With a new coach, VfL Bochum at the bottom of the Bundesliga should be on the mend again. Thomas Letsch started his job in Bochum on Monday.
The 54-year-old comes to Castroper Straße with the recommendation of two good seasons from the first Dutch league. There he finished fourth and sixth with Vitesse Arnhem and narrowly missed winning the cup in the 2-1 final defeat against Ajax Amsterdam in 2021.
VfL is planning long-term with Letsch
Letsch officially presented himself in Bochum on Monday: “The entire focus is now on keeping VfL in the Bundesliga. I’m firmly convinced that we can do it together. Only seven games have been played.”
In the case of VfL, however, seven games are equivalent to 20 points that you can no longer get. “I’m well aware of the table situation,” said Letsch, whose two-year contract also applies to the second division. But sometimes it’s just a “small step”.
CEO Hans-Peter Villis sees the cooperation as a long-term one: “We are absolutely convinced that we have not gotten a fireman with Thomas Letsch. We are planning the future with him.” So Letsch should have enough time to get to know his new players. Beforehand, he “got relatively little information about this. It’s important to approach the matter with an open mind,” said the new VfL coach.
Bochum has its back against the wall
After things didn’t go well for Letsch in the current season with just one win in seven games in Arnhem, he is now looking for an even bigger challenge at VfL in one of the strongest leagues in Europe. After seven match days, Bochum have only recorded a draw and thus four points fewer than Arnhem and have their backs to the wall.
In addition to the place in the table, the meager five goals scored and the 19 conceded testify that Letsch has a lot of work to do. But in Bochum he is believed to be capable of that, after all he was able to gain a lot of experience before Arnhem, not least from 2012 to 2017 in various positions at RB Salzburg and the farm team FC Liefering. According to sports director Patrick Fabian, Letsch is the “ideal solution”.
Two Champions League participants as opening opponents
It remains to be seen whether he will be the solution to the problem of imminent relegation for Bochum in the second season after being promoted back to the Bundesliga. His predecessor Thomas Reis was no longer believed to be capable of this after six defeats in a row and promptly scored the first point without him under U19 coach Heiko Butscher on the last day before the international break in a 1-1 draw against 1. FC Köln.
Enough should be added under Letsch so that VfL remains first class. Memories of his last engagement in Germany, when he was on leave in 2017 after just three games at second division club Erzgebirge Aue, should not play a role for him. The coming challenges are too big for that: In his first two games, Letsch has to deal directly with German Champions League participants. Next Saturday he goes to Leipzig, and a week later his team meets Eintracht Frankfurt at home.
Supposedly easy task in the DFB Cup
“We are confident that he will be able to give the team new impetus and achieve the turnaround,” Fabian said when he announced Letsch’s commitment. How quickly this succeeds ultimately always depends on the opponents.
Apart from the big challenge in the league, Letsch can be happy that he still has the opportunity to build on his cup successes in Arnhem with VfL. At least he has his supposedly easiest task of the coming weeks in the DFB Cup with the second round game against third division leaders Elversberg on October 18th.
