“We lacked stability” | OneFootball

Board member for sport Markus Krösche takes stock of the season for the men’s, women’s and U19s, and acknowledges an error of judgement.

Board member for sport Markus Krösche on …

… the performance of the men’s team: “We didn’t achieve any of our stated aims for the season. That’s disappointing and, ultimately, the responsibility lies with me. Some decisions didn’t work out the way I had envisioned. In general, we started the season well, but over the months leading up to Christmas we weren’t able to produce performances, or find stability and consistency. In the end, that meant that we didn’t pick up enough points in the Champions League and the Bundesliga. Injuries in the first half of the season also contributed to the fact that we weren’t really stable and weren’t competitive in Europe.”

… winter transfers and the change of head coach: “We strengthened the squad in the winter to compensate for the injury crisis. We made a decent start to the new year against Dortmund, but unfortunately followed it up with performances against Stuttgart and in Bremen that mirrored those from the first half of the season, which led us to the decision to relieve Dino Toppmöller of his duties. I opted for an interim solution. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out either, though it wasn’t down to Dennis Schmitt and Alex Meier, because I put them in a difficult situation in which they had no real opportunity to work with the team during two weeks packed with matches. Albert Riera brought character, personality and international playing experience. But he too had very little chance of succeeding, coming in mid-season as a coach from abroad who didn’t know the language or the Bundesliga. That was an error in judgement on my part. After some respectable results and improvements defensively, we again lacked stability towards the end of the season, didn’t play good enough football and ultimately failed to pick up enough points, which is why we finished eighth.”

… conclusions: “We know what didn’t go well last season, and we’ll address those things accordingly and do everything we can to eliminate those mistakes next year so we can compete for the European places. As a team, we certainly weren’t as stable as I had expected.” 

… next season: “With next season in mind, it’s obviously important that we appoint a new head coach relatively soon. The key will be to play with a higher level of intensity again in order to create a different kind of energy within the team. Beyond that, we need to return to a balance between counterattacking football and possession-based football. To regularly compete for the European places, we need to do both.”

… the women’s team: “The women’s first team underwent a major overhaul last summer. A lot of players left the club and many new faces came in. There were a few problems at the beginning, which was completely normal. In the end, we reached the Women’s Cup semi-finals and were unfortunate to go out against Häcken after two excellent matches. Once again, we managed to finish the Bundesliga campaign in a European qualification spot. Huge credit goes to head coach Niko Arnautis, women’s football director Katharina Kiel and sporting director Babett Peter.”

… youth work: “On the whole, we’re very satisfied with our academy and believe we’re on a very, very good path. We have some really talented lads and, alongside Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, we provide the most Germany youth internationals. We had an outstanding Youth League campaign against some really difficult opponents. We were the last German team remaining in the competition. The boys gave a really good account of themselves on the European stage against top sides such as Barcelona.”