SVD coach Torsten Lieberknecht chooses a special metaphor to explain the situation of the lilies in the elite first division society. It’s definitely something to smile about. In essence, he hits a true point, but he overshoots the mark – not for the first time.
Struggles with the circumstances of the lilies in the Bundesliga: Torsten Lieberknecht IMAGO/Michael Weber
Don’t be alarmed if you see his professional colleague Torsten Lieberknecht appear on TV soon after a commercial in which Jürgen Klopp is promoting Deutsche Vermögensberatung and is advertising a holiday at the Robinson Club. Perhaps the marketing department of the self-proclaimed “premium provider for first-class club holidays” is biting its teeth when asked about the down-to-earth Palatinate native. Because it seems that Lieberknecht once had bad experiences with vacation trips of this kind.
Who does not know it? The anticipation of the longed-for vacation is huge. But as soon as you arrive, the reality turns out to be different than expected. This is what is happening to SV Darmstadt 98 after they booked the Bundesliga package holiday with a second division travel agency last season – to use Lieberknecht’s language. The Lilien coach chose a special metaphor after the 1:3 loss in Stuttgart.
The VAR as a bartender
“The first league is actually like a club vacation. The same faces have been coming to the club for 25 or 30 years – and then at some point a few new guests come along and then we just look: How do they behave? What do they do “Then you have the bartender who sits in the basement in Cologne and he also has an opinion and says: Pay attention, the new guests are not quite as we imagine,” the 50-year-old said first on “DAZN”. Shortly afterwards, he added to “ARD” that the SV98 didn’t seem to fit into this club. “You notice that every now and then, we noticed that last week, we noticed that today. Some of the club bosses at the bar might have something against it. Maybe we need a new suit.”
Robinson’s rival Club Aldiana claims a stay with them is “balm for the soul”. There can be no talk of this in the first division club for the Lilies at the moment. Basically, Lieberknecht hits the core of the truth with his criticism of elite society. The development of the distribution of TV money, the ever-increasing transfer fees at the top and much more make it more difficult for newcomers to survive in the Bundesliga every year.
Only the lilies wanted to deceive in Stuttgart
But the “barkeeper in the Cologne cellar” is really not responsible for the fact that the Hessians are in 17th place with just one point from five games. It has not yet become obvious that the VAR became active during Darmstadt games under the influence of too much caipirinha. Yes, the controversial sending off of Matej Maglica in the 3-3 draw against Gladbach can be discussed. But if you want to be part of the Bundesliga for longer than just a year, you can expect to be able to maintain a 3-0 lead for just under 40 minutes, even with one man less.
The timing of Lieberknecht’s accusations towards the referees is even more surprising. The referee team around Matthias Jöllenbeck really couldn’t do anything about the fact that the 98ers went home without any points on Friday evening. The team once again revealed deficiencies in all parts of the team: completely harmless at the front, extremely error-prone at the back. On top of that, Marvin Mehlem and Filip Stojilkovic tried to deceive referees, bartenders and co. with clear swallows.
Fritsch senses a conspiracy
The people of Darmstadt are barricading themselves ever deeper in their wagon fort and have to be careful not to overuse this image. Just a week ago, the otherwise so level-headed President Rüdiger Fritsch rumbled through the mixed zone. The expulsion was “nonsense” and an “insolence”. So far so good. But when he then sensed a conspiracy to his own detriment, it was too much: “Either the little ones are out of luck or the little ones have no lobby!”
By the way, Lieberknecht is not a first-time offender. In 2013, when he was in charge of Eintracht Braunschweig, a club that was probably just as “small”, a 4-0 defeat at Hamburger SV upset him. “There were moments again when you realized you were this little pissing club. You are this pissing club that the referees don’t have that perception either. If it’s 50:50 decisions, they always go for the big guy.” , he said at the time. Different words, same meaning, no less problematic.
First one point: completely in line with the management
Lieberknecht and Fritsch just have to take a look at their neighbors in Frankfurt. A small selection: Against Mainz (1:1), the SGE felt treated unfairly when Ansgar Knauff was sent off; in the 1:1 against Bochum, not every referee would have whistled the penalty caused by Omar Marmoush. This Sunday, Freiburg’s Lukas Kübler brought down Aurelio Buta in the penalty area. There was no whistle – a scene that has already been interpreted differently. Was Eintracht now the “smaller” club in the duels? Hardly likely.
With conspiratorial formulations, the lilies walk a fine line. Because the entirely appropriate part of the criticism is completely lost when it is exaggerated. It may be bitter at the moment that SV 98 is still without a win despite always having good phases in the games. But the bottom line is that it performs well. And if the team continues like this, the club’s vacation in the Bundesliga will end on May 18, 2024. Neither higher powers nor a bartender are to blame for this.
2023-09-24 16:34:17
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