VfL Bochum: Coach Peter Zeidler stays, horror autumn looms

Bochum is racing into horror autumn
Like a drop of bitterness on the stadium sausage

October 6, 2024, 7:46 a.m

VfL Bochum and Holstein Kiel are still waiting for their first victory in the Bundesliga. While the newcomer at Bayer Leverkusen caused a big surprise, an old saying applies in the Ruhr area. A discussion is immediately stalled.

Frank Goosen is a valued man in Bochum. A “local hero” so to speak. Very fond of the local VfL and he often expresses this love in many words. A famous sentence from his Bochum “Because Saturday is” has become a household word in the stadium: “You’re eating the same shit as the last song!”. I mean: Things aren’t going so well at the “Vonne Castroper” club, which has planted suffering deep in its DNA. But then again and again, in a highly emotional way, you pull yourself out of the impending fall into the abyss.

This was achieved in a most impressive way in the early summer of this year. At Fortuna Düsseldorf a small football miracle was put together in the relegation. And slowly players and coaches in Bochum can start looking for new material again to build a new big thing. Like the men at Opel, at Nokia or in the steel industry once did. Everything is long gone, only VfL is still there. But now once again on the rapid path into the depths. After six matchdays, the team is last, only has one point and a coaching discussion after the 1:3 defeat against VfL Wolfsburg?

Well, at least not officially. Peter Zeidler can stay. “I will answer the question exactly once: We certainly won’t have a coaching discussion today, nor tomorrow or the day after,” said Bochum sports director Marc Lettau. The club’s fans have no shortage of self-irony. So someone else asked in the evening: So we’ll have a new coach on Tuesday? VfL is worried about becoming a similar (expensive) coach-eating machine to that of its once big neighbor FC Schalke 04. So let’s move on first.

Sometimes the team shows that they can do it

But what actually happened in Bochum? At the end of the preparation, VfL suddenly sparked great euphoria. Two spectacular victories against FC Bologna and Le Havre AC had taken the surrounding area out of its post-relegation bliss. Should there really be more to it than the ever-exhausting fight against relegation? This question from late summer is answered at the beginning of autumn. The answer is: no! The fight for survival in the 1st Bundesliga is the only thing that will matter. Tough, like driving on the A40 (or currently the alternative route A448), stressed, annoyed, but still at your destination in the end?

There are signs in some phases that the team is capable of winning. At RB Leipzig she was close to a surprising point. At BVB the big sensation was within reach if Myron Boadu hadn’t left the 3-0 score behind in the first half (in the end it was 2-4 from VfL’s point of view). And this Saturday against Wolfsburg there were also moments that raised the team’s potential. But too few, again. There are also bitter changes. In the 18th minute they were happy about a penalty in the Ruhrstadion. According to the video images, he was withdrawn in the 20th minute. In the 21st minute it was 0:1. And even 0:2 at the break. Then came the strongest phase for Bochum, who pressed, pushed and scored (72nd). But they didn’t reward themselves and deservedly lost in the end, also because Wolfsburg stressed the aluminum several times.

The anxious look at the game plan

Back to the trainer question: When could a rethink take place? “The moment the team lets itself down and no longer acts as a collective and we no longer pull together. Then we would seriously think about it. But that was definitely not the case today,” said Lettau. Instead, the boss and trainer emphasized the positive developments that they had recognized. “In terms of results it is of course not progress, but in terms of content I have seen some progress,” said Zeidler. Many fans had a different look at things and are probably still looking for progress this Sunday.

Against VfL from the north, despite the negative experiences of the past few weeks, Zeidler stuck to his bold idea of ​​acting offensively and attacking the opponent extremely early and high. However, this also repeatedly resulted in gaps in the defense. A long ball was usually enough for the guests to get dangerously in front of the opposing goal. The international break now offers an opportunity to work through things and start another spurt from the depths of the table. “We know the feeling from last year, we’re running behind again. That’s extremely annoying,” admitted striker Philipp Hofmann.

And there is a little consolation for the Bochum team: In the 2022/2023 season, VfL needed nine games to get their first win, and a year later it even took ten. Each team managed to stay in the league. However, and that’s the last straw on the stadium sausage: after the next game at crisis rivals TSG Hoffenheim, the opponents are Bayern Munich, Eintracht Frankfurt, Bayer Leverkusen and VfB Stuttgart.