In his debut as Wolfsburg coach, Florian Kohfeldt pushed the right buttons straight away. The statements of his professionals also make clear why the quick dismissal of his predecessor Mark van Bommel was apparently indeed unavoidable.
Wolfsburg’s sudden relief was most evident in Maximilian Arnold’s exuberant goal celebration. The midfielder’s goal to make it 2-0 in Leverkusen effectively sealed VfL’s first victory after eight games without a win. “An unbelievably good feeling,” Josuha Guilavogui confirmed after the final whistle. And the perfect debut for new coach Florian Kohfeldt. One or two Wolfsburg players nevertheless had to deal with an emotional mix in the catacombs of the BayArena. That, too, was most evident in the example of Arnold. The 27-year-old was careful not to say anything that could be interpreted as a dig at Kohfeldt’s predecessor Mark van Bommel. So Arnold formulated: “It’s never nice when you’re partly responsible for the coach being kicked out.” And: “Now everyone says it’s connected with the change of coach. I wouldn’t make it quite that simple. You never know how it would have gone if he (van Bommel, editor’s note) had still been coach.” In front of the ZDF camera, Arnold even called it “sickening” that a coach had to leave after such a short time in office, which promptly earned him a gentle rebuke from sports director Marcel Schäfer: “Maxi is well advised to concentrate on his tasks. He did that very well today… “
The reverse is obvious: Van Bommel’s ideas blocked the team
In the context of his other statements on Saturday, it can be ruled out that Arnold actually wanted to criticise the club management for the quick change of coach. Rather, it was probably a matter of expressing his thoughtfulness about the general practices of the industry. At the same time, it was clear from the words of the VfL record player what must have prompted those responsible to pull the ripcord surprisingly early. Kohfeldt, Arnold remarked, had “provided an important impulse”. Specifically: “He brought in the intensity against the ball that distinguished us last year.” Arnold went on to say that a coach must “announce this quality, demand it, even demand it loudly. Then it is transferred to the team and to each individual. It’s a change in philosophy, you’ve seen that.” The reverse conclusion is obvious: if a new coach can re-establish the aforementioned virtues – “our DNA”, according to Guilavogui – virtually in the blink of an eye, then that means Van Bommel must have really blocked the team with his substantive ideas. Kohfeldt was “immediately in our head”, “it was a head problem beforehand”, adds Guilavogui, who points out another possible shortcoming of his predecessor between the lines: “Kohfeldt knows the Bundesliga. He knows exactly how he wants to play. “
“He wants an emotional team, and that’s how he is himself “
Striker Lukas Nmecha provided further confirmation: “The coaches are very different. With Florian Kohfeldt, it was very much about intensity. He also brings that to his meetings, and we needed that. He wants to have an emotional team, and that’s how he is. It’s a good feeling on the pitch.” And, “You wonder why it wasn’t like that before.” Schäfer doesn’t know the answer to that either, at least officially. He merely states: “We are talking about things that the team has excelled at over a very long period of time and that you can influence at any time: Body language, intensity, the willingness to push the limits. If we then lose these virtues over a longer period of time, it leads to us analysing the situation in the sporting management. We have seen what that has led to. And we always make decisions out of complete conviction. In one direction or the other. “
A double confirmation for Schmadtke and Schäfer
The rapid transformation of their team in the performance in Leverkusen can therefore be chalked up as confirmation for Schäfer and managing director Jörg Schmadtke in two respects. On the one hand, it shows that they made a capital error of judgement in opting for van Bommel last summer, which remains inexplicable from the outside. On the other hand, however, they were also right to make a consistent correction. This does not necessarily say anything about Kohfeldt’s long-term work. The football coach himself is detached enough to state: “In the first game there is always a small special effect that I don’t want to lie about. The demand on us has to be that we keep it up. I don’t want to spread euphoria now.” Nevertheless, the conditions are good for Kohfeldt’s premiere in Wolfsburg to be the beginning of a success story. Both psychologically and tactically, with the switch to a three-man backline, the football coach immediately helped his out-of-sorts professionals to gain security and stability. If this is accompanied by further successes in the upcoming games against Salzburg and Augsburg, the coach’s credibility and authority within the team can quickly solidify. Kohfeldt has amply demonstrated that he also stands for a functioning offensive plan over a long period of time during his time in Bremen. And given the quality of Wolfsburg’s squad, it should hardly take more than the ingredients mentioned above to achieve a successful result.
