At the beginning of the new week, Hertha BSC will still be dealing with their own harmlessness as they come to terms with their 2-0 derby defeat at 1. FC Union.
The Hungarian also experiences the “honest dialogue” that Pal Dardai has with Hertha’s professionals after every game in his private life. A defeat in the derby, the second in the fifth Bundesliga duel between the two unequal clubs, is naturally more painful than a defeat in Hoffenheim, Dardai said on Sunday: “There I go out into my garden, and then the old neighbour comes with the dog, and there comes the nasty criticism straight away.” But because the gentleman from next door “immediately offers congratulations” when he wins, a move is not an issue in Dardai’s house.
A topic for the next few days, on the other hand, is and will remain the harmless, in parts despondent performance on Saturday evening at the city rivals from Berlin-Köpenick. Hertha was still well served with the 0:2. “They are good at the moment and doing really well,” said Dardai about Union. “We’ll keep working. We set out to build a new team and a new mentality.” Setbacks are priced in there, though possibly not with this frequency.
Vorn you need that freshness. It wasn’t there somehow.
The 0:2 in the derby reminded Dardai in many ways of the 0:2 defeat at TSG Hoffenheim three weeks earlier. Offensively, Hertha did not come into its own in either game. Dardai was a little puzzled about the reasons on Sunday: “We only practised offensively last week and trained a lot of finishes. Still, you t see much. I asked the boys if we had practised too much. The team was not lively. You need this liveliness, this dynamism for the offensive game. You need that freshness up front. Somehow it wasn’t there. Whether it was because of the derby, because of the attention, whether we trained too much, too little, which can’t really be the case – we have to have an honest dialogue together again.”
On Saturday he addressed a few sentences to his players in the dressing room after the final whistle, on Sunday he left them alone, Monday is free. “In the re-analysis” on Tuesday, Dardai wants to “be honest” and hear feedback from the team.
Dardai also “didn’t like the body language “
The topics that Dardai and his staff have been working on have been the same for months: finding and building a new axis, body language (“I didn’t like it against Union”), communication, behaviour when standards are set, offensive automatisms. The learning curve is flatter than many in the club might have hoped. But the coach is constantly preaching patience. He says that the team is “not yet stable enough” after the turbulent years and the recent upheaval in the summer: “When a child rides his bike to school alone for the first time, as a dad you follow behind and watch – until the child says: Dad, that’s enough. We are in a phase where we are not yet so stable. After the third matchday, we said: new squad, new team, new system – and we scored well for that.”
The 0:2 at Union, which does not even adequately reflect Hertha’s lack of chances, was in Dardai’s view “not due to the system”, nor “to the mentality”. His interim balance after 13 points from twelve games: “We’re not that bad if you look at the development since Matchday 3. But yesterday it wasn’t enough offensively. Which offensive player was good for us? Who dribbled out one or two?” The stats – sprints, tackles, mileage – “fitted”, and yet, “offensively it was too thin. “
Is Jovetic an option again against Augsburg?
There was too little action on the wings, Suat Serdar received no creative support in the centre, and in attack Dardai is casting about on the fly because none of the contenders for the centre-forward position has so far proved to be a permanent solution. Stevan Jovetic, who was successful as a nine before the international break against Leverkusen (1:1), was indisposed after another positive Corona test in the derby. Whether he will return next Saturday against FC Augsburg is open. “We’ll wait for the test results,” said Dardai on Sunday, “and he’ll have to train a bit as well. “
He has already written off Vladimir Darida, who is suffering from a hamstring injury: “Vladi will stay at the Da Vinci next week. Against FCA, it will essentially be up to those who were hardly able to do anything in possession against Union to fix things.
