The record champions dominate the league and hide a real problem. In addition: Florian Kohfeldt’s trick at VfL Wolfsburg, the splash of color VfL Bochum and the currently worst team in the league. The theses for the 11th matchday.
Stuttgart currently has the worst team in the league
People like to say that, but in the case of VfB Stuttgart that was actually true at the weekend: Pellegrino Matarazzo was missing a complete team against Arminia Bielefeld.
Eleven players from the goalkeeper to the center forward dropped out and one does not exaggerate with the claim: That was a big problem.
However, it does not take the other players in the squad and their coach out of duty and the uncanny misery should not be used as an excuse. Even with the players who were on the field on Saturday, a Bundesliga game against Bielefeld could be won.
But because half the team currently seems out of shape and Matarazzo’s change of position came to nothing, a bleak performance came about that does not bode well for the coming weeks.
It is obvious that Stuttgart cannot achieve the ease of the previous season under the given circumstances.
But in these difficult weeks, with these thin staffing levels, the lack of processes and the lack of self-confidence, VfB is currently the worst team in the league.
Nmecha or Weghorst? Nmecha and Weghorst!
In the last few weeks VfL Wolfsburg had a lot of problem children, including Wout Weghorst and Lukas Nmecha. Weghorst, because he fell ill with Corona and was not particularly comfortable with ex-trainer Mark van Bommel. Nmecha, because he was supposed to replace Weghorst as a wedge striker, but in the position he was a little strange at his new club.
Now the tricky situation seems to be vanishing into thin air. Van Bommel is no longer a coach and has been replaced by Florian Kohfeldt. He in turn moves away from the Dutchman’s 4-2-3-1 and tries his hand at the three-way chain in the last line and a 3-4-2-1. That apparently fits very well, as three wins from the first three competitive games suggest.
And Kohfeldt has also found a suitable place for Nmecha. The future national player should now play around Weghorst rather than a kind of indented tens.
This means that Nmecha has little frontal contact with the opponent, can push forward from the depths and also bring his football skills to bear better. Seems to work quite well, as evidenced by three goals from the last three games.
Hertha BSC: Back to the future with Vladimir Darida
There are a few numbers that are actually even more impressive than Vladimir Darida’s mileage. For example, that Hertha BSC lost three out of four games without the Czech in the starting eleven and scored an average of 0.75 points.
But if Darida was on the field from the start, the balance was: three wins, one draw, two defeats. The point average is then 1.67. With the return to Dardai football, Darida has become really important again in the Hertha concept.
There have already been three or four attempts by various coaches to develop a workable concept without the 31-year-old.
In the end, however, none of them can get past Darida. Just like Dardai again, who lets football be played like three or four years ago and needs suitable types of players: workers, fighters, mentality players. Players like Santi Ascacibar – or Darida.
