Sent away the wrong players
The test match took place two days after striker Pascal Testroet said goodbye. The top scorer didn’t fit into the coach’s system, Sandhausen was happy and also held the class thanks to the Testroet goals. Aue, on the other hand, was suddenly without his life insurance because top striker No. 2, Florian Krüger, had been sold to Bundesliga club Arminia Bielefeld. A suitable replacement was never found. Also the secret defense chief Steve Breitkreuz was chased off the court, found a new stable in Regensburg and shone as a central defender with three goals in 26 appearances.
It wasn’t the first time that Aue got completely off the mark when it came to personnel planning, but this time the serious mistakes did not go unpunished.
The table doesn’t lie
The pals’ club languished in the bottom of the table throughout the season and were only not on the relegation or relegation zone on the first three matchdays and after a short high on matchdays 14 and 15. The raw numbers don’t lie. The Erzgebirge conceded more goals than any other team in the league (69). In addition, most of the big chances were allowed for the opponents. It’s also lacking in attack. With 31 goals scored, they are below average (45). No team recorded fewer corners and only Hannover 96 scored fewer goals from dead balls than FCE.
Also significant: Aue is at the bottom of the fair play table – with four red cards and 89 yellow cards. The violets are only up front with the joker goals, with no other team did the substitutes hit more often. However, that does not mean that the coaches had a lucky hand with the starting eleven.
Three coaches, three flashes in the pan
Speaking of coaches: In terms of the number of coach changes, the “Violets” are ahead with Aleksey Shpilevski, Marc Hensel and Pavel Dotchev. All three share a stable phase at the beginning, which was followed by a dramatic slump.
The Shpilevski project had already failed after seven match days and zero wins. Leonhardt, Voigt and Marc Hensel have to blame themselves for the bad purchase. They all agreed at the time to sign an inexperienced coach who knows neither the environment nor the league. After Shpilevski, Aue relied on the club’s internal solution with Hensel and also signed Pavel Dotchev officially as director of sport. The change of coach seemed to be working. With ten points from four games against Ingolstadt, Hannover, Heidenheim and Rostock, Aue jumped from the bottom of the table.
Change without effect
But that was just a flash in the pan. From then on it went steadily downhill. Instead of concentrating on the essentials, Hensel felt disadvantaged by the referees in almost every game. The results were catastrophic and after the eighth defeat in the ninth game, Aue slipped to the bottom of the table for the first time since the tenth game day. Terminus for Hensel, with a lousy record of only three wins and two draws in 16 games. Hensel had failed. Now Pavel Dotchev was officially allowed on the coaching chair.
Did Dotchev fail as sporting director?
Nothing really changed after that either. Aue lost regularly, sent signs of life from time to time and was unlucky. The dilemma with late goals conceded ran like a red thread through the season. In addition, the team often only woke up when they were already behind. When Dotchev took over, the child had long since fallen into the well. But what he has to ask himself: Has he failed as a sports director?
He was responsible for newcomers in winter – and they flopped. Jann George (came from Regensburg) has nine appearances and zero goals. Prince Osei Owusu (from Paderborn) scored twice in 17 games, but did his team a disservice with a red card after seven minutes against Ingolstadt. In hindsight, Dotchev has to ask himself why Terrence Boyd from Hallesches did not end up in the Erzgebirge but in Kaiserslautern.
It was just one building block of many that didn’t fit this season. Too much went wrong. Even off the pitch. The death of a club legend Gerd Harmful shocked all Aue. The XXL lock against Clemens Fandrich also caused unrest and finally had to be a regular keeper Martin Mannel (knee IO) end the season early. Aue was spared nothing this season and felt the displeasure of the fans. Also because the general meeting is not planned until the second half of the year. It would certainly have been possible before the start of the new season.
Reboot with eleven “oldies”?
The fact is: In Aue you have to draw the right conclusions and avoid recent mistakes. The FCE now needs the right people in terms of character, must strengthen the sporting competence in their own club and bind players who fit into the Ore Mountains. Local heroes are one way. Just like in 2016, when the direct resurgence was successful. At that time, Männel, Breitkreuz and Tiffert formed an important axis. Dotchev started as a coach. He knows how to do it. With the right people in the right places. Making yourself scarce doesn’t make a good impression. Neither the President nor the Managing Director were present in Darmstadt. A strong sign looks different.
And it is doubtful whether it is an advantage that eleven players in this team have a valid contract. Seven of them have only been on brief assignments. You almost have to hope that some people will throw in the towel themselves and give Aue some leeway to put together a team that has serious chances of playing direct resurgence. Otherwise it will probably be pretty gloomy in the shaft for the foreseeable future.
These players are on contract beyond the season
Tim Kips, Philipp Riese, Tom Baumgart, Antonio Jonjic, Martin Männel, Jann George, Soufiane Messeguem, Anthony Barylla, Omar Sijaric, Ramzi Ferjani, Jannis Lang
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Source: MDR