ETB SW Essen are in a “typical mid-table position” in the Oberliga Niederrhein. Coach Damian Apfeld has seen some negative, but also many positive things so far.

ETB SW Essen was able to compensate for the departure of top scorer Noel Futkeu quite well with Timur Kesim (18 competitive matches, 13 goals), but after a bumpy start, it was only enough for ninth place at the winter break. Things should go better in the second half of the season. To this end, Damian Apfeld’s team has already been able to strengthen its squad with David Leinweber. On the other side, Dominik Reichardt has ended his career.

Damian Apfeld on…

… the first half of the season: “We can be satisfied with some things, but not with others. We’re in a typical midfield position and that’s exactly how you can classify it. Our hope was that we could start with more euphoria, which would have been very important for the young team. We didn’t manage that and had two points after the first four match days. We also lost one or two experienced players, who were not only missing on the pitch but also in the dressing room. As a result, we lost a bit of our hierarchy and leadership. These are things that explain why we might not have a few more points in our account.

On the other hand, it’s positive that we’ve reinstalled a top goalscorer with a very good rate in Timur Kesim. We’ve also fully integrated Collin Weimann, a player from our own U19s, so that he’s even made appearances in the starting eleven. One or two young players have taken another step forward and developed further

“Points Table” src=“https://forecasting-sports.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-01-03-001412-1.png” width=“508” height=“673” /☻

.. the best moments of the season so far : We haven’t had that one highlight game in the championship or the cup. Last year, the RWE game in particular stuck in my mind, but this time we were knocked out in extra time against Ratingen. In Baumberg, who had won everything up to that point, we played a decent game and drew 0-0. If any team should have won, it was us.

… the worst moments: There were two games. One was the derby defeat (2:6 against SpVg Schonnebeck, editor’s note), which went far too far. Both sides must have wondered how something like that could happen. It had a dynamic in the second half that you can’t explain in soccer. It was similar to the 2014 World Cup against Brazil. The 2-1 defeat in St. Tönis also left a very negative impression.

… the goals for 2024: We’ll have to wait and see how much movement there is. If it suits us, we could imagine bringing in another player. But he would have to help us directly and perhaps also bring a bit of experience. We don’t want to land the next very talented young player now, we have enough of them and we want to give them the opportunity to develop. In sporting terms, things should go better in the second half of the season than in the first half. We simply have to take a step forward. If you look at our results, you’ll notice that we didn’t win a single game against the top six and only managed two draws. In the end, that’s not enough to climb higher. We weren’t lacking in terms of play and quality, but experience and, to a certain extent, cleverness. If you want to get there, you have to win these games