The loss of striker Anthony Modeste to Borussia Dortmund at the start of the season robbed Köln of their main source of goals and gave trainer Steffen Baumgart a real headache as to how to compensate the loss.
With his two-goal salvo against Augsburg to go with his earlier goal against BVB, could ex-Schwarzgelben striker Steffen Tigges be the answer?
Having scored 79 goals across 157 appearances for the Geißböcke, Modeste is the most successful striker in recent Köln history and a player not easy to replace in Steffen Baumgart’s system.
The club have Florian Dietz, who has progressed from the Regionalliga side and Sargis Adamyan but the more likely solution looks to be a fit-again Steffen Tigges. A dislocated ankle kept him out for much of the second half of last season, but he is now back, and judging by the performance against Augsburg, ready to go.
“This is my first real season in the Bundesliga. I’m trying to acclimatise to the club and my fellow players,” says the new summer signing, often referred to as Modeste’s substitute, adding with a smile: “In the end, it’s up to me to go beyond the ‘substitute’.
“It doesn’t annoy me because Anthony Modeste is a really good player. I’m already trying to follow in his footsteps, but it’s still taking a while. Florian Dietz said, it’s like a ketchup bottle: you have to tap it for a long time and then everything comes out at once.”
Tigges scored three goals in nine Bundesliga appearances for Dortmund last season and already has three to his credit this season. Köln fans will be hoping he can smack that ketchup bottle a little more and get the sauce flowing!
