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Hertha coach Pal Dárdai: With him you at least know what you have in him
Photo:
Andreas Gora / dpa
The entertainment factor of the Hertha BSC football team was extremely low recently, so the return campaign for Pál Dárdai as head coach is already progress, at least in this respect.
You can rely on Dárdai's entertainer qualities at press conferences, and so something happened at the introduction of the old and new coach that the troubled capital city club has not seen for a long time: There was even laughter.
After all that he had read and heard in the past few days about the squad, which was difficult to train, he feared "I'll meet 20 alligators that will eat me", but then the first training session with the Hertha professionals was "better than I expected, ”said the Hungarian.
To eat Dárdai at the first training session would have been counterproductive, after all, the coach is kind of a lifeline in the difficult Hertha time.
With him they at least know what they have in him.
The decision-makers in the club trust the 44-year-old, due to his "blue and white blood" (sports director Arne Friedrich), to save the team from relegation.
Stabilizing the defensive is Dárdai's top priority.
You know from his earlier time at Hertha that he can do that.
When Dárdai found himself in an equally precarious situation in 2015 (on matchday 20), he quickly and radically reduced the number of goals conceded: Two goals per game under Dárdai's predecessor Jos Lukukay became less than one under the Hungarian.
In the end there was a close relegation, and nothing else is now at Hertha again.
For God's sake no new descent
Nobody had expected this in view of the claims and investments of more than 100 million euros.
Relegation would therefore be a catastrophe for the club.
It's actually not that far yet, there are still two places and two points for relegation rank in between.
That can change very quickly, however, because the next opponents are Frankfurt and Bayern Munich.
Dárdai was head coach in Charlottenburg for four and a half years, then manager Michael Preetz wanted a new impulse in 2019.
Hertha, freshly endowed with Lars Windhorst's money a short time later, should no longer represent an upper average, that was the plan.
It was only implemented to the extent that Hertha is now only below average in terms of sport.
The new impulse that has now been set was Preetz's resignation.
Did he feel satisfaction that he was back and that Preetz had to vacate his chair?
"I'm not that kind of person," he says. The year without the major responsibility for the boss was also good for him.
"After four and a half years, the manager was tired of me and I was tired of him," says Dárdai.
That all sounds very clear, but the disdainful farewell 2019 hit him anyway.
“But if I had been really offended, I wouldn't start working with Hertha again.
I would have played the insulted liver sausage instead, ”he says.
The contract talks with him are said to have been constructive.
Dárdai did not play the insulted liver sausage, which wanted to be asked three times.
But he also wanted a perspective beyond the summer - and not just a firefighter.
Professionals who know their trainer will be gone in a few months can sometimes be more difficult to lead.
»Stress again from now on«
After his resignation in 2019, Dárdai took a break.
1. FC Köln presented him with a contract that was ready to be signed, but Dárdai turned down the offer and went back to the offspring after the sabbatical year.
Because he still had an open-ended contract with Hertha.
Not many Bundesliga coaches would have done that, but Dárdai has always been a bit different.
Dárdai now says that he was involved in Hertha’s U16 selection.
"When I said goodbye to them, I cried, my heart almost flew out".
Also because now another time is dawning for him: "From now on it's back to stress, of course that's mainly due to you media." Dárdai has always played with the fact that you didn't know exactly how serious he really meant something he says.
One can relieve him of the stress, but it is at least a challenging task to get this team back on track.
"Every team needs an axis," says Arne Friedrich, the new strong man by the grace of the new CEO Carsten Schmidt.
Hertha has not yet had this axis.
Rather, it is a collection of talented, sometimes highly talented players, but without a feel for a team hierarchy.
Some of the professionals, one hears, are said to be quite difficult to lead.
Dárdai's predecessor Bruno Labbadia also failed because of this.
»The players are not used to this relegation battle.
They came here to play the Champions League «
Pál Dárdai
Dárdai should now establish a hierarchy.
He diagnosed his players with a certain »negative stress: They are not used to this situation in a relegation battle.
They came here to play the Champions League. «And it's true: this is not a team that was built for relegation battle.
That makes the situation so dangerous for Hertha.
And that, in addition to the lack of alternatives, is the reason that Schmidt and Friedrich have now brought Dárdai back.
It's an act of desperation, but the prognosis is pretty good.
Because Dárdai has always been underestimated.
With his shirt-sleeved manner, he sometimes appears yesterday in scientific professional football.
But Dárdai has also proven during his time at Hertha that he can develop in addition to rescue deeds: From his second season at Hertha, he had prescribed a ball-oriented style for the team and at times mixed up the league with wins against Dortmund and Bayern.
Hertha overwintered under him twice in third place, but then smeared it off in the second half of the season.
"Maybe there were a tad too many new players all at once," says Dárdai, smashing Preetz's squad policy in one sentence when they moved across the country and wanted to buy the success together.
Thanks to Windhorst, there is still enough money for the winter transfer period, Hertha should be interested in the Bergamo professional Alejandro Gomez, among others.
However, he is more likely to move to Spain for Sevilla FC.
"Otherwise, we tend to keep quiet and let Pál and his boys do the work," says Friedrich.
His boys are the new assistant Andreas "Zecke" Neuendorf, one of Dárdai's best friends from playing days, someone who is supposed to ensure the good mood.
Then there is Admir Hamzagic, whom Dárdai trusts blindly, especially when it comes to tactical questions.
"I don't need much, but I need him," Dárdai once said.
They both worked together years ago in the U15.
The Hungarian should work with this team not only until summer, but also for the coming season.
His contract officially runs until 2022. The coach replied rather evasively whether it would actually be fulfilled: "First of all, I want to do a good job by the summer so that we can all hit our backs at Lake Balaton and drink a red wine."
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