Second win in the ninth game
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With his second win in the ninth game, coach Markus Beginn went into the winter break with Fortuna Düsseldorf on Saturday. The home win against Greuther Fürth was at least a slightly conciliatory end to the second division team’s mixed first half of the season – but the personnel at the beginning remains an issue on the Rhine. While several players spoke out in favor of the 51-year-old, many are eagerly awaiting the decision of the new sports director Sven Mislintat.
After initially taking office, Fortuna slipped even further in the table, but thanks to the threesome on Saturday, they at least temporarily left the direct relegation places again. “I think that the boys have always played good games in the last few weeks, but haven’t achieved the results. (…) The way we played football – especially in the first half – was very, very good. We also defended it passionately and well,” said the coach after the final whistle.
Beginning received support from his players. “The coach deserves this. He has set us up well week after week. He has so much energy. It’s nice that we were able to give something back in a meaningful way,” said Cedric Itten and, when asked whether he should be on the sidelines at the beginning of the new year, added: “Yes, of course! He’s doing a great job. We’ve played very good games in the last few weeks and have now finally rewarded ourselves.” And F95 keeper Florian Kastenmeier confirmed with regard to the coach: “He played a very big part in this victory.”
The threesome at the end also “naturally gathered arguments” for the new sports director Mislintat. However, when asked specifically about the coach’s future prospects and general personnel decisions, the Rhinelander’s new strong man remained tight-lipped. “After five days of insight into everything, you can forgive me for being able to take the time between the years to have all these conversations and process them very, very carefully. (…) It would be neither fair nor serious if everything were completely clear to me after just 5 days.” The new sports director’s first official act during the week was to relieve sports director Christian Weber of his duties. In the eyes of some experts, it is anything but impossible that there will be no chance of being on the sidelines at the beginning of January.
The trainer personnel is also being discussed further in the TM community. TM user “darkchampion” says: “Even if I’m not a fan of starting, I don’t think we’ll see a new coach in the short term. Why? The last three games were characterized by an upward trend, we would then already have three coaches on the payroll, the team expressed themselves positively at the beginning when asked, and why should Mislintat waste its last cartridge in the relegation battle now?” User “Davef95” is also optimistic: “I would stick with the beginning. The last few games were good, the goals were missing. It finally worked against Fürth, even if a lot of chances were squandered again. I don’t know what major changes a new coach could make now.”