Hütter was stolen from Eintracht Frankfurt for 7.5 million euros in the summer, after which there was no sporting success. Gladbach is 13th in the table with nine laps to go. only four points before the relegation place, which is held by Hertha. Gladbach’s sports director Roland Vikus recently answered questions about Hütter’s backing cryptically. “There is Plan A, and I’m following it.”
Instead of Hütter, his assistant Christian Peintinger will coach. The Styrian didn’t want to get involved in speculation about what would happen in the event of a defeat. “We are very aware of the situation. But it’s not about the situation and what would happen after the game – it’s just about this game.” Incidentally, there are two coaching jobs in Gladbach – Hertha’s Tayfun Korkut would probably be fired if he lost.
Hoffenheim asks Bayern to hit
The top game in the table increases three hours earlier when leaders FC Bayern play fourth-placed Hoffenheim four days after beating Salzburg 7-1. For the Munich coach Julian Nagelsmann it is a reunion with his ex-club, and for the first time in front of fans. “I am looking forward. The other games in Hoffenheim were all without spectators.”
The 34-year-old is excited about the reception in Sinsheim. “Hopefully the whistle is over now, that would have been more acute in the first few weeks afterwards,” said Nagelsmann on his departure from Hoffenheim in the summer of 2019: “So I’m looking forward to returning to where I spent an incredible nine years. After moving to RB Leipzig in 2019, he had won twice with the Saxons at Hoffenheim (2-0, 1-0). Both games were “ghost games” because of the pandemic.
“The games with Leipzig in Hoffenheim were always very complicated,” said Nagelsmann. In addition, TSG have won three of the last five home games against Bayern. “So we are well warned to deliver a top performance. The opponent is very dangerous, they have won the last four games.”
Glasner questions quarantine
Second Dortmund, nine points behind Bayern, welcomes Arminia Bielefeld on Sunday, and Oliver Glasner’s Eintracht Frankfurt plays Bochum at home on Sunday. In the run-up to this game, the Upper Austrian questioned the quarantine for people infected with coronavirus. “You have to start asking yourself whether it makes sense if someone has to blow their nose three times a day that they should be quarantined for a week. Or if we don’t say: Let’s finally learn to live with Corona.” With the new Omikron variant, you “may have to rethink and adapt the measures”.
There had recently been a few coronavirus cases at several clubs, and two Bundesliga games at FSV Mainz 05 were canceled due to the coronavirus. In the Eintracht squad, everyone has been vaccinated, boosted or recovered. Glasner therefore advocated no longer comparing the current situation with that of two years or a year ago. It is “time to come up with a scenario to learn to live with Corona without putting partially healthy people in quarantine”.
Glasner himself reported that he had recently completed several CoV tests after symptoms, all of which were negative. “It still exists, the normal cold and the normal cough. Hard to believe, but I had him,” said the 47-year-old.
