Ex-VfB coach no emergency solution
TSG 1899 Hoffenheim does not see Pellegrino Matarazzo as an emergency solution in the relegation battle and has confidently presented his new head coach. “We agreed very, very quickly that in Rino we have someone who would suit us perfectly,” said sporting director Alexander Rosen at a press conference in Zuzenhausen on Thursday. Rosen did not want to answer the question of whether the contract of Julian Nagelsmann’s former Hoffenheim assistant coach, which runs until 2025, also applies to the 2nd Bundesliga: “That’s a scenario that we don’t deal with on the 19th matchday. We are busy getting our horsepower back on the road.”
Matarazzo is the successor of André Breitenreiter in the ailing Kraichgauer, who had to go into the relegation battle after a series of nine games without a win in the Bundesliga and the crash. “We still have 15 game days. No one takes anything lightly here. On the other hand, it’s not like the season is over in two games,” Rosen said of TSG’s precarious situation, just three points short of relegation with Matarazzo’s former club VfB Stuttgart.
Matarazzo now at TSG: The Bundesliga coaches by tenure
The 45-year-old started as a youth coach in Hoffenheim and became Nagelsmann’s assistant in 2018. According to his own statement, Matarazzo has not yet read any congratulations on his new job from his friend and current Bayern coach: “I’ve already received 75 messages that I haven’t looked at yet. Maybe he has already written.”
Matarazzo starts against Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday (3.30 p.m. / Sky). “The first step is to get into the performance, to be competitive. I am very, very sure that we are on the right track. Of course, staying up in the league is the first goal – then we’ll see what’s next,” said the American with an Italian passport. During his first training session, he found the team to be “very open, very receptive, very energetic”. From the last nine games in the top 5 leagues, only Angers SCO scored fewer points than TSG (to the international form table).
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