If you ask around the environment of VfB Stuttgart these days, you hear this one sentence again and again: The "faith" is back at the Bundesliga club, which is once again threatened with relegation. The belief that staying in the class could still be something and, above all, the belief that this is possible because of one's own qualities.
Jan Ehrhardt
Sports editor.
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That didn't always seem the case this season, but the return of faith in Stuttgart comes at just the right time. This Wednesday (20.45 CET in the F.A.Z. live ticker for the DFB Cup, on ARD and Sky), the club will reach the final of the DFB Cup against Eintracht Frankfurt, and on Saturday the Bundesliga match against the bottom of the table Hertha BSC is a possibly groundbreaking duel in the final spurt of the season.
If you don't just ask around about VfB these days, but also look at the facts, you quickly notice that the turnaround in Stuttgart is closely related to one event, and that is the signing of new coach Sebastian Hoeness. The quiet, rather introverted football coach got his team on track in the cup quarter-finals at the beginning of April after just two days in office, followed by two wins and two draws in the league, and now VfB can look back on a week that, according to Hoeness, holds "enormous opportunities".
VfB players praise coach Hoeneß
In addition to these obvious facts, what could also be seen in the past few days and weeks with the 40-year-old Hoeneß, son of the former Hertha BSC manager and VfB Stuttgart professional Dieter and nephew of the former (and current?) FC Bayern patriarch Uli, is that this does not necessarily have to do with the fact that VfB suddenly played better through the bench under Hoeness. But simply more successful.
The reason for this became particularly clear when the Stuttgart players spoke about their coach. Then you could hear that Hoeneß himself was a good listener who wanted to know what was on his players' minds. The fact that Hoeneß is someone who talks a lot with his players, motivates them. The fact that Hoeneß is someone who promotes their belief in their own qualities, also because he observes closely in training, looks at where each individual can contribute even more to the whole.
Stuttgart's success in recent weeks also has to do with the fact that professionals like Enzo Millot, Silas or Tanguy Coulibaly, who didn't seem to get going at all in the first half of the season, are once again exuding joy of playing under Hoeness, taking the famous one step more in forward or backward movement, playing passes more precisely, being more serene in finishing. Factors that can make the difference between victory or defeat in close matches. VfB, it seems, have found the right coach at the right time. One who looks closely. And listen carefully.