Two faces of the crisis: Bundesliga stars expose their club's main issue | OneFootball

"The team, the we, comes before everything," were the words former Wolves coach Daniel Bauer used in January to explain why top scorer Mohamed Amoura was missing from the squad. Last weekend against Bayern, he was left out again, and Lovro Majer was once more absent from the starting lineup. Both cases highlight Wolfsburg’s biggest problem.

Amoura may deliver goals on the pitch, but in training he also keeps showing signs of indiscipline. According to 'kicker', Amoura had clashed with Leandro Paredes before the match against Bayern, who was also left out of the squad. "In situations like these, there are no two opinions: discipline has to be there, and in that moment in training, it wasn’t," current Wolfsburg coach Dieter Hecking told 'Sky'.

After a similar incident in January, it was the second such squad suspension of the season. According to 'kicker', Amoura had also "gotten into a serious altercation with full-back Joakim Maehle" toward the end of last season.

The striker, who has at least scored eight goals in this crisis-hit campaign — in which Wolfsburg slid into a relegation battle despite spending 68 million euros on transfers (source: transfermarkt.de) — is a constant source of unrest and can hardly be good for the atmosphere in the squad.

📸 Stuart Franklin - 2026 Getty Images

Majer struggling on the pitch

The situation with Lovro Majer is different: the versatile Croatian has only completely fallen out of favor under Hecking. Under the 61-year-old, he has played just 106 minutes. In the brutal relegation battle, the experienced coach is relying on other players. It is actually crazy, considering Majer, with a reported transfer fee of 25 million euros, is still the third-most expensive signing in the club’s history.

In truth, Majer has never really lived up to that fee. In his first VfL season, he managed five goals and five assists, which was fairly respectable, but the year after that he was almost entirely absent due to muscle injuries. This season, he recorded five goal contributions in the first half, but since matchday 17 he has been waiting for another.

Although Wolfsburg can still be directly relegated on the final matchday and must face bottom side St. Pauli, who are level on points, transfer rumors emerged during the week. A departure is said to be a done deal. Croatian newspaper 'Jutarnji list' named numerous European hopefuls — Eintracht Frankfurt, Como, Napoli, Ajax and Villarreal — as potential new clubs, and also mentioned a possible, comparatively low fee of ten to twelve million euros.

The timing of this rumor, so shortly before the decisive game, is of course disastrous for Wolfsburg. The clubs mentioned as possible destinations are also unlikely to have much interest in their interest becoming public, which quickly led to speculation that Majer’s agents had leaked the names in order to put him in the shop window as a transfer target.

📸 Daniela Porcelli - 2026 Getty Images

And that brings us to Wolfsburg’s biggest problem. The club has far too many players in the mold of Amoura and Majer. Players who cost a lot in transfer fees but only see the club as a springboard to somewhere else. Players who too often fail to deliver on the pitch, yet still immediately dream of their next club instead of building something with their current one — or at least helping clean up the mess first. Players who do not identify with their club and therefore do not step up in times of crisis.

Expectations not met

That is why, despite major investment, Wolfsburg have finished 12th twice, 11th once, and 11th again over the past five years. Now, at best, the relegation playoff spot is still within reach. In the process, the club burned through young coaches such as Mark van Bommel, Florian Kohfeldt and Paul Simonis in a very short space of time. Even experienced managers like Niko Kovač and Ralph Hasenhüttl ended up despairing over time.

Last weekend against Bayern, Wolfsburg showed what should actually have been possible with the quality in the squad. According to expected goals, they should have won the game 3.88 to 1.97. But the real result was 0-1. And there have been far too few performances that gripping this season. Or rather, only one.

At VfL, the team, the collective, simply does not come before everything. At least not for enough players. If the Wolves want to break out of this spiral, they will have to rely in future on professionals who do not see Wolfsburg as just a brief stopover, but who want to build something in Lower Saxony and identify with the club.

That, however, is only the medium-term solution. In the short term, Dieter Hecking has to make sure he finds the right players in the current squad to somehow prevent relegation. So that he does not become the next experienced coach to despair at this collection of individualists.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 RONNY HARTMANN