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After 142 games as Bremen head coach, it's over for him: Florian Kohfeldt
Photo:
Alexander Hassenstein / Getty Images
Florian Kohfeldt failed.
The man who started in 2017 to keep his club, Werder Bremen, first in the Bundesliga and then to develop into a European Cup contender, has not been the Bremen coach since Sunday morning.
As well as it went for Kohfeldt, 38, at first, his crash is ultimately just as severe.
He saved Werder from relegation at the time, narrowly missed the Europa League the following year and was named coach of the year.
Last season, however, Werder only barely saved themselves via relegation, and now there is a risk of direct relegation again.
Bremen goes into the last matchday as 16th, has one point less than Bielefeld (15th) and one more than Cologne (17th).
When the 0: 2 in Augsburg, the Bremen problems almost intensified.
The team played outnumbered for 40 minutes - and still lost.
The team hardly scores goals, struggles to create opportunities and conceded simple goals.
Eight of the past nine league games have been lost.
As bad as it all may sound: Kohfeldt is certainly not a bad coach.
The good beginnings in possession game that existed under him;
the numerous tactical adjustments during a game, which often steered the event in Werder's direction, it was not just imagination.
But he is obviously the unsuitable coach for the current situation in Bremen.
The team last appeared combative, but Kohfeldt was not able to give them a functioning offensive plan.
Thomas Schaaf in his last season (2013) as Werder head coach
Photo:
Carmen Jaspersen / dpa
It is not the first time that SV Werder is looking for the way forward in the rear-view mirror: Thomas Schaaf is supposed to keep Bremen in the league, he will take over for one game, maybe three, should Werder play in the relegation against third-placed in the second division.
With Schaaf, 60, they combine great successes in Bremen, double victory in 2004 with the masterpiece in the FC Bayern stadium, permanent guest in the Champions League, big evenings against Barcelona, Chelsea and Juventus.
If you will, Schaaf is a symbol for the best possible Werder.
He left Bremen in 2013, probably a few years too late.
In his last coaching position so far, he should save Hanover from relegation, but he lost ten of eleven games.
Then the Bundesliga coach Schaaf disappeared, most recently he was technical director at Werder.
But that doesn't mean that Werder's rescue with Schaaf can't succeed.
"We still have every opportunity to stay in the league"
Years before the double in 2004, Schaaf began his professional career as a firefighter.
Felix Magath had just resigned in Bremen, the SVW was threatened with relegation, four games remained when Schaaf took over.
In those games Schaaf's vocal voice could be heard. "Show yourself!" He could be heard shouting.
A brief command that contained a lot: the encouragement to the individual to run free, to deliver the ball-bearing teammate at the pass station.
But also to take responsibility: for the opponent, the victory, the relegation.
It worked.
Shortly afterwards, Bremen even won the DFB Cup in the final against Bayern Munich.
This time Schaaf said in a club announcement that a "huge challenge" awaits him, but: "We still have every opportunity to stay in the league."
The last league game against Mönchengladbach follows on Saturday.
He'll be able to hold a few one-on-one conversations, that's it.
Schaaf's perhaps most important advantage: He's not Kohfeldt.
That leads to another question: Why did the coach change take place so late?
"The team has lost some of its faith in this constellation (with Kohfeldt as coach, editor's note)," said Frank Baumann, Bremen's sports director, explaining the measure in a one-two at Sport1.
When she lost it, whether against Augsburg or weeks ago when the losing started, that is a question.
The other is when you should have recognized that.
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Baumann (r) next to Kohfeldt: "Lost faith a little"
Photo:
Jan Huebner / Blatterspiel / imago images / Jan Huebner
At the end of April, when Bremen had just lost the key game against Mainz, Werder's managers had discussed Kohfeldt's future for a long time.
There were votes in the supervisory board that were in favor of a change of coach.
They could not prevail.
Werder called the semi-finals in the DFB Cup against Leipzig as the final for the coach.
A single game should decide what is probably the most important person in the club, the Werder Bremen company.
Bremen was fighting against RB, but lost late in extra time.
That was enough for Baumann.
Although Kohfeldt is the face of Werder's crisis, Baumann's share in it is rather larger.
The long-term separation from Kohfeldt, coupled with a change of coach at such a late point in time, are decisions that hardly any Bundesliga club would have made.
In addition, the squad is poorly put together.
There is a lack of speed in all parts of the team, a good six is missing, a creative player is missing.
Many key transponders went wrong.
Werder accepted that Ömer Toprak and Niclas Füllkrug were susceptible to injuries.
Leonardo Bittencourt was never able to replace Max Kruse.
Davie Selke will have to be committed for more than ten million euros in the event of relegation, but hardly scores any goals: four in 38 missions.
No player who came to Bremen in the summer has strengthened the team.
These errors will be difficult to fix. Because the financial situation is precarious. Bremen is heavily in debt and urgently needs money, a fan bond should help. The hardship results from a lack of income from the corona crisis, but not only. Since Baumann has been responsible for transfers, the club has been spending more on new players than it earns. Now he's doomed to make millions from player sales. Who should fill the sporting gaps is open.
"This is where stars are made, not bought," says a song that is played around home games in the Weser Stadium. In truth, Bremen has tried to take a different path in recent years. They were looking for quick success and brought in expensive players for it. Now the club has to play more successfully with cheaper professionals. Werder has long been in a downward spiral. The relegation to the second division would only be logical.
