All about the next opponent: Interview with Bochum fan Sarah

The bot­tom-of-the-table VfL Bochum appears to be an easy oppo­nent hea­ding to the Neckar­sta­di­on on Saturday—but they recent­ly sur­pri­sed under their new coach. We spo­ke with VfL fan Sarah about the situa­ti­on “anne Cas­tro­per”.

With the Red Stri­pe: Hel­lo Sarah, and thank you for taking the time to ans­wer our ques­ti­ons. After the dra­ma­tic play­off sur­vi­val via a penal­ty shoo­tout against Düs­sel­dorf, VfL is once again in a rele­ga­ti­on batt­le this sea­son and has alre­a­dy made their first coa­ching chan­ge. Is the club sim­ply not finan­ci­al­ly strong enough for the Bun­des­li­ga, or do you see mista­kes being made by the manage­ment?

Sarah: I have to say that finan­ci­al­ly, even in year four, we are still trai­ling at the very bot­tom of the league, even behind some second-divi­si­on teams. With this bud­get, ever­y­thing has to go per­fect­ly. Still, I had hoped we could com­pe­te bet­ter with Kiel and Pau­li by this point.

In the sum­mer, VfL let go of key play­ers from last sea­son, inclu­ding ex-VfB play­ers Kevin Stö­ger and Taku­ma Asa­no as well as Patrick Oster­ha­ge, and brought in free agents like Sis­so­ko and de Wit. Do you see the team as stron­ger or wea­k­er com­pared to last sea­son?

I see poten­ti­al in some of the new arri­vals, like Sis­so­ko and also Boadu (unfort­u­na­te­ly inju­red). De Wit hasn’t con­vin­ced yet, but I hope that chan­ges. Play­ers like Stö­ger and also Schlot­ter­beck are missed. Still, last season’s squad only nar­row­ly avo­ided rele­ga­ti­on; we were prac­ti­cal­ly gone. What’s miss­ing for me is a tech­ni­cal­ly strong playmaker—Daschner hasn’t sho­ne so far. We’ve also lost fast win­gers becau­se Zeid­ler didn’t prio­ri­ti­ze them. Abo­ve all, the team doesn’t seem cohe­si­ve.

As men­tio­ned, Peter Zeid­ler is alre­a­dy a thing of the past, and Die­ter Hecking is now tas­ked with saving Bochum. What’s your take on the decis­i­on to bring in Hecking?

Zeid­ler was a poor fit tac­ti­cal­ly. The dia­mond for­ma­ti­on and high pres­sing didn’t suit the squad or the rele­ga­ti­on batt­le. At first, it loo­ked okay, but oppon­ents just had to wait for us to lose the ball and exploit the huge gaps. By the 60th minu­te, many play­ers were exhaus­ted. That was down to the style of play. Wit­hout fast win­gers, we lost a cru­cial strength. On top of that, some play­ers were pla­ced in posi­ti­ons whe­re they weren’t com­for­ta­ble and under­per­for­med.

Die­ter Hecking is the right type of coach, I’m sure of that. Back to basics, more compactness—he’ll give the team con­fi­dence and won’t expe­ri­ment too much.

Was any­thing noti­ceable in the respec­ta­ble 1–1 draw against defen­ding cham­pi­ons Lever­ku­sen regar­ding Hecking’s plans and goals?

Hecking’s plan will likely be simp­le play, stay­ing more com­pact at the back, and rely­ing on coun­ter­at­tacks again. He’ll incor­po­ra­te fast play­ers both defen­si­ve­ly and offensively—look at Holt­mann and Oer­mann. The coach exu­des calm­ness, which is exact­ly what a shaken team needs.

Do you think he can keep VfL up, and what’s your gene­ral sea­son pre­dic­tion at this point?

I defi­ni­te­ly belie­ve Hecking can make an impact. But the league is strong, and the gap is alre­a­dy lar­ge. St. Pau­li is doing very well—I’m not sure it’ll be enough for us. At the moment, I fear we might say good­bye to the league. But we’ll go out with digni­ty. I’d also like to see Hecking stay on and extend his con­tract regard­less. I think he could build some­thing here, espe­ci­al­ly with his focus on young play­ers.

During the inter­na­tio­nal break, it was announ­ced that VfL would allow goal­kee­per Manu­el Rie­mann to par­ti­ci­pa­te in trai­ning again. What’s your take on him, and what impact do you think this will have on the team?

Manu­el Rie­mann has always been a pola­ri­zing figu­re but was a key play­er in our first years after pro­mo­ti­on, despi­te his cha­rac­te­ristic blun­ders. The who­le saga was incre­di­bly unfort­u­na­te, espe­ci­al­ly the exter­nal com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on. Now a public legal dis­pu­te with play­er state­ments, etc., has been avo­ided, which is good. I hope he inte­gra­tes well. I assu­me he’ll start out sit­ting on the bench as the third-choice kee­per. But who knows…

What are VfL’s strengths and weak­ne­s­ses at the moment?

Strengths: It’s hard to pin­point after such a his­to­ri­cal­ly poor start. Pro­ba­b­ly that the team is bet­ter than they’ve shown so far. And that we never give up at VfL. The past few years have shown that ever­y­thing is deci­ded in the end.

Weak­ne­s­ses: The defen­se remains very vul­nerable. A crea­ti­ve play­maker is miss­ing. And our set-pie­ces are, to put it mild­ly, a work in pro­gress. That needs to chan­ge. Wittek’s cor­ners and free kicks have been com­ple­te­ly inef­fec­ti­ve so far. Set-pie­ces could be a valuable wea­pon in a rele­ga­ti­on batt­le.

Final­ly, your pre­dic­tion for Bochum’s lin­e­up and the result?

Lin­e­up: Dre­wes — Pass­lack, Oer­mann, Medic, Wit­tek, Holt­mann — Bero, Los­il­la, Sis­so­ko — Hof­mann, Brosch­in­ski.
Pre­dic­tion: 1–1.

Note: This inter­view was trans­la­ted from Ger­man via ChatGPT

Pic­tu­re: © Pho­to by Leon Kuegeler/Getty Images

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