The sports director of the ÖFB conjures up solidarity before the international matches in October and takes the team boss under protection.
Austria's soccer team has to travel to the two World Cup qualifiers in Faroe Islands and Denmark with bad omens. Including some long-term injuries, almost ten players are out. Above all, the failures of Arnautovic, Baumgartner, Dragovic and Lienhart should hurt.
“The last few days have been less pleasant,” says ÖFB sports director Peter Schöttel, who could have foreseen the cancellations due to his contacts with the players and their clubs. “Nonetheless, we want to finish this course in the best possible way.”
The Viennese are well aware that a lot went wrong in September. “We know exactly that it was bad,” says Schöttel, but it is primarily the players who are responsible. However, he takes the much-criticized team boss out of the line of fire. “Franco Foda has been blamed for many things for which he is little,” said the Rapid legend.
The KURIER wanted to know what those were. “I was a defender myself, recently I saw so many individual mistakes by very experienced players. Plus a number of chances that were not used frivolously. In any case, I find it difficult when the success after the European Championship is only passed on to the players and in failure then only the team boss should be to blame, “said Schöttel, who recently also missed” efficiency, determination and assertiveness “.
At least the number one excuse often used in football, the lack of evaluation of chances, can be partially refuted. In the most recent international match, the 0-1 win against Scotland in Vienna, the ÖFB team had almost no chances to score. The value of “expected goals”, in which the quality of the scoring chances is calculated on the basis of distance, shooting angle and defenders between ball and goal, was 0.84 against the British. In other words: The ÖFB team did not even have enough chances for a single hit. For comparison: the bulkheads had a value of 1.82.
At least in the previous game against Israel, which was lost 5-2 in Haifa, the Austrians were ahead in this statistic and had more chances than the more effective opponent. However: The fact that the Austrians have little idea when they have the ball and that games with little chance have been seen regularly for a year can no longer be dismissed out of hand.
“We trust Foda”
In exactly this discipline, the Austrians will now be in demand on Saturday. On the artificial turf of Torshavn, the Faroe Islands are about to get dangerously into the penalty area. Of all things, technicians like Arnautovic and Baumgartner are now missing.
Peter Schöttel is nevertheless in good spirits: “The discussions will end when we are successful in sport and perform well. We are in the middle of an emotional rollercoaster where things have recently gone very quickly in every direction,” says the 54-year-old zur current situation. “We were rightly criticized as a team because some things didn't work. Otherwise, it's the case that Franco has a contract and enjoys our trust.”
Regarding the team boss's personality, Schöttel says that there were of course discussions. Between him and the designated ÖFB President Gerhard Milletich, as well as between Foda and Milletich. “There is a commitment that we want to do this course in the best possible way. I assume that we will go to the world championship with Franco Foda.”
In any case, as requested by Milletich, Schöttel has thought about the negative case. “I continued to work on the profile of the team boss, obtained one or the other opinion. There is always an exchange with people who know their way around,” says Schöttel. But: “I think we can turn things around.”
It remains to be seen whether this commitment will last a week after the game against Denmark in Copenhagen.
