Dieter Hecking after Myron Boadu’s spectacular hat-trick: “He provided the right answers today.” | OneFootball

VfL Bochum trainer Dieter Hecking made no secret of the fact that he found himself dissatisfied with the training performances of striker Myron Boadu at a press conference eight days ago. Speaking to embers of the assembled media at a pre-match presser ahead of the Bundesliga restart against Mainz.

Asked why he deliberately left Boadu on the bench during the final two league fixtures of the calendar year, the Revierklub gaffer launched into a long diatribe castigating the Dutchman. Hecking was in no mood to mince words.

“He must do more,” Hecking said at the time. “I’m not convinced by him at the moment. He’s not meeting my standards.

“I know that he’s a special player,” Hecking continued, “but there’s something missing from my perspective and it is such that I don’t consider him a candidate for the starting XI yet.

“He showed [in the test fixture against Almelo] that he has some quality in the box,” Hecking went on. “I take into account that he hasn’t had a lot of match practice and isn’t in rhythm.

“When he’s clicking, he can easily score a goal within ten minutes,” Hecking emphasized. “but he needs to come out of his shell and offer more in training. He’s not what I’m looking for against Mainz.

“I understand that we have a good player,” the gaffer continued. “but he must understand that I need him out of his comfort zone. If he doesn’t understand that, he’ll find it difficult with me.

“I know that this will make for headlines and I don’t care,” Hecking concluded. “He was angry after training. I’m the one’s who’s angry. No more questions. I told you what irks me.”

Hecking remained slow to welcome Boadu back into the fold, handing the 24-year-old a brief 20 minute relief shift in last Saturday’s 0-1 loss to Mainz. Boadu did not appear at all in Tuesday’s 1-0 win over FC St. Pauli.

For whatever reason, Hecking opted to hand Boadu his very first start under his coaching regime on Saturday against heavily-favored RB Leipzig. Boadu and Moritz Broschinski started in a double-striker set whilst Philipp Hofmann (scorer of the game-winning-goal on Tuesday) moved to the bench.

Even after Leipzig rushed out to a 3-0 halftime lead, Hecking allowed his two forwards to play on despite the fact that neither one of them generated a scoring chance. The VfL trainer would not regret this decision.

Boadu would record just the second hat trick of his career in sensational fashion, steering in the ball thrice in a 13-minute-span. Three goals scored in one half without interruption on the scoresheet enabled Boadu to earn the coveted German “Lupenreiner” (flawless hat-trick).

The seemingly forgotten AS Monaco loanee joins the elite company of Harry Kane. It surprises few to learn that a player of Kane’s caliber has recorded two Lupenreiners this year. Boadu,. by contrast, has shocked the German footballing world.

“I’m extremely happy,” an elated Boadu told the Sky microphones after his performance. “I’ve never experienced fans like the ones here [at Bochum’s Vonovia Ruhrstadion]. You want to do everything you can for them. You can never write off Bochum.

“The coach tells us every training session, every week, that we have to fight.” the striker also took care to emphasize. “We can play football. Next week we have to replicate this second half performance.”

Hecking’s thoughts on his player couldn’t have differed more than last week.

“He provided the right answers today,” the coach said. “I wasn’t quite sure how far he is. He’s not a champ on the training pitch, but, – when he works the way he did today – it’s hugely important for us. But the way the whole team worked in the second half was also important.”

GGFN | Peter Weis