Saturday, December 25, 2021
The relegated Bundesliga
Mats Hummels and the tragic knee fall
By D. Needy, T. Nordmann & S. Uersfeld
The Bundesliga can be tough. In the first half of the season, several players and teams fell noticeably. The relegated team to date range from the poorly in shape Mats Hummels to the Bayern-Zerleger from Gladbach to a mocked manager.
Relegated
Mats Hummels
As if the second half of 2021 hadn’t been terrible enough for the ex-world champion, Mats Hummels received an official end-of-year gossip from national coach Hansi Flick via RTL / ntv. At the moment, said Joachim Löw’s successor, the Dortmund-based man does not have the level to be nominated for Germany again. One year before the winter World Cup in Qatar, Hummels’ international future is more open than ever. If you mean it nicely to him, you could say: Oh come on, at home is much nicer anyway than constantly having to justify why the world tournament is not boycotted in the unjust state. The defense chief of BVB will not be comforted by this. He is an athlete with the highest ambitions. And would like to stay that way. At Borussia, for Germany. But unfortunately things are not that simple and Flick’s words are somehow true.
Hummels is far from the times when he and Jérôme Boateng became the imperial hero (because of the Beckbauer diagonal balls). Rather, this season he fills the role of the tragic (predominantly) hero (rather seldom). In the top match against FC Bayern, he equalized the 1-1 draw with a wild bad pass and enabled the Munich team to win with a penalty after a highly controversial handball. And the fact that BVB was thrown out of the Champions League and relegated to the Europa League is closely interwoven with the central defender. In the second leg he saw red. Hardly anyone could understand the referee’s decision, the game and Ajax didn’t care – it was 3-1 after 90 minutes and the fate of BVB turned into the European second division.
As bitter as these moments sound, they are so little differentiated. During the handball, Hummels did not see the ball at all. And the tackle against Amsterdam, in which his opponent did not hit at all, was necessary because his teammates had put him under severe stress with a sloppiness. There is also massive pain in the knee. Hummels never made that an issue, but apparently a longer break is urgently needed. Will this make him attractive again for Germany? Well, nobody knows. But what you do know: The 33-year-old didn’t deserve the role of the tragic hero. (tno)
Jörg Schmadtke
You don’t really know who to nominate for the biggest relegation at VfL Wolfsburg. The selection of candidates is gigantic at the end of the semi-series! Sure, ex-trainer Mark van Bommel has to be high on the list with his mix of embarrassments, premium start and bankruptcy suffering. There is also successor Florian Kohfeldt – seven defeats in a row, you have to get that with this squad first. One or two injured high performers are not a good excuse. More like the catastrophic form with which some top players drag themselves through the season: Defense chief John-Anthony Brooks, captain Maximilian Arnold, striker Wout Weghorst, they are very far from the condition with which they were in VfL last season have led the Champions League. Under coach Oliver Glasner. That left voluntarily. Or maybe not. A poisoned relationship with manager Jörg Schmadtke is considered the reason for leaving Eintracht Frankfurt, where things are now going pretty well after a botched start to the season.
Yes, Schmadtke, always Schmadtke. It’s kind of strange. As good as his nose for a top squad at the beginning of his work, he also loses his feeling for the club when problems arise. Prominent newcomers such as Sebastiaan Bornauw, Dodi Lukebakio or Luca Waldschmidt have so far been rather big disappointments. This pattern of relegation from the successful throne runs through consistently, was the case at Hannover 96 and also at 1. FC Köln. There it crashed among others with Anthony Modeste, whom Schmadtke apparently transferred to China against the will of the attacker. Modeste is now back at Effzeh and plays outstandingly there. He scored twice against Wolfsburg and then mocked the manager. Doesn’t run for him. (tno)
The Bundesliga
“The worst Bundesliga season in years,” was the headline of Deutsche Welle after the last match day of a sobering first half of the season for German football. Falling TV audience numbers, hardly any viewers in the stadiums, a championship race that can easily take on the tension of reading a four-year-old advertising leaflet and a massive drop in sporting quality on the part of countless teams. The current season may intoxicate the fans of those clubs that have suddenly been flushed to the top, but it continues to cement the German conditions, which allow no other champions than Bayern Munich and which even leave the stumbling Dortmund in the national top. Unfortunately, a Christian prank doesn’t make a summer. (sue)
Borussia Monchengladbach
Goals, goals, goals. What a football festival it was (for all fans in Germany except for Bayern sympathizers) when Borussia Mönchengladbach tore the record champions apart with 5-0! The foals flattened the people of Munich like a well-oiled steam engine. It’s just stupid that the victory in the DFB Cup was retracted – and after the subsequent narrow success against VfL Bochum, the total relegation in the league took place. Borussia was three measly points behind the Champions League ranks on matchday 10. With poor defensive behavior on the part of the entire team, things have only gone downhill since then. A win in seven games, including four major defeats with a goal difference of 4:17. “We certainly have to go through the squad and see what we can do in winter,” said coach Adi Hütter. Brought in as a savior by Eintracht Frankfurt, the coach in Gladbach has so far not made a good figure and is only two points ahead of the relegation place with his team. After the winter break, Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen are waiting. (dbe)
RB Leipzig
One can congratulate FC Bayern. A return to the old transfer idea worked perfectly this summer: just weaken the biggest competitor. And not just in the middle of the heart, but over a large area around it. The branded product RB Leipzig was taken away from coach Julian Nagelsmann. And defense chief Dayot Upamecano. And when the pressure on Munich because of the thin squad just before the end of the transfer deadline had become too great, captain Marcel Sabitzer was taken into custody for a small fee. While the plan with Nagelsmann works out well (except for the inexplicable cup knockout), which is still maturing with Upamecano (at least very promising), the one with Sabitzer is not yet working. The Bavarians can endure that, but the Leipzigers cannot catch it.
The huge restructuring in the squad – they also lost the second regular defender Ibrahima Konate – did not work. Coach Jesse Marsch, whose idea was never clearly recognizable, is history again. And the faint hope that his successor Domenico Tedesco will now do everything better and everything right tore relegation candidate Arminia Bielefeld to shreds immediately before the winter break. For the football premium product from Red Bull it is the first real crash in the sixth Bundesliga year. And he could be a lot more dramatic if it weren’t for Christopher Nkunku, whose quality has been more consistent than ever on the pitch this season. But that makes it almost unique in Leipzig. There is still plenty of time to fill the cracks in the foundations of success, reaching the Champions League is just six points away. The fact that the relegation place is one point closer, however, more than justifies the nomination for relegation in the first half of the season! (tno)
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