Was VfL Wolfsburg’s goalless draw against Hertha BSC already the turning point after the long series of defeats? Coach Florian Kohfeldt sees clues to this and promises “extraordinary actions” from a player who has been pale so far.
Everything looked so good at the end of October: Kohfeldt and his team won 2-0 at Bayer, followed directly by two more victories in the Champions League (2-1 against Salzburg) and the league (1-0 against Augsburg). Since then, however, there has not been a single victory. Ten games without a win and six league defeats in a row followed. But has the downward spiral already stopped after the goalless draw against Hertha BSC?
“In training and also in the Hertha game, you can see that the team is ready to fight back against the difficult phase,” Kohfeldt affirmed. “I perceive that structures are forming,” he describes the inner workings of the team.
But that also means that not everyone in the squad is happy. “One or two people sometimes get a role that they don’t really like,” the coach describes. “We have people who are supposed to lead the way and others who are no longer in those roles. That’s my appeal to the team: ‘They have to endure these things’. Now it’s about much more than the individual.”
Kohfeldt also knows, however, that draws will not be enough for VfL. But in the match against the Berliners, he says, his team was able to pick up on content “that we had set out to do”. The coach sees a “confirmation of the basic path, but there is no reason to even think: ‘Everything will be all right now’. The intensity has to remain very high that we can work our way out of this. “
The big problem remains the offensive department – last three times without scoring a goal. Luca Waldschmidt in particular has so far fallen short of expectations. Kohfeldt doesn’t believe it’s a headache with the striker. “I wouldn’t say that about Luca. He also lives from the interplay with the others, that has to find its way a bit,” said Kohfeldt and promises: “We can expect extraordinary actions from him on the pitch in the future. He is a creative player who sets the scene for his team-mates and is a goal threat himself. I read somewhere that he will take the next chance. So I’m reassured about that. “
Kohfeldt on Waldschmidt: “We can expect extraordinary actions from him “
The big problem is still the offensive department – three times without a goal in the last game. Luca Waldschmidt in particular has so far fallen short of expectations. Kohfeldt does not believe that it is a headache with the striker. “I wouldn’t say that about Luca. He also lives from the interplay with the others, that has to find its way a bit,” said Kohfeldt and promises: “We can expect extraordinary actions from him on the pitch in the future. He is a creative player who sets the scene for his team-mates and is a goal threat himself. I read somewhere that he will take the next chance. So I’m reassured about that. “
