VfL Bochum welcomes bottom team VfB Stuttgart on Sunday. The Swabians have a new coach and he is prepared.

Sebastian Hoeneß has already had a successful debut as coach of VfB Stuttgart. On Wednesday, the Swabians beat 1. FC Nuremberg 2:0 in the quarterfinals of the DFB Cup. For the last-place team in the Bundesliga, it was the first win in a competitive match in just under two months and only the second since November. Against VfL Bochum (Sunday, 5:30 p.m.), the next one should now follow.

“The feeling of being able to win is incredibly valuable and cannot be replaced by anything. It’s important to take this positive energy with us. It strengthens the team and gives it self-confidence,” Hoeneß said at the press conference. “But we want to leave the church in the village. It was a game that certainly encouraged us, but the game in Bochum has a completely different character. We are eighteenth, but the chance is there to give us a better starting position in the table on Sunday and possibly drag another team into the relegation fight. We will do everything we can to take that chance on Sunday. “

They certainly want to create chaos

VfB Stuttgart coach Sebastian Hoeneß on VfL Bochum

The line of approach is clear, he said. “We want to go there to win,” the 40-year-old stressed. He is still thinking about the “how” – both tactically and in terms of personnel. The main issue, he said, is “what balance we want to establish, stability and control. They certainly want to create chaos,” Hoeneß said of VfL Bochum.

What he means by that? “They try to create an unsettled game. We have to try to make it our game, to have phases that we control,” the coach explained, adding, “Against the ball with the appropriate intensity, structure and diligence. But it will also be important to be constantly awake and bring phases with the ball on the pitch, to make playful approaches visible through high activity and connections among themselves, to let the opponent run, to make it difficult to get access. “

There are many points that the coach addresses. However, there is hardly much time to train all that. Hoeneß took up his job with the Swabians on April 3, followed by the first game on April 5. Four days later, it’s off to Bochum. “We’ve had one joint training session so far, followed by the final training session on Friday. Our goal is to get the guys physically recovered and mentally fresh in this short week,” he said.

The conditions for this are good. Hoeneß will be able to call on the full squad in Bochum.