VfL Wolfsburg trainer Felix Magath has been suffered Déjà-vu, looking back on the third match day of the season...
VfL Wolfsburg trainer Felix Magath has been suffered Déjà-vu, looking back on the third match day of the season...
VfL Wolfsburg trainer Felix Magath has been suffered Déjà-vu, looking back on the third match day of the season. Back then, VfL played host to Schalke on the back of a 1:3 defeat at home on opeining day to Armenia Bielefeld and a 3:1 away win in Duisburg. “With Werder Bremen we will be playing host to yet another favourite for the title”, said Magath, who will face Thomas Schaaf’s men on Tuesday, 25.09.2007 at 8pm. This game comes on the back of a 1:2 home defeat to Karlsruhe and then, thanks to goals from Edin Dzeko and Jacek Krzynowek , a 2:1 win in Cottbus – sound familiar?
Wolfsburg invest in Magath, Magath invests worldwide
“Hopefully we have now put our weakest phase behind us”, explained Felix Magath. The ‘Wolves’ are 12th in the league but the expectations at the club, who are financially supported by Volkswagen, are much greater. The name Magath alone is a symbol of quality. The trainer won the league title and cup double with FC Bayern Munich in 2005 and 2006 “Wolfsburg have made a great investment for the future and have made their expectations very clear”, commented Werder coach Thomas Schaaf: “The result is that expectations have risen and they hope to make a step in the right direction with Felix Magath.“ So great is the opinion of Magath in Wolfsburg that they made him, not just coach, but also sport director and manager.
The move is a complete restructuring or a club who finished 15th in the league in both of the last two seasons and with that, very narrowly escaped the drop into the second division. 14 players left the club, including long serving professionals such as Miroslav Karhan (Mainz 05), Diego Klimowicz (Borussia Dortmund), Mike Hanke (Hanover 96), Juan Carlos Menseguez (San Lorenzo de Almagro/Argentina) and captain Kevin Hofland (Feyenoord Rotterdam).The new boss went in search of replacement and found hope in Vlad Munteanu and Sergiu Radu kamen from Cottbus, Ashkan Dejagah from Hertha BSC, Ricardo Costa from FC Porto as well as Jan Simunek (Sparta Prag) Josué (Sao Paulo),along with striker Grafite (Le Mans) and Dzeko (FK Teplice). It has been a €25 million investment by the club but ironically it is one of their left over men from precious seasons who has proven most effective so far with Jacek Krzynowek getting his name on the score sheet three times. One great loss has been defensive boss Ricardo Costa, who tore a cruciate ligament in the cup against Würzburg.
Eight wins in thirteen games
Since the loss of the centre half, Wolfsburg haven’t gone a single game without conceding at least one goal whist always scoring themselves. That wasn’t the case last season when the Wolves fans were left without a goal to celebrate on ten occasions (Werder’s only four), as on the final day of the season at home against the Green-Whites when Markus Rosenberg scored a brace to sink the hosts 2:0. It was the fifth defeat in ten Bundesliga home games for Wolfsburg against Werder with the Bremen club also proving successful three times in the cup against VfL: Three years ago, Wolfsburg won 2:1 at the Weser Stadium, there last win against Thomas Schaaf’s men.
Those in ‘Volkswagen-City’ believe it’s time to put an end to that run. Felix Magath announced: “My side will be more attack minded”, and he continued: “Diego is probably the best player in the league and with Tim Wiese they have one of the best goalkeepers.” Thomas Schaaf is expecting a patient opponent: “They are going to want to test us. They’ll let us come at them in order to find space to use.” Following the game against Madrid and Stuttgart the Green-Whites coach is clear: “The way we played in those games looked good and that’s where we intend to continue.” Despite eleven absentees, the team intend to show they can deal with the current situation.
