Neither Bruno Labbadia nor Christian Streich believe that the suspension of the Freiburg coach before VfB Stuttgart’s away game plays a role. A statistic speaks against the sports club.
Before VfB Stuttgart’s guest appearance at SC Freiburg this Saturday (3:30 p.m.), there is not much that is encouraging. The last performances were too poor, the sports club seems too powerful, which ranks sixth in the table 18 points ahead of VfB.
Only a look at the statistics should give hope to the long-suffering Stuttgart fans, 3,400 of whom will support their team in Breisgau on Saturday. It concerns the man on the bench. As is well known, Christian Streich has been sitting there in Freiburg for eleven years. But not this Saturday. The 57-year-old has to serve a yellow-red suspension inside the stadium because he misbehaved a bit in Dortmund (1: 5) last weekend. This is where the statistics come into play: Whenever Christian Streich was suspended for an SC Bundesliga game, his team got nothing. This has happened three times so far; once due to a corona infection, twice back problems prevented Streich from playing. The record: one draw, two defeats. Only in the Europa League was the sports club able to win games without its head coach.
Streich was represented each time by his assistant coach Lars Vossler – and this was the case against VfB this Saturday. A good omen? VfB coach Bruno Labbadia doesn’t give much of that. “Sure, it’s a certain weakness when the coach isn’t on the sidelines,” said Labbadia. “But I don’t see it that critically at Freiburg because this team is incredibly well-rehearsed.” Hopefully he still sees his own encouragement that will make him believe in his team.
