Bundesliga: Christian Streich adapts to keep Freiburg flying
October 26, 2018
Felix Magath doesn't like the current trend of German clubs promoting young coaches from within.
"Who would these club bosses choose if they were about to have heart surgery?" the veteran Bundesliga coach told Bild. "The young doctor who has just passed his exams with flying colors? Or the experienced doctor who has performed the procedure a thousand times?"
The 65-year-old will have been watching closely on Friday night then when two of the Bundesliga's more experienced coaches met in the Black Forest as Christian Streich's Freiburg inflicted a 3-1 defeat on Dieter Hecking's Gladbach.
Hecking, the second-most experienced current coach in the Bundesliga, behind Düsseldorf's Friedhelm Funkel, has received deserved praise after leading the Foals to their best start since 1988 – including a 3-0 hammering of champions Bayern Munich two weeks ago.
Streich, the Bundesliga's fifth-oldest current coach (53), missed his club's two opening defeats with illness but has since returned to halt the early slide.
Friday's win over Gladbach meant Freiburg have lost only one of their last seven Bundesliga games – a 4-1 defeat to Augsburg on matchday six. Ausgburg created a total of 12 chances on that day and hammered Freiburg. Streich, as alert and aware as ever, acted decisively to restore some defensive stability and discipline.
Streich adapts
Freiburg changed things around. Despite having created a total of 29 chances of their own in their opening four matches, Streich switched the focus towards defensive stability, holding both high-flying Hertha Berlin and a talented Bayer Leverkusen side to confidence-restoring draws and restricting their opponents to only five dangerous chances combined.
The question was whether Freiburg could still pose a threat up front without sacrificing their stability. Streich said the key to finding that balance was to "make better footballing decisions up front." On Friday night, three excellent decisions shortly after halftime led to Freiburg's second goal.
With the score level at 1-1, Nicolas Höfler capitalized on Lars Stindl's loose ball in midfield before finding Janik Haberer on the right wing with a perfectly-weighted throughball. Haberer cut back to the edge of the box where 22-year-old Luca Waldschmidt finished with aplomb into the bottom corner to restore Freiburg's lead.
"We worked it really well," Waldschmidt told broadcaster Eurosport afterwards. "We allowed Gladbach to play a bit and saved our energy for the right moments."
Nils Petersen, who scored the second fastest penalty in Bundesliga history to open the scoring for Freiburg on Friday night, shared the same sentiment. "We have a good mixture," he said. "We showed last week [in Berlin] that it's difficult to play against us but we can also create chances."
Höler's injury-time finish from the half-way line, after Yann Sommer had cleared poorly and left his goal unguarded, was the icing on the cake.
Once again, Christian Streich is using all his experience and tactical nous to ensure that Freiburg continue to punch above their weight. Friday's win brought up a century of Bundesliga victories for Streich, an experienced doctor performing a delicate operation against the odds for the 100th time.