VfL Bochum has established a good starting position in the relegation battle. Ahead of the game against VfB Stuttgart, coach Thomas Letsch warns not to let up.
There was a lot going on at Castroper Straße on Tuesday afternoon. Blue skies, sunshine and the start of the holidays attracted around a hundred fans to the VfL Bochum training ground. The recent performances probably also contributed to the relaxed atmosphere – too relaxed for coach Thomas Letsch.
At least that was true for his players on the pitch. Letsch didn’t seem really satisfied during the entire session and made a clear announcement to his team early on: “50 minutes on the pitch. Now nobody cares how long the break was.” It was the kick-off after the 1:1 in Frankfurt last Friday.
When asked afterwards what he didn’t like, the 54-year-old replied, “It’s normal when you’ve had two days off that it takes a bit to get into it. But I missed the fire. That was better in the last two weeks.”
That’s what he told his team again at the end, he said. “We need to have that fire in every training session. We haven’t achieved anything at all yet.” Thanks to seven points from their last three games, VfL are currently 14th in the table, four points above the relegation places.
“We have a good starting position and we certainly won’t ruin it now by letting anything slide.” Especially not before the upcoming match against bottom of the table VfB Stuttgart (Sunday, 9 April, 5.30pm). “Of course it is a very decisive game, but especially for Stuttgart.”
A Bochum win would have seen VfL distance the Swabians to nine points. “We are already aware of that, we know the table and can all do the maths. But it is not yet decided whether we will stay in the relegation zone.” Especially as the opponent is a surprise package after the change of coach yet again.
“It’s actually exactly the same situation as the first leg,” Letsch recalls. “I also watched the Stuttgart vs Union game under Pellegrino Matarazzo, we played against my colleague Michael Wimmer. Now I watched Bruno Labbadia and Sebastian Hoeneß is coming.”
Back then, the change on the touchline had paid off directly for VfB. The match was clearly won 4:1. Letsch, however, does not see any further parallels to the constellation of half a year ago. “We are playing at home here and have enough self-confidence that we know how to approach the game.”
In terms of personnel, Letsch was presented with an unusual picture on Tuesday: “We trained with the whole squad for the first time” – 23 field players and 4 keepers. Returnee Cristian Gamboa was welcomed back to training with special applause, but only completed the first part of the session.
“‘Gambo’ will hopefully be able to be one hundred percent in training later in the week.” But he is not an option for the coming weekend, he said. Konstantinos Stafylidis also left the pitch early, but this had been planned. “‘Stafy’ had a bit of a sore throat.” But this should not stand in the way of his playing against Stuttgart.