Marius Müller garners praise from Wolfsburg coach Hasenhüttl | OneFootball

It was Marius Müller who stated in an interview with Kicker on Friday, that in order to qualify for European competition, “we need to have the balls”.

He proved that his statement was serious in Saturday's match against Werder Bremen, denying six of the seven shots faced in the 2-1 victory, including a one-on-one save on Jens Stage, to put Wolfsburg just one point behind RB Leipzig for the final spot in Europe.

His performance was enough to gain a significant amount of praise from first-team boss Ralph Hasenhüttl, who said that Kamil Grabara will remain the starting goalkeeper for Wolfsburg long-term, but that Müller is a great second option. He said that Grabara deserves the spot because he has “saved quite a few matches for Wolfsburg this season, and proven that he is number one”.

The 57-year-old Austrian coach said about Müller in particular that he is “incredibly happy that Müller is doing well”, and that “it is important that we have an alternative goalkeeper that can keep us at the same level - the depth of our squad is crucial”.

As for Müller himself, in a post-match interview with the club, he stated that he was pleased to make a good impact for Wolfsburg, adding that “we got a very, very important three points, for our objectives, the club, the staff, for our team, since Wednesday was not easy for us to cope with the result”.

Regarding the defensive performance from Wolfsburg this afternoon, Müller mentioned that “at some point, the legs would get tired, strength might go away, so I simply tried with what I believe is one of my strengths, the mentality, consistent pushing, to just support our team, to supply them with energy for as long as I can.”

Lastly, Müller reiterated the support of the fans and how impactful it is to the team itself, saying that "Wednesday, I spoke to Sky Sport, unfortunately we could not give the large away fan section the victory they wanted, but we were able to do it today, and I am pleased that we had so much support".

With the victory, it means that Müller is still undefeated in the Bundesliga at 2-3-0 this season, and is 2-3-1 in all competitions (when adding the 0-1 defeat to RB Leipzig from Wednesday in the DFB-Pokal). He will look to continue this unbeaten streak when Wolfsburg hosts FC St. Pauli, who are looking to avoid the relegation play-off, at the Volkswagen Arena next Saturday at 15.30 (CET); the two teams played to a 0-0 draw on 26. October 2024 with Grabara in goal.