Heiko Herrlich is the new coach of FC Augsburg. The 48-year-old is to succeed Martin Schmidt to stop the negative trend of the Swabians in the Bundesliga. He has a common football past with manager Reuter.
Augsburg (AP) - Heiko Herrlich is to lead FC Augsburg as successor of Martin Schmidt to relegation. The 48-year-old was introduced by the Bundesliga soccer team as a new coach and will receive a contract with the Swabians until June 30, 2022.
"It is important that we move together very closely and collect points," said the former Leverkusen and Regensburg coach. "In the past few years my teams have always shown that we want to play football, play with passion and bite. These are things that Augsburg also stands for."
Herrlich has seven training units before the premiere game on Sunday against VfL Wolfsburg. "I want a team that fights passionately for points and fights," said Herrlich.
The Swabians had separated from Schmidt the day after the 0: 2 at Bayern Munich after less than a year. The Swiss had taken over the team in April 2019, the failures in the second half of the season and the team's appearances concerned the managers. "We were very worried that we could not reach our goal because it was going in the wrong direction," said manager Stefan Reuter.
"It has been a very dangerous development and the situation has worsened," said Reuter. "Because of the lack of results, we decided to act."
Reuter is satisfied with the choice of his former Dortmund team-mate. "We are convinced that with Heiko Herrlich we have found a coach who fits the FCA perfectly," said Reuter. "He is an absolute specialist who knows the Bundesliga as a player but also as a coach. We are therefore certain that with Heiko Herrlich we will find our way back to success."
"I'm looking forward to this new challenge at FCA," said Herrlich. "I am grateful that I have the opportunity here as a coach to work intensively with a team again every day. The FCA is a seriously run club with an enthusiastic environment and great fans. It is therefore a pleasure for me to be part of one To be clubs that want to keep developing, "emphasized the former coach from Bayer Leverkusen, Jahn Regensburg and various DFB youth teams.
There were six defeats in the eight games of the second half of the season, the gap to relegation relegation is only five points. The new coach has the advantage that he has already completed the difficult tasks against the top teams Dortmund, Leverkusen, Mönchengladbach and Bavaria.
Schmidt had been hired as Manuel Baum's successor eleven months ago. At the end of the season, he cheered for remaining in the class. The contract, which was initially agreed until 2020, will be extended until 2021 due to the non-relegation.
FC Augsburg is not known for changing coaches in the Bundesliga. Despite repeated sporting concerns in the struggle to stay in the class, only five coaches have been with the Swabians since their ascent in 2011: Jos Luhukay, Markus Weinzierl, Dirk Schuster, Manuel Baum and Schmidt.
Bundesliga table
Squad FC Augsburg
Coach Pk after the game
FCA schedule