Rudi Bommer on the third division start: What the DFB team can learn from Elversberg

After a two-month World Cup break, the 3rd football league is the first professional division in Germany to resume operations. With the SV 07 Elversberg, a climber surprisingly sits enthroned at the top of the table. He is far ahead of the competition for the ambitious league giants Dynamo Dresden and 1860 Munich with the best point haul in league history at this point in the season. The lead over pursuers 1. FC Saarbrücken is eight points. After RB Leipzig, Würzburger Kickers and Jahn Regensburg, the team from Saarland would only be the fourth team to make the transition from the 4th to the 2nd division. Magentasport expert Rudi Bommer explains in an interview why this is possible and why success is no coincidence and why even the DFB team can learn something from the village club.

Mr. Bommer, let’s get straight to the point: is SV Elversberg actually rising?

Rudy Boomer: Yes, I mean yes. The squad is just really well put together. They have creative players in midfield, well-trained defenders and fast attacking forces. And what else they can do is play one-on-one. That’s something special, because it’s hardly been promoted in German football in recent years. When I was still the coach of SC Hessen Dreieich (Editor’s note: cooperation partner of Eintracht Frankfurt) and a few years ago, the head of the youth center at Eintracht Frankfurt told me that the training concepts have now been rewritten, also at the DFB, by the way, and put more emphasis on one-on-one, two-on-two and so on I had to laugh out loud.

How come?

Well, because that’s elementary in football! I then replied that I never took that out of my training work either, I just took over the tiki-taka crap. I trained from the 1st to the 4th league, got promoted with different teams, and then someone wants to tell me something about the horse?! I can only shake my head at that. That’s also a problem for the national team. And that brings me back to Elversberg: The squad doesn’t always have just the best footballers, but footballers who fit together perfectly. For example in the defensive line, very different than in the national team. Everything is very well coordinated here. That is also the good work of Horst Steffen. He developed this team. Many modern coaches lack that. They only ever want to play pressing and magic football. But it’s about other things. For example, if you have a guy like Mario Basler, then you have to see who is a perfect match behind him. Horst Steffen understood that, he is one of the well-trained coaches who learned the game from scratch. And none of this laptop generation.

What are they doing differently?

They don’t pay enough attention to the player material and put their idea above everything else. That’s not possible. You have to wait and see how day-to-day business goes, after 14 days you know the team and have seen them play. Then you can start realizing your ideas. Some of the guys want to play three or four systems right away. But make sure one is really good first and then add a second. Everything else is ridiculous, because you only unsettle the players. You’re still playing for two goals, the sixteen are still there and the pitch is the same. And especially in the 3rd league, where the game is played very robustly, you won’t get very far with magic football. Horst Steffen and Elversberg do things differently. You have developed that perfectly over the years in the regional league. The compilation is great. From the well-trained defense to the creative midfield, the fast wingers like Jannik Rochelt and straightforward strikers like Luca Schnellbacher. And they work in peace, have a relaxed environment. Also media. Unlike 1. FC Saarbrücken or 1860 Munich.

You speak to Saarbrücken. The 1st and 2nd Bundesliga have been waiting for a club from Saarland for 17 years. With Elversberg in first place or Saarbrücken in second place, there could be a Saarland double boom this season…

… it looks like it at the moment. But I reckon Elversberg will have more chances, because things get very close from second place onwards. Wehen-Wiesbaden, Ingolstadt and 1860 Munich are close by. And the third division, as the past few years have shown, is highly dangerous. Let’s remember the 2019/20 season when FC Bayern became champions. During the winter break they were still fighting relegation and then suddenly at the end of the season they were at the top. Such constellations make the 3rd league so appealing, because things can always go very quickly in both directions. Or let’s look at Dresden this season, who were favorites for promotion and are now hanging out in midfield.

Yes, what actually happened there?

You have to embrace the league straight away and maybe that wasn’t the case with Dresden at the beginning. They didn’t switch mentally, they thought, yes, we’re being marketed everywhere, but then you go out and suddenly things don’t go that well. And then rethinking in your head, that’s very difficult. And then I also think that the squad is not put together so exciting. So far they have played poorly on the flanks despite their bullying with Manuel Schäffler and Stefan Kutschke. Now, in Jakob Lemmer, they have brought in a strong winger from Offenbach who can play one-on-ones and use the strikers properly. But is that enough?

Does this mean that Dynamo no longer plays a role in the fight for promotion this season?

No I do not think so. They now have 23 points, which is 8 to 10 behind their direct competitors. It’s not a world yet, but I don’t think Dresden is so stable that they’ll intervene again. In addition, everything would have to break at the top of the table, then everyone would have to fail as a team. I can’t imagine that happening. Dynamo should rather use the time now and take a close look at the team, decide what do I keep and what do I have to rebuild in the summer. I would look at the rest of the season from a manager’s perspective and think of the squad for attacking next season and plan accordingly.

With 1860 Munich, a second third division giant is still heavily involved in the promotion race and has spectacularly strengthened itself with the former Bundesliga professional Raphael Holzhauser. Are there no more excuses if the move to the 2nd Bundesliga doesn’t work out?

You announced it yourself in Munich and want to send a signal with it: We definitely want to get to the top.

And is Holzhauser really the missing piece of the puzzle?

I don’t think the commitment is bad. Holzhauser is full of juice. He played over 90 minutes and set up a goal in his last game in Belgium. He comes with confidence and with practice. That is not a matter of course in winter, see for example Oldenburg with Marc Stendera. The Holzhauser is immediately ready to play and with his height of 1.95 meters he also helps you with crosses and set pieces. There hasn’t been much since Sascha Mölders.

You just mentioned how tight it is behind Elversberg. Which team is under the greatest pressure to get promoted?

For me, Ingolstadt is under the greatest pressure, they’ve been relegated and want to get back up immediately. That’s their program. Saarbrücken is always under pressure, they’ve wanted to go up for years and they have a president who can be dangerous for you as a coach.

And in Dresden the pressure is gone because the gap is too big?

Yes, I think so. But it’s also really a mystery to me that a club with such an environment, such a great stadium and such great fans hasn’t been able to put together a team with real power for years. Dynamo, it has to be said, has become an elevator crew.

Where we are in the east of the country, the region is threatened with a relegation meltdown, with Halle, Zwickau and Aue three teams fighting for relegation. Does the season end really bitterly for East German football?

No, I do not think so. Even in the table cellar everything is close together. Aue in particular has a great team on the pitch. It didn’t work out with Timo Rost as a coach, but right now in Pavel Dotchev they have a coach who knows the environment and has already got them out of there. I think Aue will definitely make it. And Zwickau knows the situation, they know how to successfully play against relegation. They act robustly and don’t try to do magic. There are certain laws in football that you just can’t change. Zwickau understands that.

Let’s jump west for a moment. With Rot-Weiss Essen and MSV Duisburg, two big traditional teams cavort in the no man’s land of the table. What’s up?

At Rot-Weiss Essen I thought they would get off and the coach would fly. They got off really badly. But they stayed calm, which isn’t always the case there, and can already build on the new squad and then attack again next season.

And then does that work?

That may be. Of course it depends on what else you commit to. But with Felix Götze and Clemens Fandrich they have really good guys and the stadium is great anyway.

And what’s up with your ex-club MSV?

In Duisburg they just don’t get it right anymore, positioning the team in such a way that they can attack from above. It’s a shame because the environment is really good. And when you see that there are 30,000 coming to the game against Essen (Editor’s note: many from Essen too, of course), then that’s great. Especially for the 3rd league.

If you look at the attendance figures and the clubs’ traditions, you get the impression that the league is the perfect place for football romantics…

It’s a great league, with great clubs and great stadiums, one of the best 3rd divisions in the world. Good football is played here, good boys are on the road here. There is a great mix of experienced and young players here.

Many young players romp around in the second representation of the Bundesliga clubs, but they are a thorn in the side of many fans. Hardly any spectators, hardly any atmosphere and anyway not entitled to climb …

For me they are an asset. There you will find young players who come from the A youth and are initially caught. They get game practice here in the professional field and then possibly move up. That’s also part of the purpose of the 3rd league and in terms of the development of football. I saw Freiburg in Mannheim. They played great football. The pressing was outstanding, everything was perfect. There was no gap for the opponent. But the boarding school in Freiburg is one of the best there is. Real football is taught there. On the other hand, you can trash most of the young academies. In Frankfurt, for example, nothing will come of it in the next three years.

If you had to pick one of those players who could have a great career, who would it be?

Luca Kerber from Saarbrücken, that’s one of them. He’s very robust for his 20 years, he’s also tactically well trained and has a good eye. And he also has a good degree.

Tobias Nordmann spoke to Rudi Bommer