A fresh start for Wolfsburg

By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88

VfL Wolfsburg’s 2016 promised much but it has delivered very little for the fans to cheer about. No European football this term after last season’s continental highs coupled with crippling domestic form means they have undergone change.

One win from the first seven matches of the 2016/2017 Bundesliga season couldn’t save Dieter Hecking. The popular former Nürnberg coach parted with the club a month ago.

Valerien Ismaël will be looking to revive the fortunes of Wolfsburg

Now under the guidance of Valerien Ismaël (pictured), a revival in the confidence of the players has seen an upturn in form, even if results have been slow to come by.

Can Ismaël restore Wolfsburg from its current position of a painful decline into the sleeping giant of German football?

Change required

There is no doubt that Dieter Hecking had done a brilliant job at the Volkswagen Arena. When he took over in 2012, Wolfsburg might have experienced the highs of taking the Bundesliga crown in 2009, but were in relegation trouble just three years later.

Hecking steered them to safety before transforming them into one of the most exciting and entertaining sides to watch in the European game. A runners-up finish behind FC Bayern München, combined with DFB-Pokal success in the 2014/2015 season was an indication of his fine work.

He had managed to improve the game of many of his players and brought the best out of his talent available to him. Having gone missing at Chelsea, Kevin de Bruyne’s career was revived under Hecking’s stewardship. Ivan Perisic became a dangerous presence for opposing defenders and the club were even able to buy players like Luiz Gustavo to the club, beating competition from the likes of Arsenal for his particular signature.

Wolfsburg had to deal with a club tragedy too in that season. In January 2015, rising star Junior Malanda was tragically killed in a road accident on his way to meet his teammates at the airport for a training camp trip to South Africa. The Belgian had shown signs of breaking into the starting XI on a regular basis and his death rocked the club to his core. They dedicated their cup victory to his honour five months later.

Sadly, the good times were about to end. De Bruyne and Perisic were both sold last summer and this summer just gone has seen the departure of Naldo, Andre Schürrle, Bas Dost and Max Kruse. The club dropped from second to eighth last term and stumbled over the finishing line, winning just two of their last nine matches. A run to the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals did offer promise before a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick in the Bernabeu took a semi-final berth away from the club’s grasp.

Hecking looked like a worried man at the end of 2015/2016. In some counts, he was a little bit fortunate to remain in the post this summer but form didn’t improve at the start of this campaign.

Goals dried up, players looked confused on the pitch and points were not being taken. A 1-0 defeat to RB Leipzig on 16 October was the final straw. A parting of the ways seemed inevitable.

Change was required to save Wolfsburg’s season from turning into a relegation scrap.

Promoting from within

Despite the club’s lowly league position, there were a few interesting names linked with the Wolfsburg vacancy. The favourite seemed to be Andre Villas-Boas. Whilst he was never endeared by the English media, Tottenham’s highest Premier League points total was achieved in his stewardship in 2013. He also had experience from spells with FC Porto and Zenit St Petersburg on his CV.

In the end, AVB couldn’t turn down the chance to manage in the emerging Chinese Super League instead and earn £11m a year for doing it. You can’t really blame him either.

Former Hamburger SV coach Bruno Labbadia was another name heavily linked with the post and so too was ex-Bundesliga player Marc Wilmots – out of work after being sacked by Belgium this summer following their EURO 2016 exit to Wales.

Instead, Wolfsburg decided to promote from within. Ismaël was managing the second-tier side at the club, so he knows the facilities, the board and some of the youngsters very well. Initially hired as the interim successor to Hecking, he showed enough potential to be given the job full-time. In some quarters, it might seem like a gamble but he needs an opportunity to try and rebuild the club’s reputation.

He certainly has the squad to do it too.

Who is Valerien Ismaël?

The 41-year-old Frenchman made his name in his playing career initially with Strasbourg in France. Crystal Palace fans might remember the name too. He played 13 games for them in 1998, breaking their club transfer record in the process. His spell though ended with relegation from the Premier League and he quickly moved back to French football, joining RC Lens.

His most successful spell came in his latter playing career though and that was in the Bundesliga, winning the title with both SV Werder Bremen and FC Bayern München. Ismaël retired from playing in 2009 whilst with Hannover 96.

He has spent most of his coaching career managing reserve sides. His only foray into first-team management came with 1. FC Nürnberg back in 2014. It didn’t end well – winning just four of his 14 matches in charge and being axed just five months into the role.

The board at Wolfsburg have put their trust into the inexperienced Ismaël. He began his interim spell with back-to-back league defeats but an impressive 3-0 away win at Sport-Club Freiburg before the international break was enough to convince higher powers that he deserves a chance to coach on a permanent basis.

Mario Gomez is beginning to look back to his full match sharpness, having scored three goals in his last three matches. He is a proven goalscorer and if they keep him fit, he is likely to be near the top of the scoring charts by the end of the campaign. He should be ably supported by the likes of summer arrivals Daniel Didavi and Jakub Blaszczykowski, plus the highly-skilled Daniel Caligiuri and Maximilian Arnold.

It will be interesting to see if Ismaël can get the best out of Julian Draxler too. Draxler made it quite clear that he wanted to leave in the summer but any potential transfer was blocked. He has frustrated far too often and still doesn’t look happy in Wolfsburg colours. Whilst his long-term future is probably going to be elsewhere, he needs to knuckle down in the short-term and help his club out.

Still in the bottom four at the moment, results are needed and quickly but there feels a more positive vibe around VfL Wolfsburg for the first time in many months. On Saturday, they welcome a rapidly improving FC Schalke 04. This match will be a good indication to see which or either side has the ability to get back into the continental qualification race or whether it will be a season of mid-table mediocrity.