Monday April 12, 2021
The lessons of day 28
The Notelf brings the FC Hollywood in need
By Till Erdenberger & Anja Rau
FC Bayern recently decided the championship, a week later it took the decision back. Meanwhile, strange things are happening in the table basement. They also have something to do with FC Schalke – and can bring someone who was rescued back into need.
The comeback of FC Hollywood
Is there actually more chaos on or off the pitch at Bayern? Bayern are well on their way back to FC Hollywood. What counts at the moment is not on the pitch, but what happens next to it. The eternal quarrel between coach Hansi Flick and sports director Hasan Salihamidzic. It’s about Jerome Boateng. It’s still about David Alaba. It’s about squad planning in general. The intervention of board member Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and President Herbert Hainer.
The judgments of many observers and experts that are so very different from those of the Inner Circle. They absolutely want to continue with everyone involved – from the outside, on the other hand, it is clear: someone has to go, it cannot work this way in the long run. And Flick himself? “Next question!” The coach keeps his self-imposed vow of silence. However, facial expressions and gestures speak their own language – and that’s annoying. He makes it very clear that he does not want to make anything clear – and only clarifies that the rumors continue to sprout.
This does not leave the players unaffected either. Manuel Neuer supports Flick, Thomas Müller adapts his trainer’s answer entirely. And yet the gossip doesn’t stay off the pitch. The defeat in the Champions League against Paris St. Germain. The draw in the Bundesliga against 1. FC Union. At Bayern there are currently a lot of factors mixed and then superimposed by one: Flick’s displeasure.
Notelf does not help in an emergency either
The defeat in the Champions League against Paris St. Germain. The draw in the Bundesliga against 1. FC Union. Of course, these games are by no means just the result of the simmering debates. FC Bayern just has something very unusual for him at the moment: a personnel problem. Anyone who looked at the line-up and the bench in the Union game rubbed their eyes in amazement. Who is Josip Stanisic in the starting XI? Who are Christopher Scott, Remy Vita and Dimitri Oberlin on the bench? Yes, Flick sent a Notelf into the race, with Jamal Musiala, Javi Martinez and even Bouna Sarr and Tiago Dantas in the starting line-up. Flick had to replace nine professionals just three days before the Paris second leg.
Bayern tried hard, Musiala danced his club well in the lead, but the guests managed to remain unbeaten against Bayern this season. Flick spoke of a “good mentality”. But the club has not been as in need as it is now for a long time. That is not a good omen for a rescue in the premier class.
And again BVB is saved by a teen
Erling Haaland came to Borussia Dortmund as a teenager. Just like Jadon Sancho. Jude Bellingham, Giovanni Reyna, Reinier and Youssoufa Moukoko are still there. All of them have already raptured fans and experts. And this time? This time it was Ansgar Knauff. The 19-year-old, who made his starting eleven debut in the Champions League on Tuesday and now gave BVB a win against VfB Stuttgart with his first goal.
And as if that weren’t sensational and beautiful enough, there is of course a wonderful story about Ansgar Knauff. Namely that of a photo from 2014. On this one can see Jürgen Klopp, the former star coach of the Black and Yellows, who was still unreached, who was still beloved and sorely missed. That same Klopp fatherly put his arm around a little boy, looks down at him and speaks into the microphone. That same little boy is Knauff, who was twelve at the time. He was honored by Klopp as the best player in the youth tournament “Family Cup”. “At that time I was still playing in Göttingen,” Knauff explained to Sky. Although he received the invitation to a trial training session at Dortmund’s U13, he switched to Hannover 96 first. Dortmund “was too far away”. In 2016 he was drawn to BVB – a good idea since this weekend at the latest. And for the BVB fans a new teen they can rave about.
What will become of Werder?
Four weeks ago, after a flattering, rather convulsive 2-0 win against Arminia Bielfeld, Werder Bremen’s lead on relegation place 16 was a whopping eleven points. Florian Kohfeldt had warned at the time that one had to “keep collecting points in order to stay safely in the league”, but at the same time the coach of the North Germans, who skidded by a hair’s breadth of relegation in the previous season, was confident that, given the comfortable lead, they could now “More courage developed again”. They wanted to work together away from the pragmatic point towards more respectable offensive work. The old way, it hurt Kohfeldt, the ambitious coach never left a doubt.
But the reality is: in the meantime, SV Werder is up to its neck again, since the idea of a sporty change of course, the lead on a slim four points on the relegation rank has been lashed together. And a whole potpourrie of difficulties must cause the North Germans worries: While you no longer score points, the competition no longer believes in zero diet: Mainz regularly increases the points account, Bielefeld wins close games and Hertha BSC at least has the potential to win games.
Against Leipzig, Werder went down without a chance (1: 4), and defensive routine Ömer Toprak was injured. The “offensive culture” project has failed for the time being, a stabilizer in the defense has been canceled for the time being. On Saturday it’s now to BVB, on Wednesday Mainz 05 travels to Bremen, then Bremen has to go to Union Berlin. With Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Mönchengladbach there are other top-class players on the schedule. Eleven points sounded so good in March.
Delight Bielefeld own-goal scorers
No, many did not trust Arminia Bielefeld to be fully involved in the fight for relegation after the 28th matchday. And yet the East Westphalia are fully involved, are 16th in the relegation rank, but the next Bundesliga year is within reach of one point behind Hertha BSC in 15th place and two points on Mainz 05, which was punished with a tough final sprint . The fact that in addition to the beaten-off FC Schalke you could possibly leave at least one, possibly two financially and structurally much better-positioned clubs behind you, would then also be due to a remarkable phenomenon: The promoted team provoked against the all-important 1-0 win on Friday evening the SC Freiburg already the fifth (!) curious home goal with significant help from the opponents.
In November, Leverkusen’s goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky kicks over a harmless back pass goal. In December, two Bielefeld shots on goal from Mainz are deflected unsustainably – for a 2-1 home win. In January, Stuttgart’s Marc-Oliver Kempf clears a Doan cross into his own network, in the end Bielefeld wins 3-0. And against Freiburg, Freiburg’s beautiful spirit Baptiste Santamaria ensures the victorious Bielefeld (own) goal. The start of the series did not bring anything countable against Leverkusen, and points were hailed in the other games. The points for relegation?
Riot in the basement
Curious: The last four in the Bundesliga table got more points (9) than the first four (7) on matchday 28. FC Schalke also contributed to this surprising result – and actually celebrated their first win in 13 games against FC Augsburg in a 1-0 draw, the second this season. So you did not get rid of any relegation worries or celebrate a little hope of relegation. No, in view of the victories of competitors Mainz and Cologne and still 13 points behind the relegation rank, the relegation is even closer.
But at least you no longer have to deal with having to label the proud club history with the label “Worst relegated in Bundesliga history”. After all, 13 points are already the second worst value of all relegated teams, with the second win of the season they drew level with the “eternal” negative role model Tasmania Berlin – and there are still six games left. In those, coach Dimitrios Grammozis wants to “get a lot of points”. Winning goal scorer Suat Serdar wants even more: “If we continue like this, we can take a few more wins. Then we’ll see what happens.”
With 18 points still to be awarded, a lot would have to happen, at least a miracle. But: “It doesn’t look good for us, everyone knows that. But mathematically anything is still possible.” The next six opponents also include the cellar children Bielefeld (table 16th), Hertha (15th) and Cologne (17th). The second win of the season after 28 game days makes permanently depressed, permanently depressing Schalke dream again. Or how the “brutally happy” Grammozis classified his emotional state minutes after the final whistle: “It’s probably like being in love for the first time.” Love on Schalke. What a miraculous turn.
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