The square storm developed into a new folklore – it should be abolished immediately. The wrong people have to go at FC Augsburg and a former Champions League aspirant becomes the disappointment of the season.
Hoffenheim is the real loser of the season
On the 25th matchday, 1899 Hoffenheim defeated 1. FC Köln in their own stadium, the Kraichgauer climbed to fourth place after their 13th win of the season – only Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund had scored more at this point. Qualifying for the Champions League was not an illusion, but a very concrete goal.
But what followed after that was a first-class slump, worse than ever before in Hoffenheim’s Bundesliga history, which is still young. Sebastian Hoeneß’ team only collected three points from the last nine games, conceded 24 goals and lost not only the champions, but also the Europa and Conference Leagues one after the other.
In the end, Hoffenheim only got three points more than in the last season, which was already classified as weak, with the low point in the harsh 1: 5 at the end in Gladbach. In view of the excellent starting position and what TSG made of it and the fact that Hoeneß has now failed for the second year, Hoffenheim is the big loser of the season alongside Hertha.
Gladbach needs Gladbach football again
The chapter Adi Hütter was a very expensive one and cost Borussia Mönchengladbach a whole year. After all, after a very difficult season with no prospect of improvement, the club and its coach were able to make a clean cut and save face. After Max Eberl’s resignation, Borussia lurched along without leadership and without a concrete sporting idea and also had Hütter to thank for it, who, despite all sporting problems and his large part in them as a communicator, always gave a calm and serious figure to the outside world and with that prevented even worse.
The separation sets the course again, but now the club has to find its way back to the path that has been abandoned for almost two years. Sports director Roland Virkus has identified the watered-down game philosophy as a fundamental evil and is right.
Gladbach has always been at its best in the years since its resurgence under Lucien Favre when the team wanted to have the ball and cultivate the game – rather than the emphasis on high intensity in the game as under former Red Bull coaches Marco Rose and Hütter against the ball and wanted to switch quickly. Gladbach has to go back to the Favre roots – maybe with Favre himself?
