Heated relegation battle and an explosive return: Thomas Reis and his FC Schalke 04 are visiting VfL Bochum for the small Revierderby on Saturday. The trip to his ex-club could be uncomfortable for the coach – sporty and emotional.
Thomas Reis knows what to expect. No, he and Schalke 04 will certainly not be met with “a lot of love” in the VfL Bochum stadium. The situation in the table is “precarious”, both teams in a relegation battle – and as if that weren’t enough for an emotional derby, there is also the explosive return of the S04 coach to the old place of work. However, Reis played down the sensitive issue surrounding himself, especially in Bochum, before the first meeting with his former club. Yes, the separation was “ugly”, but on Saturday (3:30 p.m. / Sky) it was “not VfL Bochum against Thomas Reis, but against Schalke 04,” emphasized the 49-year-old. He himself was “completely relaxed” and looking forward “to returning. Now we are waiting for spicy statements to come. But for me, the focus is on the game.”
For eight years, Reis slipped on the VfL jersey as a player, later he led the club back into the Bundesliga on the sidelines and was celebrated as “anne Castroper” as a hero of promotion. After the historically bad start to the season, it was over there after the 3-1 defeat in the first leg at Schalke last September. Many Bochum fans still resent him for the fact that shortly afterwards he was hired by his unloved competitor from Gelsenkirchen, with whom he had flirted in the summer. And so, deep in the west, one already has a bad premonition of what might await Reis. “It’s important to me that it’s a peaceful derby – regardless of my personal past.”
“I think that a lot of emotions in the ranks are also focused on him,” said Ilja Kaenzig, spokesman for the VfL management, in an interview with the newspapers of the Funke media group. But he wishes “that at some point there will be no more poison arrows flying”, “everyone will speak up and make peace. It’s certainly difficult before the derby.” In the run-up to the match, the matchday posters in the Ruhrpott caused a stir. “We are from Bochum!” emblazoned there in capital letters, a tip towards the ex-coach? “If I’m not from Bochum, who is,” he said in the Sky interview shortly before his release.
But there is also plenty of explosiveness on the pitch. Both clubs are threatened with relegation, with a win bottom Schalke could hand over the red lantern to Bochum thanks to the better goal difference. And while the Royal Blues have been unbeaten for five games, VfL have recently suffered three bankruptcies in a row. The fact that Reis knows the Bochum team is of course an advantage, said VfL coach Thomas Letsch: “We won’t be able to hide much, and vice versa. On the other hand, we also know a bit.”
The game will be a duel “between two teams that have a similar approach in many ways,” said Letsch, who followed promotion coach Reis at VfL last September. The 54-year-old praised his predecessor for his work at Schalke: “Thomas managed to stabilize the team.” Schalke haven’t lost any of their five games in the second half of the season and are now within three points of VfL. Despite this explosive condition, the game is “not an endgame”, Letsch confirmed: “We have to manage to bring a mixture of cool heads and clever tactical discipline to the pitch while at the same time being completely emotional and intense.”
When asked if he had concerns that his team was overly motivated, Letsch said: “When I think back to the last game, I have to say: I prefer it when we overpace than when we have so little pace like in Bremen .” “Nothing was good” at 0: 3: “It was very bad defensively and very bad offensively.”
In the Ruhr Stadium, where the small district derby in the Bundesliga is taking place for the first time in 13 years, Reis expects a “fantastic and emotional game for everyone”, regardless of his person. It could be “very loud” and “heated”, then it would be crucial “that you keep a cool head,” emphasized the coach. Reis left it open whether he would wear the white hoodie with the huge Schalke logo, as he did in the redeeming win against VfB Stuttgart last week (2-1). “I’ll wear what I think is right.”
