Coach Svensson under pressure: At the end of the Mainz road?

Christian Heidel’s message on the subject of Bo Svensson sounded like a lifetime job guarantee. Journalists no longer dared to ask him the coaching question because they knew full well that it wouldn’t be asked, announced the sports director of FSV Mainz 05. That was at the general meeting on Monday evening.

Two days later, only half of this confession remained. Sports director Martin Schmidt said after the 3-0 defeat in the DFB whether Svensson would still be on the bench on Saturday against RB Leipzig (3:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky). -Cup at Hertha BSC. That depends on the result of the analysis. As unlikely as it is that Schmidt made this change of course without consulting Heidel, it is just as unimaginable that the analysis would be in Svensson’s favor.

On the one hand, there are the facts: bottom of the Bundesliga with three points. Cup exit in the second round at a second division club. Haven’t won a championship game since April. On the other hand, the low-energy impressions that the team, the coach and the sports management convey. Mainz have rarely impressed on the pitch. Nothing remains of the football propagated by Svensson, which brought success back and prevented relegation after he took office in January 2020.

Only Klopp was allowed to relegate with Mainz

There may be many reasons for this. In the current season, among other things, the numerous, sometimes lengthy, injury-related absences that have pushed the squad to its limits. For two years, the 05ers had done very well by working with a manageable number of professionals. Consciously, as they always assured, because they wanted to keep the competition high, make all players feel needed and not have half a dozen players sitting in the stands in a bad mood every week.

Apparently it was different: “The squad is so small because we can’t afford a bigger one,” said Heidel, dispelling the “We’re not forced to sell players” mantra: Selling Anton Stach in the summer was for economic reasons been essential. According to reports, another sale of a similar size would have been necessary to balance the transfer balance.

Svensson is not to blame for this. However, the coach is obviously no longer able to give his completely insecure team the impulses they need to regain their old stability and belief in themselves in order to survive in the fight against relegation. The 2:2 in Bochum (thanks to two own goals) was a low point, the 0:3 in Berlin was a revelation.

After these desolate performances, it’s not about whether you think Svensson is likeable or a good coach, and certainly not about the fact that Mainz 05 supposedly always defied the usual mechanisms of professional football and stuck by their coaches even in difficult times. In fact, the club has only consciously been relegated from the Bundesliga with one team: in 2007 with Jürgen Klopp. Things almost went wrong with Achim Beierlorzer in 2019/20, and after two games of the following season it was an early end for him – like for all his colleagues since Klopp. Except Thomas Tuchel, who left on his own initiative. Now Svensson seems to have reached the end of his journey in Mainz.