Florian Kohfeldt is no longer a coach at VfL Wolfsburg. The Bundesliga soccer club reacted on Sunday to a sportingly messed-up season and released the 39-year-old a good seven months after his commitment. “In trusting and honest discussions, we mutually agreed to end the cooperation,” said Managing Director Jörg Schmadtke.
The VfL top continued and intensified the analysis of the season on Saturday evening after the 2: 2 (1: 2) against the German champions Bayern Munich and on Sunday. “We came to the realization that we would be under pressure right from the start, which would mean too much of a burden for the team, coach and club,” he said.
The move came as a bit of a surprise after improved performance by the Volkswagen club, as the VfL leadership around Schmadtke and sports director Marcel Schäfer Kohfeldt had recently always backed him up and publicly spoke of wanting to compete with him next season.
For the Wolfsburg it is already the second change of coach in this sportingly completely failed season. Former Bayern captain Mark van Bommel took over the club in the summer as a Champions League participant. After eight games without a win, the Dutchman had to leave in October. Under Kohfeldt, the club got involved in the relegation battle after heavy defeats such as 0: 3 in Augsburg and 1: 6 in Dortmund.
Kohfeldt started with two wins against Bayer Leverkusen (2-0) and FC Augsburg (1-0) in the Bundesliga and in between another win in the Champions League against Red Bull Salzburg (2-1). After that, a negative series of eight defeats and two draws in ten competitive games began for the last team in Group G of the premier class until February.
Despite some victories after the end of the winter transfer window and the surprise purchase of attacker Max Kruse, VfL only scored 20 points in the second half of the season. The series of defeats led the team to twelfth place in the Bundesliga at the end of the season.
