KFC Uerdingen haven’t had everything going their way in the Oberliga Niederrhein, but they managed to surprise in the cup. Marcus John attests that his team has taken a “big step”.
With numerous big-name summer signings, KFC Uerdingen went into the Oberliga Niederrhein as big favorites. Initially, however, the newly assembled team took quite a while to find its feet.
However, things are now going well for the Krefeld side, who have moved up to fourth place thanks to a seven-game winning streak – although the gap to leaders Baumberg is already nine points. In this interview, Marcus John, coach and sporting director at KFC, looks back on the developments of the past six months and explains what is important in the new year.
Marcus John on…
… the first half of the season: “We had 16 new players and initially found it very, very difficult. The integration took a little longer than I had planned. In the first three, four or five games we played, not everyone was involved because we had to sign players late due to injuries. If you compare the first few games with the last few, you can see how many personnel changes we made to get the wins. It’s not always down to the people, but the composition. We’ve taken a big step in that respect
.. the best moment of the season so far: That was certainly the 1:0 after extra time in the Lower Rhine Cup against MSV Duisburg. That’s how it can go when everyone sticks to tactical measures. That was perhaps the turning point that allowed us to stabilize and put together a good run. We did lose against Sonsbeck, but then we won seven games in a row. There were also other good games, for example we turned the games against Straelen and Meerbusch around to win 4:3, you have to manage that first. The 1-0 win against Ratingen was also a very, very good performance from us. These are the games where you see the true strength of the team, but only when everyone gives 100 percent.
… the worst moments: The games in Sonsbeck (0:1, editor’s note) and Hilden (0:2, editor’s note) were not good. I didn’t see enough commitment. We didn’t build up any pressure, those were games to forget.
… the goals for 2024: I’ll have individual discussions with all the players and compare their performances and expectations. Then there will certainly be one or two players who might come to us because they were hoping for more playing time that we can’t give them. Then we’ll have to see how we come together. In sporting terms, we naturally want to pick up more points in the second half of the season than we did in the first half, because we obviously needed a lot of time in the first period and dropped points. It’s also about stabilizing ourselves against the supposedly smaller teams. We get wins against Schonnebeck, Ratingen or Straelen, but of course they don’t help as much if we then drop points against St. Tönis or Büderich, as we did in the first half of the season.