What can the players do, how can they be helped in the stress of the relegation or championship fight? The coaches of the Bundesliga are in the spotlight of the league before the 27th matchday.
Borussia Dortmund – Union Berlin (Saturday, 3.30 p.m.)
Raising the team so that the next task can be approached with fresh courage and self-confidence – Edin Terzic and Urs Fischer are facing this coaching work this weekend. Both BVB (last 2: 4 at Bayern, 0: 2 in the cup in Leipzig) and Union Berlin (0: 2 cup out in Frankfurt) must have processed the recent negative experiences before they return to the important ones on Saturday Fight for the Champions League places.
In the Bundesliga, however, Union was unscathed – even if the first 45 minutes of the last few games were not good. The luck of the game was the iron in the league hold last. With a win in Dortmund, the Fischer protégés can even climb past Borussia to second place in the table. The lead of the Irons in fifth place increased to six points on the last day of the game – the first qualification for the Champions League is becoming more and more likely.
But: In the German elite league, the Irons have all three guest appearances at BVB
lost (2:11 goals); In addition, Borussia was eliminated twice in the DFB Cup.
SC Freiburg – Bayern Munich (Saturday, 3.30 p.m.)
Christian Streich on top! The likeable coach of SC Freiburg triumphed in the cup game against Bayern on Tuesday, Freiburg won for the first time ever in Munich. In addition to Streich’s liberated laugh after his tactic (take Kimmich out of the game) his attempt at consolation after the final whistle caught the eye. Streich wanted to hug Bayern’s unlucky boy Jamal Musiala in a fatherly manner, but was rebuffed by the pissed-off youngster. The experienced coach could easily smile away.
Thomas Tuchel, on the other hand, immediately experienced the pitfalls of his new job at Bayern. The players of the record champions are not easy to lead, they sometimes lack the necessary bite. It will be very interesting to see whether Tuchel can reach his boys before another duel with the Breisgauers – he wants to see his team fight too!
Facts: SC Freiburg has been unbeaten in twelve home games, with eight home wins and four draws. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting was in Bayern’s starting XI for the first time this season in the 5-0 first-round win against Freiburg and scored 2-0. It was the first of his ten goals this Bundesliga season.
FSV Mainz 05 – Werder Bremen (Saturday, 3.30 p.m.)
Bo Svensson! We don’t know what the Mainz coach taught his players during the winter break – we only know that he obviously made the right adjustments to his team. 1. FSV Mainz is in second place behind BVB in the pure second half table, ahead of Bayern.
1. FSV Mainz 05 is unbeaten in seven Bundesliga games, scoring 17 out of a possible 21 points and has 40 points under their belt. The Rheinhessen will go into their 15th Bundesliga year in a row next summer, and the Svensson team may even be back internationally for the first time in seven years. In the second half of the season, the 05ers reduced the gap to sixth place from eleven to one point!
Ole Werner and his team from Bremen are a long way from such realms. On the Weser, there is more concern that Werder could still get into the relegation whirlpool after their intermediate high before Christmas. After the winter break, Bremen have only picked up ten points in eleven Bundesliga games and lost seven of the eleven games.
FC Augsburg – 1. FC Cologne (Saturday, 3.30 p.m.)
No one would have expected that 1. FC Köln would have to seriously look down again this season. But something has happened to FC since carnival, the top scorer diploma seems to have been handed over at some Festkommers meeting. Because coach Steffen Baumgart has of course long since recognized: “We won’t score anymore!”
FC have taken just two points (and scored just one goal) from their last six games and are currently enjoying the longest winning streak under Baumgart. No Bundesliga team is currently waiting for a win as long as 1. FC Köln!
Augsburg’s coach Enrico Maaßen is doing an excellent job – this thesis can easily be substantiated with Augsburg’s numbers: no defeat from the first five Bundesliga home games of the new year. Amazing how the Maassen
team managed this change, before the winter break they were still the weakest team at home, they only won one of eight home games and conceded almost two goals per game on average.
Bayer Leverkusen – Eintracht Frankfurt (Saturday, 3.30 p.m.)
Xabi Alonso has got Bayer back on track: since taking over Leverkusen in October 2022, only Bayern and Dortmund have scored more points than the Werkself (35 in 18 games). Another key to success is the revitalized counterattack: After Bayer failed to score in the first eight games after quick counterattacks, Alonso scored seven counterattacks – that’s top of the league.
Bayer are up front after losing the ball, but the Werkself also lost the ball at times with bitter consequences, but this weakness drove coach Alonso out of his team. Bayer conceded ten goals in the first ten matchdays after losing the ball (including two in the 5-1 defeat in the first leg against Frankfurt), since then only two in 16 games. The Spanish coach does an outstanding job on offense and defense.
Hertha BSC – RB Leipzig (Saturday, 6.30 p.m.)
If you talk about coaches, you can’t ignore the friendship between Sandro Schwarz and Marco Rose in Hertha’s game against Leipzig. From the two years together at Mainz 05 (2002 to 2004), in which the Rheinhessen in 2003/04 managed their first promotion to the Bundesliga under coach Jürgen Klopp, the two have a close friendship. Rose is even the godfather of Schwarz’s son, Schwarz by Rose’s daughter Maria; the RB coach is also the best man of the Hertha coach.
Now the buddies are meeting for the third time in the Bundesliga as coaches, Rose won the first two duels (2019/20 with Mönchengladbach against Mainz and in the first half of 2022/23 with Leipzig against Hertha).
In terms of sport, things could be better for both – Hertha has been without a win for four games and is teetering on the edge of relegation. Despite the recent cup success against BVB (2-0), Rose cannot be satisfied in Leipzig. His Leipzigers made a fool of themselves in the Champions League and recently lost far too often in the Bundesliga. In the last eight Bundesliga games, the grassball players suffered more defeats (four) than on the first 18 matchdays (three).
Boron. Moenchengladbach – VfL Wolfsburg (Sunday, 3.30 p.m.)
Daniel Farke is counted at Borussia Mönchengladbach – no question. For the first time this season, Borussia was without a win in five Bundesliga games in a row (three draws, two defeats). Observers accuse Farke of too often protecting himself in front of his players, who often made it too easy for themselves – according to the criticism.
The fact is: Mönchengladbach is the Bundesliga team with the fewest average sprints (200) and intensive runs (643) per game, Wolfsburg is at the top of both rankings: an average of 268 sprints and 802 intensive runs per game are the most in each case .
Wolfsburg’s current coach Niko Kovac has very good feelings when he enters Borussia Park. He made his debut as Bundesliga coach in Mönchengladbach, suffering a 3-0 defeat with Eintracht Frankfurt on March 12, 2016. However, things went much better in his following games in Gladbach: In the 2016/17 season, Kovac won the cup semifinals with Eintracht at Borussia on penalties, in the Bundesliga he got a 0 with SGE in October 2016: 0 and won 1-0 in September 2017. And his last guest appearance with the foals even ended with a 5-1 thrashing of his Bayern team (March 2, 2019).
VfL Bochum – VfB Stuttgart (Sunday (5.30 p.m.)
Who knows how Thomas Letsch managed to turn his VfL Bochum into a really nasty Bundesliga club again. At the beginning of the season, the Ruhrstadters looked hopeless, but in the meantime they have taught the other relegation candidates to fear, especially with their home strength. Against VfB, the Letsch team has a very good chance of taking a decisive step out of the endangered zone.
Maybe it’s the simple details that made the difference at VfL – for example the work on the standards: On the last two matchdays Bochum scored after a long throw-in; thrown both times into the opposing penalty area by Christopher Antwi-Adjei (once from the left, once from the right). Here the ball was passed on by the head and then led to goals by Erhan Masovic (against Leipzig) and Takuma Asano (in Frankfurt).
The new Stuttgart coach, Sebastian Hoeneß, faces a mega task. After 26 Bundesliga matchdays, VfB Stuttgart has only four wins under their belt, it has never been so few at this point in the season! The Swabians have lost seven of their last nine league games. After all, there was a first glimmer of hope with the cup success in Nuremberg (1-0).
TSG Hoffenheim – FC Schalke 04 (Sunday (7.30 p.m.)
Anyone who had already written off Pellegrino Matarazzo at TSG Hoffenheim was recently taught otherwise. Of the teams from the bottom half of the table, Hoffenheim was the only one to win last matchday (2-1 in Bremen). After the previous 3-1 win over Hertha BSC, TSG had two Bundesliga victories in a row for the first time since August. Coach Matarazzo can now create a premiere: three wins in a row would be a first for the coach in the Bundesliga.
The game against Schalke is undoubtedly a real “summit meeting” in the current relegation battle. While Hoffenheim finally seem to be on the right track and can use their undoubtedly playful skills, Schalke are still lacking in penetrating power. Coach Thomas Reis was not able to eliminate this problem either, but Schalke became much more stable at least defensively.
Schalke lives offensively to a large extent from set pieces, the Royal Blues scored a third of their goals (seven out of 21) from dead balls. And the team relies on commitment and duels: Reis has been the coach of the Royal Blues since matchday 12, during this period S04 played the second most duels man against man – only 1. FSV Mainz tops the team from Gelsenkirchen here.