“Don’t lose an inch”
For promoted Eintracht Braunschweig, the return to the 2nd Bundesliga could not have started worse. In the first four games, the “lions” suffered four defeats and also didn’t have a goal of their own. After that, the Lower Saxony caught themselves, who left the last place in the table from the beginning after eleven matchdays and are now in twelfth place. On top of that, only leaders Hamburger SV are currently in better form than Eintracht, who have been unbeaten for five games.
“We are on a good way. But it’s brutally tight, we can’t let up an inch and have to stay humble. We haven’t achieved anything,” emphasized coach Michael Schiele in an interview with “Kicker”. The 44-year-old, who has been on the sidelines since June last year, sees the current placement as “a nice snapshot” and says he is “glad that we’ve arrived in the league”. In the meantime, he rejected doubts about his team’s suitability for the second division. “It was clear that a promoted team would not succeed in everything in the first few games. But it was a real shame that almost everything would go against us,” he said. Schiele highlighted the activities on the transfer market after the start of the season as one of the reasons for the change.
The signings of defensive players Nathan de Medina (24) and Filip Benkovic (25) on Deadline Day are “building blocks that immediately provided more stability”, and the arrival of the two would also have led to the pressure being relieved on other players . De Medina and Benkovic are two of a total of 11 signings at Eintracht, who put up €500,000 for de Medina and Luc Ihorst (22), while six players came on free transfers and three on loan. In return, nine professionals left the club without providing any income. The club’s top scorers Anthony Ujah (31) and Immanuel Pherai (21), each with four goals in the league, have proved to be lucky finds. The latter, the best Eintracht scorer with an additional three assists, was recently one of the winners in the market value update for the second division, which saw him rise by EUR 300,000 to EUR 1 million. “His development is nice, other players have also made great strides forward,” stressed Schiele.
When asked about his own position in the bumpy start of the season, the trainer said: “The fact that the club was absolutely calm and reliable even during the difficult phase is a big plus. Managing Director Peter Vollmann remained calm and gave me the confidence that we could do it together. He too had seen that we weren’t missing much from a goal and the points. The same also applies to the Supervisory Board. But I don’t take that for granted.” Schiele, who has an average of 1.61 points after 51 games as Eintracht coach, still has a contract until the end of the season.
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