By Simon Wright –
Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88
This Saturday is the penultimate weekend in the Bundesliga
season and even at this late stage, eight clubs could still mathematically join
Hannover 96 in the second tier next campaign.
The risks are far greater for some over others, particularly
for the likes of SV Werder Bremen, Eintracht Frankfurt, SV Darmstadt 98 and VfB
Stuttgart.
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| Stuttgart might be well-supported, but their top-flight status is in real peril |
Of those teams battling to avoid the dreaded drop, it is
Stuttgart who are in the worst form and look totally bereft of confidence. No
wins since early March has seen them plummet from a comfortable 10th
in the table into the bottom two.
The pressure is well and truly on. Time is running out for
one the best-supported teams in Germany (pictured above). Defeat on Saturday to 1. FSV Mainz 05
could put them on the brink of relegation.
So, how did it come to this for VfB Stuttgart?
Alarming signs
The danger signs have been evident at the Mercedes-Benz
Arena for a number of years now. It wasn’t that long ago that VfB Stuttgart
were often a major contender for at least a European spot via the league.
However, they only just avoided relegation last term and it has been a similar
story this season.
After back-to-back 4-0 defeats in November, Alexander
Zorniger lost his job with the club stuck in the bottom three. In came Jürgen
Kramny, who had spent the previous four seasons coaching the reserve side.
There was an immediate upturn in results. In fact, Stuttgart
managed to string together a run of five successive victories either side of
the winter break, achieving impressive wins over VfL Wolfsburg and Hertha BSC
in that period.
When TSG 1899 Hoffenheim were beaten 5-1 at the start of
March, Stuttgart were sitting in a fairly secure 11th place and
looking at a safe mid-table finish. Their recent performances and results
though have taken a drastic nosedive.
Seven games without a win, including four consecutive
defeats have seen the club drop back into trouble. The worst performance came
on Monday night, as Die Roten were
dismantled 6-2 by relegation rivals SV Werder Bremen. They’ve only missed two
seasons in the top tier of German football since the Bundesliga was established
in 1963. On current evidence, relegation is looking fairly inevitable.
Leaky backline
Goalscoring is not a problem for VfB Stuttgart. They’ve
found the back of the net 49 times and that is a higher figure than
European-chasing Hertha BSC and FC Schalke 04.
Problem is, they have a leaky backline which seems to have a
habit for shipping goals for fun. 69 goals have been scored against them so far
which means they have the worst defensive record in the Bundesliga.
The scorelines speak for themselves. The club have lost 4-0
to FC Bayern München, Borussia Mönchengladbach and FC Augsburg, beaten 4-1 by
both Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt and 6-2 on Monday by SV Werder
Bremen.
Their defensive situation was summed up by Federico Barba’s
comical own goal in the Weser-Stadion.
The Italian, playing in only his second game for the club
did this in the 33rd minute;
No wonder the club is in its current positon of
second-bottom in the table.
A glorious past
VfB Stuttgart have won the national championship five times,
most recently in 2007. They’ve also won the DFB-Pokal three times and hold the
record for most overall wins in the UEFA Intertoto Cup.
Kramny has tasted success as a player too. He was part of
the squad that pipped Borussia Dortmund to the Bundesliga title in 1992 on goal
difference. In fact, the club’s opposition on Saturday – Mainz is the side
Kramny spent seven seasons with as a player in his career.
A glorious past it might be, but that counts for nothing in
today’s game. Stuttgart have become victims of complacency in the transfer
market, and often reacted to bad situations in recent times by sacking the
coach.
Kramny has actually won seven of his 21 league games in
charge and guided them to the DFB-Pokal quarter-finals. He shouldn’t be blamed
wholly for the mess they are currently in. Individual errors on the pitch and
poor signings have played the part in their decline.
German international defender Antonio Rüdiger was loaned out
in the summer to AS Roma and that looks as bizarre as it did when it happened.
Despite scoring on his debut, Toni Sunjic has not delivered and now looks
frozen out in the cold under Kramny.
Emiliano Insua might have come from Atletico Madrid, but has
often been out on-loan in recent campaigns. Inconsistent at the best of times, Liverpool
FC fans might have nightmares of his time at Anfield during Rafa Benitez’s
final season with the Merseysiders six years ago. Even the arrival of Kevin
Großkreutz in January has done little to plug the defensive holes. Großkreutz
has played most of his games for the club at right-back. He does the role capably,
but doesn’t look as comfortable as he did when he played in midfield during his
time at Borussia Dortmund.
Considering Daniel Didavi has had the best goalscoring
season of his career, Filip Kostic easily the best campaign he’s ever had, the
promise of youngster Timo Werner and Serey Die settling comfortably into a
central midfield role, you can see Stuttgart have the mixture of the talented
and the bad.
Can they escape?
They can escape the drop, but it might be requiring on
favours from other teams. It does help that SV Werder Bremen and Eintracht
Frankfurt play each other on the final day of the season and the odds don’t
look encouraging to see both of these teams escape the bottom three.
Stuttgart’s fixtures are not easy though. Mainz are chasing
European qualification and Wolfsburg have enough quality to put the final nail
in the coffin. The blessing in disguise for Stuttgart is that Wolfsburg’s form
since Christmas domestically has been utterly dreadful, with just two wins
since the turn of the year. Playing them on the final day might not be as
daunting as it could have been last season.
The summer will be testing too. Didavi is already moving on,
having agreed to sign for Wolfsburg and Martin Harnik is likely to go with
his contract running down. Clubs will be interested in signing Werner too,
along with the likes of Kostic, Die and Lukas Rupp.
They have enough attacking instincts to get out of trouble,
but if they don’t tighten up defensively in the next eight days, VfB Stuttgart
might be waving goodbye for at least a season to the Bundesliga.
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