The fluctuation range remains large – and Hertha BSC is a mystery to itself: After the 1:4 dismantling against SV Elversberg, some protagonists end up in people’s heads again when researching the cause.
Hertha’s Luca Schuler was served after the defeat against Elversberg.
IMAGO/Jan Huebner
Luca Schuler knew exactly how he found the day. Hertha’s attacker initially called his team’s presentation, which was deficient in all key areas, “extremely modest,” only to then find an even more catchy formulation: “Shitty.”
When it came to researching the causes, Schuler asked for a delay; he was unable to come up with plausible explanations for the discrepancy in the Berlin performances: “I don’t know why, why, why this is happening to us. We had four home games and lost three of them “Of course that’s not our claim.”
Sports director Benjamin Weber, completely unsuspected of using coarse vocabulary, also did not sugarcoat anything about this 90-minute complete disappointment on a day on which Hertha could have moved within two points of second place. Like all eyewitnesses in the Berlin Olympic Stadium, Weber saw “a wasted day” for the deranged host: “We never really got into it. The form on the day wasn’t there, not for anyone. There were too many mistakes.” With ball and without ball.
Wisps without a navigation device
The same team that had put in a strong, stable and confident performance in the 2-0 win in Nuremberg the previous week wandered through the home arena against perfectly adjusted Elversberger without a navigation device or conviction. “The way we defend when we concede goals is not allowed, it is punished at such a level,” said Hertha coach Cristian Fiel. “We had a lot of problems with being positioned in possession of the ball in such a way that you can control it when you lose the ball. After every ball we lost, it was all ablaze.” And they lost a lot of balls…
Fiel, who succeeded Pal Dardai in the summer, has implanted a new basic footballing idea into this team. Everyone knew that this would take time. Some people still thought that it might be quicker, even with consistency. On good days – see the away appearances in Kaiserslautern, Nuremberg and in the second half at HSV – this team, which is above average in terms of football by second division standards, unnerves its opponents with dominance and control of the game. 59 percent ball possession is a league best.
But the hope of being able to establish themselves in the top third of the table early this season has been dashed by reality. Hertha still lacks consistency and too often lacks compactness and the necessary consistency in both penalty areas. Before the fiasco against Elversberg, the Berliners had last conceded four goals in a second division home game on May 16, 1996 in a 4-1 defeat against SV Meppen (goals: Fährmann – Claaßen 2, von Ahlen, Sievers).
“We conceded four goals ourselves”
The twelve goals conceded after seven match days are currently only topped in the top half of the table by 1. FC Köln (13), who defend similarly. Even before the Elversberg game, Fiel had said: “We still concede goals too easily.” Sunday provided the next painful confirmation of this. “We conceded four goals ourselves,” explained attacker Schuler without a hint of exaggeration. “The opponent can score goals too easily.”
In the meantime, one or two professionals are already reminded of the past season, in which Hertha usually made mistakes when a leap forward was possible. “We had an extremely big chance to slide into the top today. We wanted to take advantage of it,” said captain Toni Leistner after the home debacle on Sunday. “It’s the same as last season: Whenever we had the chance, we didn’t take it. For me it’s clearly a matter of our head that we’re putting too much pressure on ourselves.”
The home record with three defeats after four games is starting to become a problem: in terms of the table and mentally. Hertha – after seven games already seven points behind leaders Düsseldorf and five points behind the relegation place – is already running behind again early in the season. “We have to quickly get to the point where we can do it more consistently,” demands sports director Weber.
A handicap this fall: The long list of failures limits the scope of the coach. The injured Reese, Brooks, Gechter, Dudziak, Karbownik, Winkler and Bouchalakis were joined by Deyovaisio Zeefuik (stomach problems) at half-time against Elversberg. Nevertheless, given the quality of the squad, the remaining staff can and must do it better – i.e. more consistently.
Hertha wants to show a reaction on Saturday evening at Schalke, but there is still a lot of work to do until then. After “a day in which it didn’t work,” captain Leistner called the decisive approach: “We have to question ourselves why many players have failed to perform at their level. And that’s what we’ll do.” You need to ask yourself some questions. And they have to find answers relatively quickly.
