Es is the Bundesliga hammer of the weekend. Borussia Dortmund parted ways with Lucien Favre less than 24 hours after the 1: 5 debacle against newly promoted Stuttgart. The team was informed of this during training this afternoon.
“I think it’s a shame that we part ways here. We had two very successful years and have a team that would have played a successful season this year too. I am still convinced of that, ”said Favre.
The Swiss (contract until 2021) had been in office for two years, now has to go after 896 days and two runner-up championships (2019, 2020). His BVB record: 110 games, 68 wins, 17 draws, 25 defeats. The last three home games (Bayern, Cologne, Stuttgart) were all lost. Due to the bankruptcy against VfB, BVB slipped into fifth place in the league.
“We are all grateful to Lucien Favre for his excellent work over the past two and a half years, in which he and his team won two runner-up championships. As a professional and as a person, Lucien Favre is beyond any doubt, ”said BVB boss Hans-Joachim Watzke.
Favre’s previous assistant coach Edin Terzic will look after the team against Werder Bremen next Tuesday (8.30 p.m., in the sports ticker of WELT). The club also announced that the 38-year-old will take over the post until the end of the season.
“We find it difficult to take this step. Nevertheless, we are of the opinion that the achievement of our goals for the season is strongly endangered due to the recent negative development in the current constellation and that we therefore have to act, ”says sports director Michael Zorc.
The processing of the disaster had already started immediately after the final whistle on Saturday evening. Watzke, Zorc and consultant Matthias Sammer spoke in a box in the “Stammtisch” of the Signal Iduna Park. When they left the stadium one after the other at 7:31 p.m., they didn’t want to say anything or a little.
“If you lose 5-1 at home, it’s a black day. I thought about when it was the last time it was that high, ”explained Watzke. It really wasn’t that long ago such a clear defeat at home: On June 27, BVB lost 4-0 at home to Hoffenheim. In any case, according to the managing director, “it doesn’t feel good”.
It hasn’t been going well at BVB for a long time
When asked whether the embarrassing demeanor of the team would have consequences, for example with regard to Favre, Watzke replied: “We have to analyze it.” He could also have said: We have to reconsider whether the plan we had, too can continue to be applied in this way. The club’s management would have loved to continue working with Favre at least until the end of the contract in the summer in order to gain more time to look for a successor.
But the game, which should have been decided in favor of the furious, but by no means unexpectedly strong, Stuttgart team at the break, had raised questions: How could that happen? Did this embarrassing non-performance have anything to do with the coach? And above all: what conclusions must be drawn from this? The bosses have now come to the conclusion that the ripcord must be pulled.
The fact is: The runner-up has not been running so smoothly for a long time. It was the fourth defeat of the season, the third at home. In the past few weeks, Favre’s team did not fully convince even in games that ended in a draw or were even won. But on Saturday the team broke up: between the sometimes uninspired and careless acting young players like Jadon Sancho or Jude Bellingham, who showed a catastrophic performance, and the experienced, older players who – partly because of the hair-raising mistakes of the youngsters – felt exposed .
It was the carelessness of many fellow players that hit Mats Hummels on the stomach. There is a lack of “concentration”, he said: “We always try to play our way through narrow spaces and have a huge loss of ball rate. If it works, it looks good. But it rarely works. There is too much ‘skill’, we have too little depth in the game. “
The defense chief demanded “meaningful football” – only taking risks “where it is appropriate and brings profit”. BVB is far from that, says Hummels: “Unfortunately, we play risk in rooms where the return is low, but the defensive consequence is very high.”
In fact, due to their negligence, Dortmund conceded half of the goals they conceded in just one game that they had previously suffered in ten Bundesliga games. The complete neglect of the defensive work became apparent in the first half – and continued seamlessly after the change. “The 1: 2 loss of the ball. The 1: 4 loss of the ball. 1: 5 – ball clump, ”said Hummels. “We presented the gates to the Stuttgarters in rows.”
Why it is like that? “We are not a team that can defend well,” said captain Marco Reus. A tough assessment – but a brutally honest one.
Because there have been indications of this for weeks – even if they have not always been proven by results. This has to do with injuries, with a lack of experience, with individual form weaknesses of a number of players. And in one case or another with a lack of professionalism.
Nevertheless, the team stayed reasonably on course, at least kept close contact with the top of the table, qualified for the round of 16 in the Champions League. But it was fermenting. With the fans and in the club. Watzke and Zorc had long wondered why the team rarely uses their full potential. They just didn’t want to fix this situation to the coach until Sunday afternoon, unlike the fans, who never liked Favre.
But that had apparently changed with the embarrassing appearance. The question that Watzke, Zorc and Sammer should have asked themselves on Saturday evening was: Is Favre actually still a stabilizing factor, as previously assumed? The club management has always given him credit for this despite his known deficits, weaknesses in the areas of communication and motivation. Favre, who led BVB twice to the runner-up, was considered a good developer of the many young talents. As an expert, a little introverted, a little headstrong – but always respected by the players because of his competence.
But on Saturday trenches opened up. It seemed a bit as if the young players, of all people, whom Favre had always defended on the outside, let the coach down.
The coming weeks should be used to sound out the market. It is no secret that Julian Nagelsmann and Marco Rose are being considered as successors. However, it would be difficult to get started in Leipzig or Mönchengladbach. Another name that is traded is that of the American Jesse Marsch from Red Bull Salzburg. In any case, it should be a coach who stands for aggressive football with a focus on pressing and counter-pressing.
In any case, one must somehow try not to let the minimum goal of qualifying for the Champions League come into jeopardy. That would set the club back in their quest to remain Germany’s number two.
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