Only an away win
Due to the 0: 3 in Bremen, VfL Bochum fell back to a direct relegation zone. There is not much left of the momentum of the last few weeks of the first half of the season.
community
Discuss VfL Bochum now in the forumThis way
Patrick Fabian has only been sporting director of VfL Bochum for six months. But the club’s long-time defender quickly learned the stylistic device of the incendiary speech. Due to the 0:3 (0:2) at Werder Bremen, Bochum fell back to a direct relegation zone in the Bundesliga for the first time in the second half of the season. VfL also played like they had been relegated on Saturday, so Fabian collected himself briefly after the final whistle, then stepped in front of the journalists – and got started. “That was not enough from the first to the last minute.” It would be difficult to score points, said the 35-year-old in the catacombs of the Weser Stadium. His list of shortcomings included: “Hardly any intensity in our game, no positive emotions.” It was “far too little from the body language, from the access, from everything. It didn’t take a great work of art from Werder Bremen to beat us clearly today.”
Those weren’t strategically chosen words from the head of sport to shake the VfL team awake ahead of the important home game against bottom-placed FC Schalke 04 next Saturday. The pros saw it the same way. Winger Christopher Antwi-Adjei warned: “You can’t survive the relegation battle like that.” And coach Thomas Letsch also said: “The way we presented ourselves today makes it difficult to win games. It’s now time to put everything to the test and reposition ourselves for the game against Schalke.”
The 54-year-old Letsch has received a lot of praise in recent weeks for how he formed a competitive rival in the relegation battle from bottom-placed Bochum, who at times even overtook supposedly better-occupied clubs like Hertha BSC or VfB Stuttgart.
Bella-Kotchap clearly ahead: the most expensive departures from VfL Bochum
VfL boss Fabian: “Away performances cannot be explained in this way”
But not much is left of the great momentum of the first half of the season. Since the turn of the year, VfL has lost five out of seven league games. The fact that this team practically only scores in their own stadium is a major competitive disadvantage. “The away performances cannot be explained in this way,” said Fabian. “In the end you’re playing eleven against eleven for two goals here too. It’s just a different stadium. I’ve never experienced presenting myself like that abroad for such a period of time. That doesn’t make it any easier, of course, because it puts you under even more pressure at home.” Bochum scored 16 of their 19 points there. They only managed to win away from home in November at FC Augsburg.
In Bremen, referee Florian Badstübner could have called off the whistle after Niclas Füllkrug made it 1-0 (29′). VfL didn’t even come close to scoring their own goal in 90 disappointing minutes. Werder was much more calm and efficient in front of 42,100 spectators. Letsch had to replace his suspended captain Anthony Losilla and his sick defender Ivan Ordets in this game. But it was very important to him not to use that as an excuse. “This game had nothing to do with players who weren’t there,” said the coach, adding: “We all lost as a team.”
shift in Bremen. #SVWBOC 3-0 pic.twitter.com/Pk8CNsaWnM
— VfL Bochum 1848 (@VfLBochum1848eV) February 25, 2023
To home page