Mehmet scholl was not even present, but the ex-national player still caused a lot of trouble for vfb stuttgart. More than the well-deserved 0:2 against bayer 04 leverkusen, the 47-year-old aroused the swabians’ suspicions after the game.
His provocative statements on the young generation of coaches in the fubball national league provoked. Vfb manager michael reschke described scholl’s exaggerated criticism, which also attacked stuttgart’s hannes wolf on bayerischer rundfunk radio, as "absolute nastiness.
"We’re driving against the wall," scholl even added in the "bild" newspaper. "Students have taken over the junior performance centers and our great love, soccer," the 47-year-old warned against young coaches like wolf or schalke’s domenico tedesco.
Wolf was already busy dealing with the first home defeat of the year when he had to deal with scholl. "That he, as an ex-professional, places himself above coaches who were not professionals themselves is borderline," the 36-year-old countered. Yet the young coach is already plagued by his club’s sporting worries. Vfb has collected just one point in the past three games. And the outlook until the winter break is now extremely dubious: after an away game at hoffenheim on wednesday, record champions FC bayern munchen come to stuttgart next saturday.
There was also trouble on the other side. Bayer leverkusen’s sports director rudi voller once again voiced his displeasure with the referee despite the win. After a long evening of soccer, only heiko herrlich, wolf’s coach colleague at bayer leverkusen, had little to complain about. The 46-year-old left late at night almost completely satisfied with his team on the way back to the rhineland. Herrlich and his team have been undefeated in the league for ten games now, and for a few hours at least, bayer 04 was even able to move up to a champions league spot.
Nevertheless, herrlich also had a few worry lines after the match. Above all, the possible absence of offensive player julian brandt weighed on spirits. The 21-year-old was in the 70. In the second minute, stuttgart’s santiago ascacibar fouled him and he limped off the pitch. The argentinian only received a yellow card. This was not only met with incomprehension by voll. After all, leverkusen’s wendell had seen the red card for an almost identical action last weekend against dortmund’s gonzalo castro.
Eurosport expert matthias sammer accused referee deniz aytekin and his video assistant of "clear failure. Fuller also asked himself in frustration: "where was the video assistant??". Brandt’s flesh wound must now be examined more closely in leverkusen. Herrlich was so angry in the meantime that he hurled a bottle to the ground – and was sent behind the bench by aytekin for it.
Later the coach said sorry, but also jokingly: "other coaches have thrown bottles at the spectators without getting a sending-off."At least herrlich didn’t have to deal with statements from mehmet scholl afterwards. After all, he was once a professional himself.