Kickers Offenbach: Personnel Concerns and Disciplinary Measures

The suspension of four players exacerbates personnel concerns at Kickers Offenbach. However, sports director Hock is sticking to the measure.

Offenbach – Those responsible for the regional football league team Kickers Offenbach spent Tuesday evening watching football. But it wasn’t the Champions League on the program, but the Rhine-Main Cup. At the Wiener Ring sports center, sports director Christian Hock, coach Christian Neidhart and his assistant Jouke Faber watched the duel between OFC and FSV Frankfurt. The game is played with teams made up of professionals, U21, U19 and U17 players. “We wanted to get an idea of ​​which talent might be able to take part in our training soon,” says Hock.

A few places have become free after the OFC banished Mike Feigenspan, Julian Albrecht, Christian Derflinger and Noah Vuko to the U21s for an indefinite period. And in view of the still tense personnel situation, it would be advantageous to have further alternatives, at least in training. On Tuesday, for example, only 19 men took part in the afternoon practice session, including former OFC players Angelo Tramontana (goal) and Robin Scheu, who were guests. The latter could possibly be a reinforcement for the right side. However, signing the clubless 28-year-old is currently not an issue. “We have 30 men in the squad, a few have dropped out recently,” says Hock calmly.

However, four of the 30 men were banished. Sascha Korb (hopes to be able to start running training soon after tearing his cruciate ligament) and captain Maximilian Rossmann (no longer wearing special shoes after tearing his Achilles tendon) will be out for a long time. For Irwin Pfeiffer (has overcome the muscular problems, but was still doing his rounds alone on Tuesday) and Damjan Balic (only been back in training for a few days after tearing a ligament in his foot) it will probably take a few more days until their comeback. And then there is the wave of colds that put four players (Kristjan Arh Cesen, Noel Knothe, Keanu Staude, Benjamin Hadzic) out of action at the beginning of the week. So it could be tight with a 20-man squad for the game on Saturday (2 p.m.) at TSV Steinbach Haiger.

“It wouldn’t be the first or only time that a team in the regional league only has 18 or 19 men on the team. “You can only change five times anyway,” says Hock. In any case, Arh Cesen and Hadzic started training again on Wednesday, so they will probably be available on Saturday.

The sports director also sees no problem in fulfilling the U23 rule despite the banishment of Albrecht (22) and Vuko (19). In substitute goalkeeper Lucas Becker (21), Vincent Moreno (21), Almin Mesanovic (19), Leon Müller (23) and Jan Urbich (19), there are still enough players who meet the criteria available. In addition, according to Hock, Roko Mrvelj (19) could “gradually become an issue again” after recovering from his injury. This also applies to Balic (21). And if necessary, there is the option of putting Marcel Jonetzko (20) on the bench as the third goalkeeper.

However, there could be bottlenecks in individual positions. Without Feigenspan and possibly Staude and Pfeiffer, there would only be two trained offensive wingers available in Dominik Wanner and Rafael Garcia, who was only sitting in the stands in the 1:3 against FSV Mainz 05 II. That is certainly a certain risk, but one that those responsible are consciously accepting with their disciplinary measures. “At the end of the day, it’s about us implementing this matter as discussed,” Hock clarifies. “It doesn’t matter whether players are sick or injured. We have already had personnel problems in central defense and in the six-man position this season. But I think that the squad allows us to move everything back and forth so that we can find a solution.” For example, by returning to the 3-5-2 system, for which Arh Cesen, Wanner, Moreno and Ronny Marcos had four potential rail players available. Escape to the front is also conceivable. When the personnel situation was similarly tense in mid-October, the Kickers showed one of their best offensive performances to date in a 4-3-3 formation against TSG Balingen and ultimately narrowly but deservedly won 3-2.

By Christian Düncher