunately, Sieb could not help his parent club by forcing Leverkusen to drop points, instead curiously being substituted as a substitute around the hour mark.
In total, this marks the third time Sieb has been substituted as a substitute. When asked in the post match press conference why the former Greuther Fürth player was hooked, Mainz’s head coach Bo Henrikson said this: “Sieb can and wants to only play 60 minutes” and refused to elaborate.
Such a mysterious quote was never going to stay unquestioned for long. In the pre match press conference of the very next match, Henrikson was asked to elaborate on these exact comments and proceeded to backtrack on the lack of desire to play: “Nah, he wants to play 90 minutes. If I said that, it was not right. Every player wants to play 90 minutes. But we have an entire department that measures these fitness statistics to see how much they can run. I am really, really happy with Sieb. He was really good against Bayern (authors note: sigh) and then had two difficult games against Frankfurt and Leverkusen. I think he is a good option [for the staring XI in the upcoming match against Union Berlin.”
There is only one logical follow up question: Why and how is a 21-year-old, who has been free of injury for months and been a part of the squad since the summer, not fit to play a full 90 minutes? Henrikson cannot give a definitive answer and instead asks for time to build him up to a full 90 minutes: “He is fit. And he is making progress. If you train well for a long period, it gets better and better and better. We are hoping that he will be able to play 90 minutes in 1-2 months.”
Well, that is a rather down note to end the line of questioning on. The mystery of Sieb’s lack of fitness continues unsolved and he is not even close to finishing a full match.
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