Kohfeldt-Aus comes (too) late: Werder’s loyalty ends in total panic


Werder Bremen is on the brink of the Bundesliga. Relegation is still possible, but Florian Kohfeldt is no longer responsible for that. The coach has to give way for a club legend. But one question remains: why only now?

Werder Bremen did Werder Bremen things. On the pitch, because the Bundesliga team is once again heading for relegation. And off the pitch, because the club withstood external criticism. Once again – as always. The coach has to go, many said. Florian Kohfeldt, however, had the club’s trust and stayed, as so often coaches before him benefited from the calm and serenity of the Hanseatic people. Loyalty to the limit of pain – and beyond.

In the DFB-Pokal it finally went clean, the end in the semifinals against RB Leipzig after extra time was by no means a shame. A success that you let yourself be blinded by. Because things went less and less in the league. After this 33rd matchday, Werder Bremen are once again in 16th place. One matchday remains and possibly the relegation.

So a maximum of three games that decide for the North Germans to stay in the league. Suddenly the panic is great. And forget about loyalty. It continues without Florian Kohfeldt. The pain threshold has been exhausted too far, the intervention of the executive suite necessary – long overdue. What could not be overlooked from the outside, has now also had to be admitted internally. A panic awakening. “The latest development and the helplessness that was noticeable on the pitch in Augsburg made us believe that the team has lost faith in the current constellation,” said sporting director Frank Baumann in the Sport1 one-two.

Déjà-vu shocked

The loyalty for which Werder is valued is the club’s undoing. Baumann and Co. have closed their eyes to reality for too long. Bremen has been playing for weeks, oh well, months, badly, the team doesn’t seem like they really can do more, even if their commitment cannot be denied in principle. The 2-0 defeat is the eighth in the ninth game, only a draw breaks this negative series.

Relegation again, last-minute rescue again? Still possible, but not again with Kohfeldt. Bremen’s long hesitation should now be eradicated by someone who knows Bremen’s loyalty very well: Thomas Schaaf – from 1999 to 2013 permanent coach of the Green-Whites, returned to the club in 2018 as Technical Director. In 1999 Schaaf took over from the unsuccessful Felix Magath three game days before the end. He got two wins – and Werder stayed in the first division.

Is that a good omen? Well, this time Schaaf has even less time: a final against Borussia Mönchengladbach on matchday 34. At the same time, from Bremen’s point of view, neither Bielefeld should win against Stuttgart, nor Cologne against the Schalke players who have already passed. The panic could have arisen too late in Werder’s executive suite. The loyalty now acts like snoring noses. And that should definitely not be a Werder Bremen thing.

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