2024-04-08 15:49:07
After 19 match days, Fürth was still second in the 2nd Bundesliga. But since then things have gone steeply downhill for the “cloverleaf”.
At the beginning of the year things looked so good for Alexander Zorniger’s team. After a 1-0 win in Paderborn and a 2-1 win against Kiel, Greuther Fürth was in second place in the 2nd Bundesliga at the end of January with 35 points. The former Bundesliga club didn’t really think about promotion, but they were still very happy about their own performance.
Nine match days later, the situation is completely different. Fürth only has four points more and the “cloverleaf” has slipped to eighth place in the table. Instead of being 4 points behind league leaders St. Pauli, they are now 18 points behind.
The latest low point: the 0-2 loss on Sunday against bottom team Osnabrück. Fürth fell far short of expectations, especially in the first half. The bottom team took the lead in the third minute. A little more than a quarter of an hour later, Fürth’s Oussama Haddadi invited the opponent to score the second goal with a bad pass. “It doesn’t work that way,” coach Zorniger commented on the dropout.
“Extremely bitter afternoon”
The 56-year-old himself feels the trust of the club management even in the crisis. “I feel very safe,” replied Zorniger, who was visibly astonished at the discussion of his position. Rather, he spoke of “a high degree of identification” in the collaboration.
Goalkeeper Jonas Urbig also blamed the players for the defeat and spoke of an “extremely bitter afternoon”. The loanee from Cologne added: “We were vulnerable at the back.”
Fürth has conceded twelve goals in the last five games and has only scored two. Goal scorers like Armindo Sieb and Branimir Hrgota are looking for form, but are also getting fewer balls than a few months ago.
But the angry elf doesn’t have much time to think. On Friday 1.FC Kaiserslautern comes to the Ronhof. Another defeat could worsen the crisis in Franconia, even if staying in the league is hardly at risk.