The disastrous performance in the 1:4 in Mainz intensifies the negative trend of FC Augsburg. The team is performing like a relegated team: powerless and confused. Coach Markus Weinzierl’s record is alarming. But above all, manager Stefan Reuter is coming under increasing pressure.
Weinzierl had demanded activity, aggressiveness and a strong fight from his team before the game in Mainz. What he got was blind actionism, uncertainty and defencelessness. Instead of defending compactly, as Weinzierl wanted, his players ran into the opponent far in front. And they did so in such a haphazard and unsorted manner that it was easy for Mainz to overrun FCA. With his whistles, shouts and gestures on the sidelines, the coach achieved nothing for 45 minutes. “We didn’t play what we discussed. That is not acceptable,” said the dismayed Weinzierl after the final whistle.
The score was 0:3 after 26 minutes, it could have been 0:5 by the break, and Augsburg were well served with the 1:4 in the end. The lacklustre and confused performance in Mainz exacerbated the ongoing negative trend: the team has won only two of twelve games under Weinzierl. For the third time this season, FCA conceded four goals. With five goals, the attack is one of the worst in the league. Six points after nine games is the record of a relegated team. And it was not the first time that the team appeared like one on Friday.
The lousy start to the season continues the trend of recent seasons. At the general meeting on Tuesday, club boss Klaus Hofmann denounced the poor sporting performance of recent years: “We have systematically lost the habit of playing football. The board boss linked this stocktaking with clear signals to his senior sporting staff: Hofmann expressed full confidence in Weinzierl despite the false start, but he did not mention manager Stefan Reuter with a single word in his 40-minute speech.
Reuter moves further into focus
Instead, Hofmann listed a number of points of criticism that fall within the area of responsibility of the managing director of sport: the high turnover of coaches, the change of course in transfer policy, the need to catch up in scouting. Differences between Hofmann and Reuter already arose last season when it came to the evaluation of the then coach Heiko Herrlich, whom Reuter held on to for too long. The manager’s relationship with the team is also said to have suffered in recent months, according to sources close to the team. The fact that Reuter took a week-long holiday during the international break despite the precarious situation and was not back for the start of the training week before the important home match against Bielefeld did not go down well with either the team or the club.
“It would be important to have FC Augsburg in it again, where it says FC Augsburg on it. “
STEFAN REUTER
Three times FCA changed coaches in the past three seasons, but nothing got better, the problems remain the same, the mood at the club seems strained. This inevitably brings the manager into focus. The air is getting thinner for Reuter. “We cannot be satisfied with what we have been offering, what we have been playing in the last few years. We have always saved ourselves over the finishing line, but not in the way we would like to see it,” said Reuter on Friday evening, addressed to Hofmann’s criticism, and looked ahead: “It would be important that once again FC Augsburg is in it, where FC Augsburg is written on it. The way we have acted over the years has made the team excellent and popular. We have to get back to that. We are convinced that we will get there again,” Reuter emphasised. The only question is whether everyone at FCA has the conviction that this can succeed in the current constellation.