“The boys are done”
After slipping down to 13th place in the Bundesliga table, coach Steffen Baumgart declared a relegation battle at 1. FC Köln. “Not only are we close, we’re three points away from the relegation rank – that means a relegation battle. Anything else is window dressing,” said Baumgart (quoted via “express“) after the 0-2 defeat at Hertha BSC. The “Effzeh” has been without a win in the league for five games and has lost all of the last three duels – a novelty in relation to the German football upper house in Baumgart’s previous tenure in the cathedral city, in which he has averaged 1.41 from a total of 61 games to date counter fetched.
In an international comparison, the club is one of the weakest teams in terms of the last five games. From the top 5 leagues in Europe, only Hellas Verona and Angers SCO are worse off with zero points than Cologne, who at least managed to collect one point. In total they have 17 points after 15 games – up from 19 at the same point last season. In the end they still reached the UEFA Europa Conference League.
Baumgart also renewed his criticism from the past few weeks of the officials, who would have tied the dense game plan due to the World Cup taking place in winter, without paying attention to the strength of the people, who continuously decreased between the league and conference league. “The boys are done. I was the only one who was relatively fit. They tried everything, but it just didn’t work anymore,” said Baumgart, who also summed it up honestly: “In terms of performance, we had the opportunity to come away with more points. It’s good that we can now calm down and see what we’ve done well and badly. Then we’ll start the second half of the season with a fresh mind and want to bring back what made us stand out.”
Reis now on the Schalke bench: The Bundesliga coaches by tenure
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