SG Wattenscheid 09 is facing the prospect of being relegated for the second year in a row. However, the team is not ready to throw in the towel just yet in the Oberliga Westfalen.

No fan of SG Wattenscheid 09 is likely to look back fondly on the 2023 football year. After being relegated from the Regionalliga West, the former Bundesliga club is also in a relegation spot in the Oberliga Westfalen. The second half of the season ended just as poorly as the first. Hope is a delicate plant at the Lohrheide, but the club still wants to fight against a possible relegation.

SG coach Engin Yavuzaslan on…

The first half of the season in the Oberliga Westfalen: “There’s no two ways about it, you only have to look at the table. You have to be open and honest. The club had ambitious plans. But it also has to be said that I only took over in the middle of the season. You can’t expect instant results. You have to take it step by step. But in the last three or four weeks of the first half of the season, I saw a good development process. The guys are fit and work hard in games and in training.”

What was your best moment? ”The team never showed that they no longer believed in themselves. The mood is great. But it’s also the case that I’ll be happy when 2023 is finally over and we can aim for 2024 at full speed.”

What was your worst moment? “Every defeat eats away at me, I’m very self-critical. All the defeats weren’t nice, there’s no single situation.”

The goals for 2024: “We have to change a few things, that’s for sure. We have a lot of work to do and we have to get the team in shape. That’s why we’re starting pretty early. I want to show my style of football. That means we can play flexibly, with many systems that we can also change again and again during the game and work hard defensively against the ball. That’s essential. We have to avoid individual mistakes.”