Was the 100th for Pellegrino Matarazzo also his last competitive game as coach of VfB Stuttgart? Sports director Sven Mislintat does not issue a new job guarantee for the Italian-American for the time being.
Pellegrino Matarazzo was visibly devastated. “I’m very optimistic that the team can and will win the game – regardless of who’s on the bench,” said the VfB Stuttgart coach, looking ahead to the Bundesliga’s basement duel with VfL Bochum next Saturday.
His voice was low. Does the Italian-American possibly assume that he will no longer be there in the game between the penultimate and the last? “No. I meant that it’s not about me,” said Matarazzo after the Swabians’ 0-1 (0-0) defeat against leaders 1. FC Union Berlin on Sunday. “I’m not worried about my future.” They make others.
Mislintat on Matarazzo: “I love Rino”
Sports director Sven Mislintat, for example, who has always defended Matarazzo in his more than 1000 days as VfB coach. “I love the Rino,” Mislintat said. However, after the fourth defeat this season, he did not want to give the coach another job guarantee like the one he had given him last season. “Basically, it’s not my sole decision,” said the 49-year-old. “The trust and backing is there – even if he gets the games, 100 percent. But in the end we have to deliver too. I can’t say what that means now.” Mislintat should also discuss with CEO Alexander Wehrle how things will continue at VfB. Whether with or possibly soon without Matarazzo.
VfB are the only team without a win in the current Bundesliga season
The defeat against Union has “nothing to do with the coach,” said VfB goalkeeper Florian Müller. They were the “better team against the leaders”. And yet Matarazzo, who was on the Stuttgart bench for the 100th time in a competitive game against Köpenick, is gradually running out of arguments. VfB is the only team not to have won in the current Bundesliga season. Berlin’s Paul Jaeckel’s goal in the 76th minute on Sunday ensured that the Swabians conceded at least one goal in a row in their 26th Bundesliga home game and thus equaled Rot-Weiss Essen’s negative league record from 1970 to 1974.
Mislintat and Matarazzo understand the whistles after the Berlin defeat
Both Mislintat and Matarazzo understood the loud whistles that echoed in the stands. “We’re just as disappointed. We also want more,” said the coach, who could at least be satisfied with his team’s fighting performance this time. “The problem we have is a discrepancy between game performance and results,” said sporting director Mislintat. “And not just since today.” This discrepancy may soon become Matarazzo’s undoing.
