You could see that often: how Bielefeld defended in a disciplined manner, but had problems with the ball. Ideas were often missing, sometimes luck and actually always a goal scorer. And then the set pieces. After free-kicks or corners, the team was so safe that you sometimes wondered if they even practiced that in Bielefeld?
There is a simple statistic, it tells about games and goals. And she tells a lot about Arminia Bielefeld in the 2021/22 season. For Bielefeld there is a 34, it’s the games, and a 27, it’s the goals. It’s a balance sheet that gets you down.
Eleven games without a win – from 14th down to 17th
Around the turn of the year, Arminia had the best phase of their season. Frank Kramer was still the coach at the time. Between mid-December and early February, Bielefeld played six league games – and lost none (3 wins, 3 draws).
When Gonzalo Castro also came along in this phase, an expert on the ball, although not fit to play after six months without a club, many in East Westphalia hoped to stay up in the league for a third year in the Bundesliga. It turned out differently.
A burglary, but no explanation
Bielefeld then won once, in mid-February against 1. FC Union Berlin. There were also nine defeats and three draws – it’s a slump for which there are only explanations, nothing more.
There were head injuries, with Fabian Klos, with Cedric Brunner, with Fabian Kunze, in Bielefeld they were shocked. And there was a lack of players that a team like Bielefeld shouldn’t be without.
There was the story about coach Kramer, which for a long time was about small successes and improvements until at some point nothing got any better, only worse. At some point, the coach Kramer was just an ex-coach – but it wasn’t more successful without him.
Inflatable without power
When Bielefeld was promoted to the Bundesliga two years ago, sports director Samir Arabi spoke of his team as a smart boat that had to compete with motor boats. It succeeded, the Arminia managed to stay up. A few months ago, the second half of the season had already begun and the world was still fine in Bielefeld, Arabi told the Süddeutsche Zeitung: “We now have one outboard motor, maybe even two.”
Recently, however, and Arabi will not have missed it, the outboard engine was out of order. In the past few weeks, the Arminia has looked like a dinghy without power, maybe even with a hole in the hull.
At 5.30 p.m., relegation had only been decided a few minutes ago, a game report appeared on Arminia Bielefeld’s homepage. It will be the last one from the Bundesliga for a while, but at least for a year. The headline reads: “Goodbye, Bundesliga.”