One day after the exit from the DFB Cup, Bo Svensson resigned as coach of FSV Mainz 05. On Thursday evening, the Dane resigned from his position after a conversation with sports director Christian Heidel and sports director Martin Schmidt. U-23 coach Jan Siewert will take over until further notice; He will lead the team into the Bundesliga game against RB Leipzig on Saturday (3:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky).
This means that the message that Heidel had only announced on Monday at the general meeting is lost: journalists no longer dared to ask him the coaching question because they knew full well that it would not be asked. Two days later, only half of this confession remained. Sports director Schmidt said after the 3-0 loss at Hertha BSC whether Svensson would still be on the bench against RB Leipzig. He couldn’t answer yes or no. That depends on the result of the analysis. It seemed impossible that this would happen for Svensson.
On the one hand, there are the facts: bottom of the Bundesliga with three points. Failed in the second round of the cup against a second division club. Haven’t won a championship game since April. On the other hand, the low-energy impressions that the team, the coach and the sports management convey. Nothing remains of the football propagated by Svensson, which brought success back and prevented relegation after he took office in January 2021.
There may be many reasons for this, including the numerous, sometimes lengthy, injury-related absences that pushed the squad to its limits. For two years, the 05ers had done very well by working with a manageable number of professionals. Consciously, as they always assured, because they wanted to keep the competition high, make all players feel needed and not have half a dozen players sitting in the stands in a bad mood every week.
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Apparently it was different: “We can’t afford a bigger squad,” said Heidel on Monday, dispelling the “We are not forced to sell players” mantra: Selling Anton Stach in the summer was essential from an economic point of view. Svensson is not to blame for this. However, the coach was no longer able to give his completely unsettled team the impulses they needed to regain their old stability and belief in themselves in order to survive in the fight against relegation. The 2-2 draw in Bochum was a low point, the 3-0 draw in Berlin was a revelation.
“I have been a Mainzer for 16 years”
“It is very difficult for me to say goodbye, but I have the feeling that now is the time,” the club quoted the outgoing coach as saying in a statement. “I have been from Mainz for 16 years. Unfortunately, due to sporting developments, the time has come to realize that no individual is above the club and that all forces must now be pooled together to master the sporting situation.”
Peter H. Eisenhuth, Mainz Published/Updated: Peter H. Eisenhuth and Mina Marschall, Mainz Published/Updated: Recommendations: 17 Peter h. Eisenhuth, Mainz Published/Updated: Recommendations: 2
Mainz 05 owes a lot to Svensson, “especially the fact that we are still playing in the Bundesliga,” said Heidel, who regretted that a point had now been reached “where it might be better to take a new path. Bo developed this feeling himself and shared it with us. I take my hat off to his openness and his connection to Mainz 05.”
