Sebastian Hoeneß discusses contrasting fortunes of Niclas Füllkrug and Deniz Undav ahead of Stuttgart-Bremen clash

VfB Stuttgart head coach Sebastian Hoeneß has offered his assessment of the contrasting fortunes of German strikers Deniz Undav and Niclas Füllkrug ahead of Saturday's Bundesliga encounter with Werder Bremen. While Füllkrug has celebrated a return to the national team following an extraordinary start to the season, Stuttgart captain Undav continues to await his first Bundesliga goal of the 2026/27 campaign.

The two forwards enjoyed considerably different fortunes when Jürgen Klopp announced his24-man Germany squad for the November international windowon Thursday. Füllkrug, 33, earned his first call-up since September 2025 after scoring nine Bundesliga goals in eight appearances for Bremen.

Undav, meanwhile, was once again omitted despite having scored 19 league goals for Stuttgart last season. The 30-year-old has endured a difficult opening to the current campaign, struggling to reproduce the goalscoring form that established him among Germany's leading domestic attackers.

His performances have nevertheless retained the confidence of his head coach, who believes the striker's contributions are being overlooked amid his lack of goals. Hoeneß defends Undav amid continuing goal drought Speaking at Thursday's pre-match press conference, Hoeneß acknowledged that Undav's principal problem remains his failure to find the back of the net.

"What isn't there are the goals," Hoeneß said at the press conference. "If you look atthe match in Istanbul, he could easily have had another two or three assists.

I think he's generally getting back into his rhythm." The VfB coach emphasized that Undav's difficulties were representative of the team's wider problems in the final third. Stuttgart created several promising opportunities against Galatasaray but ultimately failed to capitalize, suffering another disappointing defeat despite periods of encouraging attacking play.

"It's the same with him as it is with us generally," Hoeneß explained. In his case, it's the chances that other players aren't converting.

That's obviously an issue for us.

Undav's underlying performances have nevertheless raised questions beyond his lack of goals.

According to Opta statistics, the Stuttgart striker has won just 20 percent of his Bundesliga duels this season.