VfB Stuttgart is the big loser of the 21st matchday. Chairman Thomas Hitzlsperger takes the team to task in an unusually clear manner.
When Thomas Hitzlsperger publicly accuses the team in such a way, it is proof enough of the situation in which VfB Stuttgart have found themselves. After the 2:3 against Eintracht Frankfurt, the fifth defeat in the last six games (with a 0:0 in Fürth), the usually so level-headed CEO became unusually clear.
“It’s clear that the team is struggling with the league situation and can’t play freely. You can see some of the potential that is there. But it is not enough to have potential,” Hitzlsperger warned in front of running cameras on the stadium’s own TV and in front of club supporters. “We have to be able to overcome opposition, to cope with 17th place, and we have to risk more again. “
Hitzlsperger upset: “There is no spirit of Marbella “
Because their rivals scored in succession at the weekend, VfB are now four points off the relegation places, and among the teams in front of them, only Hertha BSC have a worse goal difference. The third relegation since 2016 seems ever closer.
“Frankfurt are a good team, but they could have been beaten,” Hitzlsperger said to applause from the audience. “If we continue like this, we will get massive problems. That’s simply not enough. “
The winter training camp in Spain did not have the hoped-for effect either, Matarazzo’s eleven played too mindlessly against Frankfurt, even though they twice came back from a deficit. “There is no spirit of Marbella,” said Hitzlsperger, upset. “There was hard training in Marbella, that was important, that was the basis. But we are seeing right now that the players are not able to call that off. “
Hitzlsperger: “… then the boys are out of place “
What Hitzlsperger, who will vacate his post later this year, demands from the players now: more defensibility, more personal responsibility, more performance for the advance laurels they received. “Our job is not to motivate the team. The boys want to play successful football, they have to motivate themselves. If they can’t do that, they’re out of place, out of place at all in the profession they’re in. “
With 13 games remaining, there are “still good opportunities to get out of it”, Hitzlsperger said. “But the players have to realise that they have to invest more and that they shouldn’t wait for someone to motivate them, that they shouldn’t wait for someone to help them do the right thing, but that they should take responsibility themselves. “
