Niko Kovac gets into semantic tussle with reporter over Daniel Svensson | OneFootball

New Bundesliga addition Daniel Svensson – already highly praised by Borussia Dortmund boss Lars Ricken – earned more plaudits from BVB head coach Niko Kovac at Friday’s press conference. When asked by a reporter if Svensson would be making his fourth straight start against Union Berlin this weekend, Kovac first turned the question back to the reporter.

“Let me ask a counter question,” Kovac answered. “How do you assess Daniel Svensson?“

“I find him decent,” the reporter replied after a brief exchange.

“Only decent?” Kovac quipped back. “I find him to be more than decent. If we were to assign school grades, ”decent’ means ‘adequate’ or ‘satisfactory’. A ‘C-Level’ grade. You’re quite self critical.

“The young man comes from Denmark and is 22-years-old,” Kovac continued. “Three sensationally good games. Sensational at sprinting. Very neat on the ball. Few mistakes. Always ready to start up the attack. Taking care of matters at the back.

“I don’t know what kind of standards lead to such criticism. It’s sensational. He comes to Germany. Doesn’t speak a word of German and is immediately called upon. That’s a top performance,” Kovac concluded.

Kovac ultimately didn’t end up answering the question as to whether Svensson or Ramy Bensebaini – who returns from suspension – would be starting this weekend, also insisting that Bensebaini was also “very important to the team“. In the opinion of the coach, Bensebaini and Svensson are “equally good“. Nothing more would be revealed.

“I’m happy to have both of them,” Kovac said.

GGFN | Peter Weis