Managing director Jörg Schmadtke has to look for a new coach for VfL Wolfsburg – but that couldn’t be that easy. How Bayer Leverkusen’s Gerardo Seoane gave up the game in Cologne and why FCA captain Jeffrey Gouweleeuw needs a pause for thought: The theses for the 9th matchday clarify.
Wolfsburg: Who can please Jörg Schmadtke?
Jörg Schmadtke’s sporting record in the Bundesliga is remarkably good: With Hanover, he made the leap into the UEFA Cup in an almost sensational way, and the same happened years later with 1. FC Köln. Wolfsburg led Schmadtke, who was responsible for sport, back to Europe and even into the premier class after two near relegations.
But at each of his stations, Jörg Schmadtke was always the one on whom the coaches struggled, the problems gradually got bigger and in the end the football teachers – sooner or later – had to or wanted to leave. Mirko Slomka, Peter Stöger, Bruno Labbadia and most recently Oliver Glasner offended Schmadtke.
Glasner said goodbye to Wolfsburg despite participating in the premier class because, like before with Slomka, Stöger, Labbadia, it was ultimately just a marriage of convenience that was supposed to support the club. And in the long run that is always an extremely bad basis.
Mark van Bommel was Schmadtke’s desired solution and a mistake. Even if the reasons for his dismissal were clearly purely sporting, the question that remains for the upcoming search for a successor is: Which coach can please Jörg Schmadtke at all? For the time being, the previous co-trainer Michael Frontzeck will take over as interim trainer for the Wolves.
How Gerardo Seoane gave up the game in Cologne
In the derby, Bayer Leverkusen literally overran 1. FC Köln in the first half hour, had four or five outnumbered counters and several times the chance to decide the game early on. That was Bayer football in its purest culture and nothing at all indicated a turnaround in this one-sided game.
In the middle of the second half at the latest, however, the inexperience of the guests became noticeable and that Bayer and its very young team, which always want to play and also gamble a little, but cannot kill a game, became more and more nervous. On the offensive, this was noticeable through numerous sloppy counter-chances, on the defensive there was a lack of high ball conquests, the guests withdrew further and further and were literally waiting for their fate.
Probably spurred on by coach Gerardo Seoane and his change: First Seoane brought the comparatively inexperienced Amine Adli and Mitchel Bakker, then the coach in Florian Wirtz and Moussa Diaby took both switching players from the team and replaced them with defensive midfielder Exequiel Palacios and central defender Edmond Tapsoba . Maybe that was a wrong signal to your own team – and an invitation to your opponent.
