The question that was on the minds of almost all journalists in Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion on Tuesday evening was: Does the coach believe that he will still be in office after the turn of the year? “Of course I believe in it,” replied Edin Terzic after his BVB’s 1-1 draw against FSV Mainz 05, the fifth Bundesliga game they had not won in a row.
Jan Siewert hasn’t won any of the last six games with Mainz, but at least the draw at the end of the year brought him the seventh point under his leadership. One can only speculate as to whether that will be enough to convince the club management to continue to rely on him in the fight against relegation. Sports director Martin Schmidt confirmed that Siewert is still in pole position, but did not reveal whether he and sports director Christian Heidel are in discussions with external candidates who can still overtake the incumbent.
Siewert himself was calm about the procedure: “I haven’t played 200 Bundesliga games before, so it’s logical that Christian and Martin take all the time in the world to watch it. It’s not about me, it’s about Mainz 05 staying in the Bundesliga.”
“I ask you to accept this”
He only let it shine through a little that he was annoyed by the questions about his future that had persisted since he took office at the beginning of November. “My future lies in going home, taking the point with me and then sitting down with Christian and Martin, as we agreed,” he said at the press conference. “I ask you to accept this and wish you a Merry Christmas.”
The mood in the team seems to be clearly in favor of Siewert. After the previous games, the players surveyed had consistently praised the 41-year-old’s work and advocated for him to stay. Stefan Bell made no exception on Tuesday, which had even more weight than the statements of some colleagues, as the central defender had only sat on the bench four times recently.
“It was difficult for me,” he said, “but I could understand it. We had only conceded three goals in six games. It’s understandable that as a coach you stay with the players. Defensively there was little to criticize.” Anyone who has seen the games since Bo Svensson moved to Siewert knows that his idea works. “We are implementing his plan,” emphasized the longest-serving Mainz professional. The performances under the former U-23 coach would have earned more than one win and four draws – “but you can’t influence from the outside whether we hit the big chances.”
Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 3 Peter H. Eisenhuth, Mainz Published/Updated: Peter H. Eisenhuth Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1
In the previous 90 minutes, Siewert would have liked a little more precision and calm as well as “sometimes opting for the easy ball” in order to score a possible winning goal from the transition attacks in the second half. That didn’t change the praise that his players had managed to pick themselves up after the 0-1 lead in the 29th minute, equalize shortly before half-time and determine the second half.
“The team has received so many blows in the neck since the start of the season and has always gotten back up,” said Siewert. In a way, the course of the game was exemplary for the month and a half under him. “Jan stabilized the team, we scored a few goals but only scored four,” said sports director Schmidt. “You can see what’s going on.” However, he didn’t promise the coach a new striker. It doesn’t matter whether his name is Jan Siewert or he has another name.
