Does Thomas Letsch at VfL Bochum stumble over the enormous number of blunders in stoppage time? After Cologne, nothing is unthinkable. Comment.

Sporting director Patrick Fabian is a level-headed man. When he refused to back coach Thomas Letsch after VfL Bochum’s 2:1 defeat at 1. FC Köln, it was clear by then at the latest that things were looking up at Castroper Straße.

Six games without a win, five of the last six games were lost. Seven times VfL conceded a goal after the 90th minute and 21 points were squandered after taking the lead.

The whole thing reached its inglorious climax in the basement duel in Cologne, where Bochum turned a 1-0 lead into a 1-2 defeat in the space of a minute. Cologne back in the race, VfL at the bottom. A setback like that does something to a team, to the whole club.

Everywhere you looked, heads were hanging low, the lead over Mainz was down to three points and four points over FC, with the momentum clearly on the side of the two teams behind VfL.

As a result, the coach is now also in the firing line. Publicly, the dismissal of Letsch was never an issue until Cologne. Behind the scenes, the first voices within the club were already complaining because the same mistakes keep happening.

If the team doesn’t learn quickly, they will end up in the 2nd Bundesliga after all. And it no longer seems impossible that the last six matches will take place without Letsch.

The fans grumble about the substitutions, although they are certainly not to blame for Erhan Masovic losing the header duel against Steffen Tigges before the 1:1.

But they were a sign that VfL no longer needed to be on the offensive, that it was just a matter of getting a 1:0 over the line. Although that must actually be allowed in the relegation battle.

It’s about survival, it’s about beating the opponent. If necessary, even with a parked bus in front of the goal. It just has to work out