Despite the second division championship, the DFB Cup final and relegation in the German lower house, Mitch Kniat is no longer the coach of Arminia Bielefeld. The traditional club from East Westphalia announced this decision on Saturday to the surprise of many fans in football Germany. A commentary on three incredible years from the perspective of an Arminia fan.
Saturday morning, shortly after 10 a.m.: The first thing you look at when you get up is your cell phone. The headline of a local newspaper, “Arminia Bielefeld separates from head coach Kniat,” was at the top of the notifications, which initially made me believe that I was still dreaming. Well, admittedly: the news didn’t come as much of a surprise to the keen East Westphalia fan as it did to many outsiders.
After all, from 2023 onwards, the trainer had to deal with constant criticism of his style of play, his personnel decisions and everything else that can be criticized about a coach in professional football – even before Kniat was on the sidelines for the first of 132 competitive games. As soon as the head coach from SC Verl arrived, the complaining began in East Westphalia.
After the direct fall from the 1st to the 3rd league, OWL’s largest city almost unanimously agreed: After two cruel years, a different caliber of coach was needed than the broadly built and not particularly successful ex-footballer, who “only” had appearances in the Bremen and regional leagues, in order to stabilize the ex-Bundesliga club without valid player contracts in the third league – and who only achieved the first results of the completely newly formed DSC squad saw, he probably felt he was in the right.
Arminia sticks to Kniat – and is rewarded!
The test matches? Completely forgotten! The first competitive games went better with the 4-0 derby gala and the cup surprise against VfL Bochum, but it didn’t take long until Kniat’s team found themselves in the bottom of the league table. According to fans and the local press, the head coach was on the verge of expulsion almost every week, and Kniat repeatedly made light of his fate. The fact that there was no separation in a season that only ended with relegation because four teams behaved a little more stupidly than Arminia and Hallesche FC only hit the post in the very last second on matchday 37 at the Alm turned out to be spot on.
Because it wasn’t just those in charge in Bielefeld who saw that a coach who has a clear idea of how he wants football to be played (and successfully) is growing together with a team. Ultimately, his team lacked self-confidence, luck and quality in an extremely difficult season. It was quite obvious that even a coach of the caliber of Jürgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola wouldn’t have gotten much more out of a totally insecure team.
But while the crisis-tested East Westphalian wanted to cut off the Eschweiler native after just one season, sports director Michael Mutzel and Co. stuck with Kniat – despite the sometimes heavy criticism. This didn’t stop even when Kniat led the team, improved with clever transfers, with the game system still focused on possession of the ball from miracle to miracle in the cup. To be in the quarterfinals as a third division team? That’s simply not enough if you don’t get the most out of the league at the same time! Many Arminen, especially from Block J, which is notorious in Bielefeld, made their displeasure known with loud shouts of “Get on your knees.”
Typical Arminia: You’re on the way to Berlin and yet a change of coach is being demanded. While the rest of the third division republic shakes their heads, Arminia is playing itself into a frenzy in the cup and league, regardless of the mood that threatens to change. Kniat doesn’t manage to get his (too) numerous critics behind him, but he silences them, at least for the time being, with his confident promotion, marching through to the first DFB Cup final in the club’s history and defending his title in the Westphalia Cup.
Sure, Kniat had himself outcoached in the 4-2 defeat in Berlin, but that can happen against VfB Stuttgart and the one-time-Bayern coach Sebastian Hoeneß. The performance of a sensational season was once again demonstrated by the Bielefeld south stand at the last game of the season – but this time jokingly – shouts of “Get out on your knees.”
Arminia Bielefeld: “Get out on your knees” will remain a kind of constant topic until they stay in the league
This reputation had long since become a kind of inside joke among Bielefeld players, which the former central defender was able to support with a large portion of self-irony. After all, the Bielefeld fan scene has always stood united behind the likeable trainer, who stood in front of his team during his three-year term and also knew how to score points with convincing and authentic performances off the pitch. Nevertheless, many DSC supporters remained skeptical and – one sometimes had the impression – were almost just waiting for Arminia to be in crisis again.
It was clear that it wouldn’t be long before Bielefeld stopped tearing through German football like a frenzy. In the fall of 2025, Kniat was definitely disenchanted with the second division competition, and his changes to the system and personnel were no longer as fruitful as they had been in the previous season. For the first time in his tenure, the head coach made himself vulnerable with some of the same mistakes over and over again. A lack of counter-attack protection, a lack of penetrating power and the constant fielding of weak players allowed the fire of criticism to be reignited that had never completely gone out.
Unlike his first season at Arminia, where they repeatedly lost unfortunately and bitterly, the team’s style of play increasingly matched the result. The deserved defeats were piling up, the solutions to get something countable from tight games were dwindling. Nevertheless: Internally, the head coach remained almost untouchable despite eight games without a win in a row. In February, sports director Mutzel gave him a job guarantee until the end of the season. There followed – typical for Arminia – numerous ups and downs, which then came to a crowning conclusion in the 6-1 gala against Hertha BSC on the Alm and the relegation – it should have been Kniat’s last appearance as DSC coach.
“Get out on your knees” becomes a reality after three years
It had only been a few hours since they left the league when the first rumors about a change of coach were already doing the rounds. Every day that there was no clear commitment to the head coach, a separation became more likely – on Saturday the bomb burst, which caused significantly more surprised faces outside of East Westphalia than in Bielefeld and Co. The signs were too clear that things would not continue after the successful end to the season. The usefulness of this decision will depend above all on the successor.
Finally, Arminia had found a winning lottery ticket with Kniat: the 40-year-old stood for respectable football, was successful for large parts of his time, identified fully with the club and always impressed with his authenticity. Will Mutzel be able to pull off such a direct hit again? Because, although Kniat was always viewed critically by some of his fans, he had won over the majority of the fans. If things don’t go well at the start of the season under the successor, who will probably not be Marcel Rapp, the voices that are critical of the Kniat bang will quickly gain the upper hand on Melanchthonstrasse.
Kniat, who is reportedly on the wish list of a club from the island and Red Bull Salzburg, will make his way in football – and will almost certainly be on the sidelines of a Bundesliga club at some point.
His successful but also difficult time at Arminia probably prepared him well for this. The fact that – or so they say – it ended in an amicable and good separation only rounds off one of the most successful coaching eras in Arminia’s history after numerous DSC missteps on the coaching market!
