Breitenreiter before the out – heldt: “first discuss internally”

Horst heldt did not like and could not yet announce what is probably inevitable. The manager of hannover 96 walked through the catacombs of the dortmund soccer stadium on saturday, repeating the same thing over and over again in a prayer-like manner with regard to the future of coach andre breitenreiter.

"We will first discuss this internally. You can’t expect me to create clarity now. That’s not possible," said the 49-year-old after the 1:5 defeat at bundesliga leaders borussia dortmund.

At this point, it seemed only a matter of hours before the club, which finished second to last in the table, announced its separation from the coach who had been promoted to the top flight. First he had to "exchange ideas" with the two managers, club boss martin kind, who had not traveled to dortmund, and bjorn bremer, and with the committees, said heldt. Even former chancellor gerhard schroder as head of the supervisory board must surely agree. "When there is a decision, we will announce it. I ask for a little patience. Then we will create clarity when we have found clarity."

At least after the anemic performance in the 1-0 loss to bremen at the start of the second half of the season, breitenreiter, who took over in march 2017, was a coach on call. And even if his eleven presented themselves for an hour "at eye level" (breitenreiter) with BVB and as a courageously acting unit, in view of the worst interim balance in the club’s history (eleven points after 19 games) there are ultimately no sporting arguments for a "keep it up" – apart from the atmospheric storms in the leadership trio of kind, heldt and breitenreiter.

After achraf hakimi’s goal (24. Minute) for the BVB, which was not convincing in half one, the lower saxons still saved themselves with the narrow 0:1 into the break. After that, however, the disaster broke through hit by marco reus (60.), mario gotze (63.) and raphael guerreiro (67.) within seven minutes over the 96er in. "At the latest with the third goal the game was eaten. We certainly played against a strong team that may be the upcoming champions," the manager analyzed, noting that the team "wanted and tried everything": "but in the end, a game lasts 90 minutes. And we got one goal in the first half and four goals in the second half. That’s just too much. "

The 1:4 by marvin bakalorz (86.) and the 1:5 by axel witsel (90.) did not change anything about the unequal balance of power. "In the end we got a bit far under the wheels. We’re making too many individual mistakes, and the coach can’t do anything about that," said michael esser. But even the goalkeeper’s rather shabby attempt to protect the coach is unlikely to save him from losing his job. Breitenreiter knew that and cursed himself in the usual phrases: "the focus was on the game". Everything else we will see in the coming days. We need a clear statement of what is now trumps."

If not swap everything, he should get them already on sunday. Possible successors are being traded for a long time. The hottest candidates are currently the austrian peter stoger and thomas doll, also mentioned are felix magath or stefan effenberg. Names admittedly heldt did not comment before friday’s game against leipzig and the relegation summit against last-place nurnberg a week later. "We now have two home games and must try to make the best of the situation for 96."