Thomas Letsch is about to play his first home game as coach of VfL Bochum. This is what he expects from his team.

This is not how Thomas Letsch had wanted his premiere as coach of VfL Bochum to go. At the Bundesliga match against RB Leipzig, the team suffered a resounding 4-0 defeat.

Little or nothing was right with his team. That should change on Saturday (3:30 p.m.) when Letsch plays his first home game with VfL against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Although the league situation is more than threatening at the moment, the coach doesn’t want to let the anticipation of the first 90 minutes in the Ruhrstadion get the better of him. “I feel an absolute sense of anticipation. We can’t change the situation, I’m really looking forward to the game. Of course, it would be generally more pleasant if we had 24 points instead of just one. “

And with a view to the one point, the coach then also relentlessly puts his finger in the wound. That’s what he did after the 0:4, that’s what he’s doing now. He wants to help his team with that. “It’s no use glossing over things. We all set out to do something, including me as coach. When a game like that follows, there’s no point in beating about the bush. It was just bad.”

This performance was dealt with during the week, now the 90 minutes against Frankfurt are on the agenda. And Letsch makes it clear what he wants to see on Saturday – starting at 3:30 p.m.: “Now it is important that we bring fire into the game from the first minute. We can’t be passive like in Leipzig, we have to get the crowd behind us. We have great fans, they will continue to support us, but it can only be so that the sparks pass from us to the spectators. And that can only happen if we gave full throttle from the start.”

In addition to the unconditional willingness to throw himself into every duel, the coach also wants to see his team verbally deliver what it takes to win games in the Bundesliga. “That was one of the points I didn’t like, whereas I missed some things in Leipzig. It’s important to talk, to support each other. When one player is overplayed, the second has to be there. Things like that only work when we act together as a team. That’s important to me, that’s what I demand. We have to help each other, coach positively.”

And then you can also beat teams with a higher quality, then you can also compensate for absences. Like that of Kevin Stöger (Corona), who hurts the team a lot. Letsch: “He is the player who has the quality behind the top players that we are lacking now. It’s difficult to replace him directly, we have to absorb that as a collective. We have guys who can play that in a similar way.” with gp