The disappointment over the weeks with nine games without a win, a non-existent defense and the slide from fourth place in the Champions League to ninth place in the no man’s land in the table is too great.
Not with a load in the new season
So now the club management in Hoffenheim has pulled the ripcord and actually parted ways prematurely with Sebastian Hoeneß, whose employment papers were originally dated until the summer of 2023. Alexander Rosen, the director of professional football at TSG and a long-time sponsor and supporter of the young coach with the famous name, should have finally become clear on Saturday that the previous burden on the coach and club would have become too great with which the Kraichgauer in the coming season would have started. One or two defeats at the start and the trainer discussion about Hoeneß would have boiled up again immediately.
Divorce is the right decision
Therefore my opinion: The separation from Sebastian Hoeneß at this point in time is correct. Especially since too many, too big sporting question marks have appeared in the past two unsuccessful months. The blatant drop in performance since the enthusiastic performance in March in the 1-1 draw against FC Bayern is inexplicable. The defensive weakness and the flood of goals conceded by a team that – despite numerous absentees – thanks to the qualitatively broad squad always had a well-known eleven on the pitch is unbelievable.
The only constant was the inconsistency
And so the rollercoaster second half of the Hoffenheim season was representative of the two years under the coaching work of Sebastian Hoeneß: only the inconsistency was constant. Roaring winning streaks with lively attacking football alternated with frustrating weeks without success. In the end, the 40-year-old simply didn’t succeed, to put it metaphorically, in getting Hoffenheim PS on the road permanently. In the end, eleventh and ninth place are not enough to satisfy the increased expectations and longings for Europe, including those of shareholder Dietmar Hopp.
Hoeneß did a great job for the young players
But what remains is Sebastian Hoeneß’s excellent hand in developing young players. Ex-second division defender David Raum, for example, became a Bundesliga shooting star and a regular in the national team, ex-Bayer Angelo Stiller became an important part of midfield, and French striker Georginio Rutter became the team’s top scorer.
In the end, however, that was not enough to start the new season unencumbered, and the separation was inevitable. Too bad.
Source: SWR