After the tenth competitive game without a win in a row and the crash in the Bundesliga, TSG Hoffenheim has parted ways with coach André Breitenreiter, according to media reports.
The Nagelsmann curse has also been fatal to André Breitenreiter: the month-long downturn at TSG Hoffenheim has apparently cost the coach of the Bundesliga soccer club his job. According to information from “kicker” and “Bild”, the 49-year-old was released the day after the disastrous 2: 5 (0: 3) at VfL Bochum. There was initially no official confirmation.
This means that the third successor to the former successful coach Julian Nagelsmann also has to leave early. Breitenreiter only came to the “Dorfklub” at the beginning of the season with advance praise from the Swiss champion coach (FC Zurich).
The ambitious Hoffenheim team have been waiting for a threesome since mid-October, and TSG has been without a win for ten competitive games. Still in fourth place after the tenth matchday, the club of majority owner Dietmar Hopp slipped deep into the bottom of the table. Breitenreiter seemed increasingly at a loss. There was supposed to be a liberation in Bochum, but after the smack, which according to sports director Alexander Rosen was “out of the question”, it was all about width riders.
The special? The crash is not new. “In a period of twelve months we are experiencing the same situation for the second time,” emphasized Rosen. Last year, TSG under Sebastian Hoeneß was still on course for the Champions League on matchday 25 before collapsing completely. After nine games in the end of the season without a win, Hoeneß had to vacate his post because Hopp would like to see his club continuously in international business. Alfred Schreuder therefore had to take his hat off to Hoeneß.
This time, however, the T-question fell short, according to Rosen. Because despite the change of coach, one part has remained the same, “and that’s the club. They’re protagonists, that’s a management like me.” He takes himself “in full” because: “If it happens in these extremes, we may have to ask ourselves bigger questions.”
TSG Hoffenheim stumbles through the league like a relegated team
As in the past season, Hoffenheim are again struggling with long-winded personnel worries, and top performers such as defense chief Kevin Vogt have been absent for weeks. Why is that? “I don’t have an answer,” said the sports director (still) helplessly: “We have a different setting, we have other players. Why is this happening?”
One thing is clear: the team under Breitenreiter has been missing the basics for too long, rarely acted at “an expected basic level” and hardly called up their undeniable qualities. Since the 3-0 win at bottom side Schalke 04, the team have only picked up two measly points and were also eliminated in the DFB Cup in Leipzig (1-3).
If TSG initially showed their best “Champions League face” like last year, they are currently stumbling through the league like a relegated team. “Somewhere in between,” speculated sports director Rosen, “there has to be a truth – and there have to be answers.”
The first was on Sunday.