VfL Osnabrück will face FC Schalke 04 on Friday – and will go into the game with a new head coach.
When FC Schalke 04 host VfL Osnabrück in the second division crisis summit next Friday, the guests will be relying on a coaching effect. They presented a new head coach at the start of the week: Uwe Koschinat is supposed to save the bottom-placed team from relegation back to the third division.
Koschinat succeeds Tobias Schweinsteiger, who was dismissed two weeks ago. Assistant coaches Tim Danneberg and Martin Heck were on the sidelines for the subsequent home game against 1. FC Magdeburg on an interim basis. They were unable to stop the downward trend (0-2).
Koschinat is now expected to take on this task. The 52-year-old was most recently employed by Arminia Bielefeld and has been without a club since being relegated in the relegation play-off last summer.
“The challenge we face is brutally difficult. There’s no two ways about it. But that’s precisely what drives us. Hardly anyone out there currently thinks we’re capable of anything,” he said when he took up office in Osnabrück.
What Koschinat means: The promoted team has only celebrated one win this season and only managed to get one point in the last five games. With a gap of six points to the relegation rank and nine to the first non-relegation rank, Osnabrück is at the bottom of the table.
On Friday against Schalke, they could move closer to the relegation rank. Before the winter break, they also face leaders St. Pauli and Hertha BSC. “Three absolute crunches,” says Koschinat. “These are perceived as cup games and that’s how we’ll approach them. During the winter break, we’ll have time to get to know each other properly, work on the necessary fundamentals and rehearse new processes.”
After Fortuna Cologne, SV Sandhausen, 1. FC Saarbrücken and Bielefeld, VfL is the fifth head coaching position for former professional Koschinat. “The talks with Uwe were really good,” said sporting director Amir Shapourzadeh. He and the other club officials are convinced “that Uwe, with his experience and energy for the current situation, is the right coach.”