VfL Osnabrück will face FC Schalke 04 on Friday – and will go into the game with a new head coach.

When FC Schalke 04 welcomes VfL Osnabrück to a second division crisis summit on Friday, the visitors will be counting on a new coach to turn things around. They presented their new head coach at the start of the week: Uwe Koschinat has been tasked with saving the bottom-of-the-table team from relegation to the third division.

Koschinat succeeds Tobias Schweinsteiger, who was forced to leave two weeks ago. Assistant coaches Tim Danneberg and Martin Heck took charge on an interim basis in the subsequent home game against 1. FC Magdeburg. They were unable to stop the downward trend (0-2).

Koschinat is now tasked with turning things around. The 52-year-old was most recently at Arminia Bielefeld and has been without a club since the team was relegated in the relegation play-offs last summer.

“The challenge we face is brutally difficult. There are no two opinions about that. But that is precisely what motivates us. Hardly anyone out there believes we can do anything at the moment,” he was quoted as saying on taking up his post in Osnabrück.

What Koschinat means: The promoted team has only celebrated one win this season and picked up just one point in its last five games. With a six-point gap to the relegation play-off spot and nine points to the first non-relegation spot, Osnabrück are bottom of the table.

On Friday against Schalke, they could move closer to the relegation play-off spot. Before the winter break, they also have matches against league leaders St. Pauli and Hertha BSC. “Three absolute crackers,” said Koschinat. “They feel like 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 basics and rehearse new routines.”

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,” reports sporting director Amir Shapourzadeh. He and the other club officials are convinced “that Uwe is the right coach for the current situation with his experience and energy.”