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Hertha BSC is hoping for Kovac because Klinsmann’s merciless reckoning is confirmed

Hertha BSC is defeated by FC Bayern and is once again in the Bundesliga relegation battle. In Berlin, Union has now clearly passed. Hertha boss Fredi Bobic also indirectly confirms Jürgen Klinsmann’s devastating criticism – suddenly Niko Kovac’s name falls.

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There was no lack of pithy words before the game of the year. “You have to tackle the cup with all your heart, otherwise you’ll make the first mistake,” said Hertha boss Fredi Bobic before the cup derby against Union Berlin: “The players would have to run out with the knife between their teeth.”

If it was actually like that, it must have been a very small kindergarten bread knife. Because in the city duel on Wednesday, the blue and white were inferior in all respects, and there was no real rebellion over the entire season.

And of all things in a game that was not just about prestige and dominance in the German capital. But also about the perhaps unique opportunity for Hertha to finally reach the DFB Cup final in the Olympic Stadium for the first time in view of the numerous top clubs that have been eliminated, which has never been achieved since the award there 37 years ago.

Hertha BSC: “Fat and complacent top dog left behind”

“The defeat was a real blow for Hertha in many respects: because the dream of a cup final in their own city and in their own stadium came to an end too soon; because the weaknesses of the team and the imbalance in the squad once again came to light.” , analyzed the Berlin “Tagesspiegel”.

And further: “The fact that Union has overtaken Hertha in the table is no longer just a snapshot. The upstart from the south-east of the city has left the well-fed and almost smug top dog behind.”

It delivered the next low blow on Sunday at 1: 4 (0: 2) against FC Bayern, against whom you had no chance in the past four games (3:14 goals). The last Hertha victory dates from September 2018 (2-0). At that time, they thought they were on an equal footing with Munich, while Union played in the second division.

Since then, the “iron” have at first rapidly caught up and then overtaken their rivals, which has been certain since the triumph in the cup at the latest. “Union is now the Big City Club! And Hertha is only number 2 in Berlin. There’s nothing to shake about that,” commented the “Bild” newspaper.

Union Berlin has everything Hertha BSC lacks

Not only that the Köpenickers can dream of winning the cup in their hometown and have just overtaken the “Old Lady” in terms of membership, in the Bundesliga table there are now almost worlds between the two teams.

In fourth place, Union currently even has a chance of participating in the Champions League, while Hertha (13th) is playing against relegation for the third year in a row. The reason for this, summed up in a nutshell: Union has everything that Hertha lacks.

Successful squad planning. Since moving from Schalke to Union in 2017, sports director and mastermind Oliver Ruhnert has put together a team with little means, in which one wheel is now interlocking. There are many names that could be mentioned, just the two goalscorers in the derby, Andreas Voglsammer (came from Arminia Bielefeld) and Robin Knoche (sorted out in Wolfsburg), as examples, or the recently signed Freiburg substitute Dominique Heintz, who immediately fitted in seamlessly .

“At Union, manager Oliver Ruhnert, who lands a number of direct hits, and the clear trainer-strategist Urs Fischer have found a magic potion,” wrote “Bild”. “They make one of the hottest teams in the Bundesliga out of players that almost nobody wanted anymore or that nobody recognized.”

Ex-Hertha boss Preetz received harsh criticism from insiders

The greatest character in the team is certainly ex-national player Max Kruse, who Hertha could have had in 2020 after his guest appearance at Fenerbahce Istanbul. But the then sports director Michael Preetz found the 33-year-old to be too old and unpredictable.

Not the only misjudgment by the former Hertha managing director, whom many blame for the unround, overpriced squad that is often overwhelmed in the Bundesliga without real leaders. “Preetz put together a team without rhyme or reason, it’s a heap of rubble,” says an insider. “Fredi Bobic needs at least one, more likely two transfer windows to rebuild the team according to his ideas and to be competitive again.”

The latter was confirmed last summer Frankfurt Preetz successor brought in as a beacon of hope. “We have to recognize that we still have to work very hard to turn this squad around,” said Bobic and added in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”: “Hertha was like a mixed salad, but it didn’t taste good.”

Feinschmecker Bobic has therefore given up four players and lent eleven out since the start of the service, most recently the one committed two years ago for 24 million euros Polish National striker Krzysztof Piatek. Twelve new players came on the other side, and three to four more could be added during the winter break, including Stuttgart’s Marc-Oliver Kempf and Freiburg’s Ermedin Demirovic.

So far, Bobic’s retread has done almost nothing in Berlin

Bobic also radically changed the Frankfurt Eintracht, as is well known, with success. But in Berlin, the retreading has brought almost nothing so far. “Fredi does everything from the gut, and the result is 50 percent good and 50 percent less good,” explains a decades-long companion of Hertha’s lack of accuracy.

An example for him is returnee Kevin-Prince Boateng, with whom Bobic 2018 with Frankfurt the DFB Cup won. In the meantime, however, the injury-prone 34-year-old is only a second choice. But as a veteran, he is “important for the dressing room,” the club says again and again. Critics, on the other hand, describe the return campaign as folklore without a sporting effect.

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Continuity in the coaching chair. When Urs Fischer joined Union in 2018, many wondered if the Swiss would fit in with the “iron” and arrive with his style in German football. In 2017, the tabloid Blick described him as an “offended liver sausage” because he saw himself as a victim of a media campaign in his home country. Among other things, he was accused of lack of ideas and safety football.

In Berlin, however, the 55-year-old made a big impact: In the first season he led the traditional club to the long-awaited promotion to the Bundesliga, then to a comfortable relegation and in the second year even to the Conference League. Now at least that Europe League possible, even if Tiefstapler Fischer still spends remaining in the league as a goal for the season.

Kovac’s return to Berlin would be the ideal solution for many fans

And at the same time, the East Berliners convince with an attractive, straightforward game forward. The “Tagesspiegel” praised after the derby: “Union had everything that Hertha lacked and that Hertha would like to have: a plan, a structure, a functioning team and the belief in their own strength.”

Continuity that Hertha can only dream of: since Fischer joined Union there have been six coach changes at the competitor. And also the pale Tayfun Korkut, since his release from bottom of the table in Stuttgart in October 2018 for more than three years without a job is only a temporary solution for most people.

“Korkut is just the placeholder for Niko Kovac,” believes a Hertha connoisseur – even if everyone involved still denies it.

But the return of the native Berliner, who played professionally with Bobic in the Blau-weißen and was just released in Monaco, would be the ideal solution for almost all supporters – of course combined with the hope that the duo will continue their successful time together in Frankfurt can.

Hertha BSC: The biggest problem is the “crappy” Olympic Stadium

A sold-out stadium and a great atmosphere. Before the Corona-Pandemic, the Alte Försterei with its only 22,012 places was almost always sold out, the expansion was realized in 2009 by thousands of volunteers.

This loyalty is also reflected in the enthusiasm that prevails in the cramped arena at normal times. In a survey in 2019, the Stadion an der Wuhlheide was voted the second most popular Bundesliga stadium after Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park.

However, since the planned expansion to 37,000 spectators has been stagnating for years, there is a problem: Even if Union is currently gaining new fans due to the sporting soaring, for example in West Berlin, the prospect of a ticket in the Alte Försterei is almost zero.

The situation at Hertha is exactly the opposite: the 1936 Olympic Stadium, which is a listed building, is totally oversized with its 75,000 seats for a club like Hertha, which has been rather mediocre for years. Before the pandemic, you could usually get a ticket even on the day of Bayern’s guest performance.

But nothing is progressing with the new construction of a football stadium that can hold around 50,000 fans because there is still no location. The “crappy Olympic Stadium” is Hertha’s biggest problem, says a former club executive.

Hertha investor Windhorst thought of Mourinho, Götze and Özil

Effective work with little money. The praise came from qualified sources. “I don’t think that a Bundesliga club has managed better than Union to convert what money has been invested into points,” said Deputy Hertha Supervisory Board Chairman Andreas Schmidt to the “kicker”. “Hertha didn’t do that well and that’s the way the situation is.”

With that, the ex-professional politely described the downright burning of his club’s money. As is well known, billionaire Lars Windhorst pumped in 374 million euros to turn the “Old Lady” into the “Big City Club”.

So far, however, there has been no success and the majority of the investments have apparently already gone, since on the one hand they were used to reduce the original 142 million euros in liabilities. On the other hand, Bobic refers to the losses caused by Corona: “At least due to the circumstances, the scope is currently not there.”

From the big dreams after Windhorst came on board, from being serious about José Mourinho as a coach, Mario Götze and Mesut Özil in the team and Tesla or Amazon was spoken on the jersey, there is nothing left.

Bobic practically confirmed the scathing Klinsmann criticism

In fact, Bobic, who became the sole boss in the Westend following the unexpected resignation of CEO Carsten Schmidt, sees himself facing a Herculean task, not only in terms of sport and business. In his opinion, the structures that have become encrusted over the years under Preetz and the “eternal” President Werner Gegenbauer must also be broken up.

“At Hertha it was like in the office: we’ve always done it that way, so let’s keep doing it. You almost fell asleep,” said Bobic, more or less confirming Jürgen Klinsmann’s devastating criticism in his leaked report two years ago years (“lying culture”, “no performance culture”, “catastrophic failures in all areas”).

Since then, the new boss, who brought along seven confidants for the sporting area in the summer, has been trying to “turn the club inside out”, as long-time observers report. In addition, despite the recent setbacks, he still has the full backing of the club management around Gegenbauer. He sees “a lot of progress,” said the former national player at the virtual general meeting over the weekend.

An insider sees it much more critically: “The Preetz system has been replaced by the Bobic system – but we don’t know whether it will get better.”

Personal details: As Head of Portals & Content at Football.Co and Editor-in-Chief, Martin Volkmar is responsible for the sports website SPOX.com and the German-language editorial team for the world’s largest football platform Goal.com.

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