Pal Dardai remains head coach at Hertha BSC. Club identification, youth work, media literacy – the Hungarian is the logical choice for many reasons. Also due to a lack of alternatives. A comment by Marc Schwitzky.
“In football, it’s always the next pass that counts, so no one can guess what will happen afterwards. But the agreement was never that I would become head coach here again. That’s why the clear agreement is that I’ll go back to the academy in the summer,” explained Pal Dardai on April 17, when he was once again appointed head coach of Hertha BSC.
The next pass is played almost 50 days later – the direction in which the ball rolls was not Dardai’s original plan, but is no longer surprising after the last few days. Pal Dardai – the club announced today – will not return to the youth department for the time being and will remain head coach of the Berliners in league two. It’s the best choice Hertha could make – but probably the only one.
Who else?
It’s by no means as if those responsible at Hertha hadn’t looked around. It was heard from club circles that the search for a trainer did not stop with the name Dardai – many variants were discussed, also with investor 777Partners as advisor. The fact that the choice ultimately fell on Hungary also has a lot to do with Hertha’s options.
On the one hand, the financial situation of the “old lady” narrows the field of participants decisively. Due to the economic difficulties, Hertha is simply not able to present extravagant solutions on the trainer’s chair. Florian Kohfeldt, who was briefly discussed in the media, would not have been paid for Hertha. The same goes for many trainers of a similar caliber. Now a Dardai will have his work paid for appropriately, but at the same time would have been more willing to approach his club financially.
Above all, however, the opaque situation surrounding Hertha’s DFL license will have made it difficult to pursue external solutions. For a long time it was not clear how and whether the blue and whites would continue – there was hardly any planning security for talks. The provocative question may be asked: Which trainer of format would have done the possible suicide mission? Taking over Hertha in such a turbulent time must almost be an affair of the heart – as is the case with Dardai. Especially since the current trainer market has few exciting alternatives to offer. Names like Andre Breitenreiter, Manuel Baum, Heiko Herrlich or Markus Gisdol don’t exactly inspire euphoria and none of them have recently proven that they can function in a club in the long term.
Poor but Dardai
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Dardai can fill the Hertha path with life
However, there are far more arguments in favor of Dardai than just the lack of alternatives. Probably the biggest plus is the fact that there is no coach who stands for the new direction that has been taken. Dardai has always filled the “Hertha way”, which is intended to bring the youth academy back into focus. The 47-year-old identifies 100 percent with the club, is passionate about his job and wants to work actively with his own talents – a “perfect match” in modern German.
During his first term in office, Dardai successfully demonstrated what the Hertha way could look like. In addition to experienced mentality players like Vedad Ibisevic, Per Skjelbred or Fabian Lustenberger, there was always room for talent: Arne Maier, Maximilian Mittelstädt, Jordan Torunarigha, but also young professionals brought in from outside like Niklas Stark, Valentino Lazaro or Mitchell Weiser. “I’ve always brought in players whose names still have ‘development potential’ next to them. At Hertha BSC you have to want to develop further.”
So Dardai has already proven to trust talents and to focus on them. In addition, he has already shown that he can set up a functioning squad with team spirit and passion without a lot of money – something that Hertha has been missing for years and is now urgently needed again. The fact that he can fully identify with Hertha’s new old path should weld him and the rest of the club’s management into a unit – in view of the last few years, in which Hertha has often worked past each other, a fist find.
Because they didn’t know what they were doing
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Dardai is calibrated to the Hertha pressure
“He knows every door, can start immediately. He knows the team and also our youth area very well. Those were the decisive points that he can start immediately and does not need any training time,” said sports director Benjamin Weber in mid-April when Dardais was reinstated. He could now have chosen the exact same words, because as in the relegation battle, Hertha is under great time pressure. The new second division season starts on July 28th, so there are only a few weeks left for the pre-season. A new coach would have needed time to get to know the club and its people – time that Hertha doesn’t have. Dardai, on the other hand, knows the club inside out and has also worked with the current squad, so they are well aware of their construction sites.
What Dardai also knows very well is the Berlin media landscape. After 25 years at the club, the Hungarian knows how to deal with the public. If a traditional club like Hertha is relegated, those responsible – above all the coach – must be able to moderate the public media pressure in order to be able to let the team work in peace. Without rest there is no development. In Hertha’s situation, the communication strategy is just as much a part of the trainer’s elementary areas of responsibility as training and tactical skills. Whether with a pithy slogan or a tough analysis – Dardai knows how to deal with the media. As a club legend, he also has a large lobby among the fans, which can contribute to prudence in the environment.
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The myth of ascension formula
“If you want to get promoted, you have to be able to handle a lot of possession of the ball,” it is often said in football thinking. The theory: As a candidate for promotion, clubs are always in the role of favourites, so that solutions in possession of the ball are needed against opponents who are on the defensive. This assumption raises doubts about Pal Dardai – after all, the Hungarian stands for disciplined defensive football and not for creative offensive spectacle. However, the last few years have shown that there are many roads leading to the Bundesliga.
SV Darmstadt 98, Arminia Bielefeld or city rivals Union Berlin – they all rose through their own strong defenses and not through a clear offensive focus. Darmstadt and second division champions Heidenheim were in eighth and tenth place in the ball possession table of the second division. Although a good offensive is certainly a tried and tested means of promotion, it can be interpreted in completely different ways. FC Schalke 04 returned to the Bundesliga last year with 72 goals scored, but these did not come from a specifically designed ball possession concept, but from a clear cross focus on center forward and life insurance Simon Terodde.
Whether vertical counter-football, a rock-solid defense, a lot of dominance or precise crosses – different strategies work in the 2nd Bundesliga. What really matters is the level of dedication and rigor with which those concepts are implemented. So Dardai football in the lower house can lead to success with the right squad. Whether that success can realistically be a direct resurgence, time will tell. But the last few years have shown that nobody does it better at Hertha BSC than Pal Dardai.
