Coach Tayfun Korkut from Hertha BSC appeared calm before the basement duel at Borussia Mönchengladbach, which was probably decisive for him. “It’s a nice sentence: Losing is forbidden. I have nothing against it. And that’s how I take it. I have my responsibility here and focus on scoring points together with the team,” said the coach on Thursday.
Sports director Fredi Bobic had previously made the coach and team responsible for the game on Saturday (6.30 p.m.) (“We have to score”). Since Hertha is currently in relegation rank 16 and has not won any of their nine competitive games in 2022, the encounter with table 13 applies. for Korkut as an endgame. The 47-year-old replaced Pal Dardai last November and picked up nine points in twelve league games.
The game with the Rhinelanders, who are only four points ahead of the Berliners, was understood by Bobic as a unique opportunity. “We have a great opportunity to bring in a club that has different expectations of itself and move closer,” said the 50-year-old. The Gladbachers recently won only one of seven league games.
Korkut also explained his appeal to the team (“Fuck me!”) from Tuesday’s training session, which drew a lot of attention on social media. “There were still two languages missing,” he said of the speech, which he had given in a mix of German and English: “But then it would probably have been too long. That’s me too. That’s part of it. It’s now made big, of course. But believe me, that happens quite often.” According to Korkut, “the message” was important.
Bobic: “It’s not important to talk about a film now”
For sports director Fredi Bobic, the recent tensions between Hertha BSC and investor Lars Windhorst have no impact on the relegation battle. “It’s not important to talk about a movie or a documentary right now,” Bobic said. “That has nothing to do with the game either. We’re focusing on that.”
Previously had the sports picture reports that Windhorst and his Tennor Group have stopped a documentary about the club. Company spokesman Andreas Fritzenkötter told the newspaper that the film met “neither the agreed ideas nor professional requirements” because, among other things, “a high-ranking member of the Hertha management made a disrespectful and condescending statement in front of the camera about Mr. Windhorst as an investor”. Windhorst had invested 375 million euros since joining in 2019.
According to Bobic, the events surrounding Windhorst “didn’t play a role in the team”. Nevertheless, according to the head of sport, “in times like this one wishes that there was even greater cohesion. We’re working on that.” The Berliners are in relegation rank 16 in the Bundesliga and are at serious risk of relegation. In mid-February, Windhorst caused a stir with an interview with the business magazine Capital, in which he sharply criticized the Hertha management.
