Before the match in Freiburg, Gerardo Seoane raves about his Freiburg colleague Christian Streich and calls for his team to be more cool-headed.
When Gerardo Seoane experienced his first days as coach of Bayer 04 Leverkusen in July, he had a formative experience in Wattens, Austria, when he was welcomed into the circle of Bundesliga coaches by Christian Streich before the test match against SC Freiburg.
An encounter that made the now 43-year-old go into raptures before Sunday’s guest game in Freiburg. Streich is “a fantastic coach who gets more than the maximum out of SC Freiburg”, Seoane praised his colleague on Friday, but then highlighted an extra-sporting aspect even more: “What is particularly impressive is the human component. I was allowed to meet him in the summer training camp at the test match. He received me very well. I had a very good conversation with him straight away. I believe that this personality can be a role model for everyone. “
An assessment with which Seoane is certainly not alone. In sporting terms, SC Freiburg are only two points behind the Werkself in fifth place, despite relatively modest resources. And on a personal level, Streich, who always looks beyond his own nose, regularly proves that he is a great personality in the best sense of the word.
On Sunday, Streich’s sporting skills will put Bayer and Seoane to the test. Whereby the question also arises as to how Leverkusen tackle their own naivety, which recently cost them a total of five points in both Frankfurt (2:5) and Hoffenheim (2:2) despite a 2:0 lead.
Will “one or two more tactical fouls” help?
Goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky therefore called his team “too well-behaved”. And regardless of the choice of words, Seoane, like the Finnish international, sees Bayer’s lack of cleverness as a problem.
“I think he wanted to say that you can also play a 2-0 lead over time by making the one or other tactical foul more or letting the time run down more, using certain means that are not necessarily always welcome but also help,” the coach interpreted his captain’s words.
We certainly need to develop a bit in that direction.
There is no question for the Swiss that his team has some catching up to do in this respect:“We certainly have to develop a bit in this direction,” he judges.
But his team does not have too much room for manoeuvre when it comes to foul play. Bayer 04 are already in last place in the Bundesliga’s fair play table: 39 yellow cards are the league’s best.
Subtle Diaby tops the sin chart
So Bayer can only afford to break up the game with tactical fouls if the sometimes unnecessary cautions are significantly cut back. Winger Diaby, for example, has already seen seven yellow cards in addition to one.
The French international leads the league’s individual rankings in terms of personal penalties. By comparison, even Robert Andrich, who is more often called upon as a stop sign as a six, and who also has a very physical style of play, has only seen the yellow card twice so far this season in addition to a red card.
Stable on a legal track: Where Freiburg can be a role model
Hradecky’s approach, supported by Seoane, is nevertheless justified in principle. But already on Sunday, the Werkself will be up against a team that provides an extremely stable defence without leaving the legal path too often. Here, too, Streich’s work can serve as a model.
On the one hand, because Freiburg, with 15 goals, has conceded eleven fewer than Bayer 04 and thus statistically puts the best defensive performance of all Bundesliga teams on the pitch. On the other hand, because in the 16 games of the first half of the season, SC received just 15 yellow cards and not a single sending-off. Also a league best.
This means a clash of opposites in Breisgau on Sunday. Seoane’s next encounter with Christian Streich should be just as interesting as his first. Whether he will remember it as positively this time also depends on the coolness of his players.
