Wolfsburg (AFP) – The answer was short, quick and clear. After returning to Wolfsburg, Oliver Glasner was asked if he sometimes regrets not being here anymore.
In a Champions League club he would assemble a whole squad and strengthened it even with national players like Luca Waldschmidt, Dodi Lukbakio and Lucas Nmica. But Glasner just said, “No.” And so powerfully that you can think of three exclamation points.
The 47-year-old has coached Eintracht Frankfurt since this summer and won 1-1 (1-0) at his old club with his new club. In front of 9,266 spectators, Wolfsburg achieved a goal-scoring rate of 15:6 and after the first loss of points, the Bundesliga season lost first place in the table to Bayern Munich. On the other hand, the Frankfurt team did not win a match under Glasner. What it all shows: This point was also happier than it deserves. The Austrian certainly did not improve in terms of sport as a result of his movement.
“Victory was not possible today”
Glasner knows all this and has not covered up anything. “We couldn’t win today, we have to be that honest. Wolfsburg put an incredible amount of pressure and had an incredible amount of power in the game. They gave us hardly any air to breathe.” The Frankfurt run of Sam Lammers (38) lasted until the 70th minute when he met Wout Weghorst. “But we can continue to build on that performance. We are about to find each other. And the guys are very willing to make things better.”
It was never really about a sporting perspective when Glasner left VfL. Otherwise he would have to stay in Wolfsburg. Rather, the reasons were his lack of connection with sports director Jörg Schmädtke and his question about who had an influence on sports planning. How dissonant this separation was, can only be seen from the fact that the former boss did not formally bid farewell to the English Premier League football fans on Sunday.
some goodbyes
Judging by this, his return was actually quite warm. Glasner spoke for a long time before and after the match with managing director Tim Schumacher and VFL professional Maximilian Arnold, who has always appreciated the professional qualities of this coach. “We haven’t hit our heads here in two years,” said the Eintracht coach. “I was very happy to see so many former employees again.” Schmadtke too? “No, I have not met Jörg. But this is not out of the ordinary. When I play against Bayern Munich or Borussia Dortmund, I rarely see my opponent’s sports directors.”
The only person who has nothing to do with all this is Mark van Bommel, Glasner’s successor at Wolfsburg. He never spoke to his predecessor until Sunday night, and he’s capitalized on his development work – and now wants to push VfL forward even more. “I’m glad we got 13 points. “If you look at the match: it looks good,” said the Dutchman. He was disappointed with 1:1. “But if you lose the top of the table, it also means: We are in a very good position.”
