Roland Virkus has only been in the professional game for three weeks – which is not necessarily a disadvantage. On Thursday, however, the 55-year-old former youth coordinator of Borussia Mönchengladbach, who had been promoted to succeed Max Eberl as sports director of the Bundesliga club, was somewhat surprising, and made an extremely unusual comparison.
It was about the topic of “formation of small groups” – a word that is on the index for professionals and even more so for managers. If it is, then as a rule it is decisively denied, the clearer the better. Anything else, as experience teaches us, gives rise to endless debates.
That was also the thought of assistant coach Christian Peintinger, who had to lead the team on Saturday in the game against Hertha BSC (6.30 p.m., in the WELT sports ticker) because head coach Adi Hütter tested positive for Corona. “I don’t see any group formation in the team, so I don’t see any reason to do anything about it,” explained Peintinger – only to be corrected shortly afterwards by Virkus, who was also sitting on the podium in the Borussia Park press room.
Sports director with a lot of work: Roland Virkus
Source: dpa
“Of course there are groups in the team, that’s quite normal,” he said and explained to his surprised audience: “I’m going to Spain and I don’t speak a word of Spanish. There’s a group of Germans and there’s a group of Spaniards. Where am I most likely to sit down? To the Germans. This is completely normal. Does that mean I have something against the Spanish? No.” The only thing that matters is that the groups don’t work against each other. And he couldn’t see that in relation to his own team.
no team
However, the Gladbach problem is not one of language or ethnicity. The team does not function as a team. The offensive players don’t care about the defense and the defense makes mistakes because it often puts them under pressure. They lead to many goals conceded – 51 already, only two Bundesliga clubs have conceded more: bottom of the table Greuther Fürth (64) and Hertha (58).
After the 2: 3 in Stuttgart last weekend, when a 2: 0 lead was still lost, midfielder Christoph Kramer, emotionally charged, speculated about “small groups”. The midfielder also said there would be “1000 construction sites” in the team. For this he was now reprimanded by Virkus.
What is striking, however, is that another Gladbacher is always standing next to him and neglecting fundamental things: whether Florian Neuhaus, Matthias Ginter, Alassane Pléa or – as in Stuttgart – Marcus Thuram. The French striker simply let his counterpart Borna Sosa pull away and cross. This is how the Stuttgart winning goal came about. A behavior that was not only a “bottomless cheek” for Lothar Matthäus. The Sky expert certified the Gladbachers “listlessness”.
That’s close to the truth. Many players are only there because their move to other clubs failed. This is a mortgage that Virkus and, above all, Hütter inherited. That’s why the coach is still in office: Hütter is not the main reason for the crisis. Eberl knew that, Virkus knows that too. When asked if he had a plan B in the event of a defeat in coaching, he replied: “There is plan A and I’m going to follow that.”
It is not known whether Fredi Bobic thinks the same way. “We have to score points at the weekend,” said the managing director of Hertha BSC. Otherwise it should be tight for coach Tayfun Korkut.
Disastrous season
The club has even bigger problems than opponents Gladbach. Because while they despair of their team in the Lower Rhine, they no longer understand their whole club in the capital. Hertha almost gives the impression that they are continuously working towards relegation. In Berlin it’s about everything – just not about football.
However, he has been disastrous this season – and has been even less successful since the change of coach at the end of November. Korkut’s record is worse than that of his predecessor Pal Dardai, with just nine points from 12 games. At 1: 4 at home against Eintracht Frankfurt last weekend, when the team really surrendered, the atmospheric low point was reached.
Hertha BSC
The days that followed were even more bitter for the club, which self-confidently dubbed itself the “Big City Club” after investor Lars Windhorst got on board. Sports director Arne Friedrich threw it down on Monday. His relationship with Bobic had been broken for a long time. He has the feeling “that my influence on important sporting decisions is no longer sufficient,” Friedrich said.
But who has influence at Hertha and for how long? Bobic has been the strong man in the operative business, especially since Carsten Schmidt, the “CEO” and confidante of investor Lars Windhorst, resigned in October. However, his reputation has suffered after transfers without a significant effect. If Korkut should fail now, this would mean a sensitive weakening of Bobic. The 50-year-old, under whose leadership Eintracht Frankfurt won the DFB Cup and advanced to the semi-finals of the Europa League, is said to be the architect of the new, successful Hertha.
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There can be no question of that at the moment. On Sunday, Bobic himself appeared in front of the team – apparently also to explore whether it still makes sense to continue working with Korkut. The coach was not present at the meeting. At the beginning of the week, Korkut tightened the tone towards the players. “Do you think that’s how you get out of here? Do you think that’s how you get out of anything in your life?” he called to the pros on the training ground. This is how someone speaks who is passing on the pressure he is feeling himself.
“In a condescending manner”
However, it is difficult to appeal to the players’ honor when the club gives such a pitiful picture. On Wednesday, an oddity became public that made it clear what the relationship between Windhorst and the club was like: SPORT BILD reported that Hertha had a large documentary – working title “Welcome to Berlin” – made. Windhorst is said to have invested more than one million euros in the project.
But now his company Tennor has stopped production – because a “high-ranking member of the Hertha management made a disrespectful and condescending comment about Mr. Windhorst in front of the camera,” as Tennor spokesman Andreas Fritzenkötter said.
Once in motion, Fritzenkötter then made it clear what he thought of the club management. “The next general meeting is in May. Something will definitely have to happen,” he said. An unequivocal attack on President Werner Gegenbauer – and the Hertha Presidium reacted. This “crossed a limit in terms of the autonomy of the highest club body,” it said in a statement published on the Hertha website. Fredi Bobic had little choice but to demand calm – “from everyone, really everyone”. There was something pleading about it.
