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Less than an hour after the final whistle, it was at least clear what Schalke 04 had promised Huub Stevens.
Then the “coach of the century” came out of the catacombs and entered the arena again.
Stevens stood in front of the cameras with his legs apart and announced his messages in several interviews one after the other.
He would have looked at his players in the dressing room, seen their deep dejection and then spoken to them.
“I told the boys: we can't give up.
That would be the very last thing.
You always have to keep fighting.
We can only get out of there if we all pull together, "said Stevens and added:" I have the hope that we will get out of this together. "
These are of course perseverance.
But if he, Stevens, presented them resolutely, then they might actually have had a psychological effect - if there had been something beforehand in this game against Arminia Bielefeld that would have supported them at least a little.
Schalke's Malick Thiaw (r.) Fell after the bitter defeat against Bielefeld on the lawn of the Gelsenkirchen Arena
Source: dpa / Guido Kirchner
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Be it several clear scoring chances or at least the permanent scoring of the opposing goal.
A rebellion that, if not down, would at least have shaken the enemy.
Schalke has no chance
But there was no sign of that.
Schalke was, this is the bitter truth, almost without a chance against the table penultimate.
The Bielefeld, who were traded as relegated number one before the start of the season, were clearly the better team in a muddled relegation duel.
Schalke deservedly lost 0: 1 (0: 0).
Stevens had to admit that too.
“I think the players gave everything.
But we made mistakes, which punished us, ”said the 67-year-old, who only triggered a media hype on Friday and thus distracted something from the misery Schalke is in for a day.
Stevens had agreed to take over from the hapless Manuel Baum in order to win this eminently important game.
The Dutchman was only able to lead one training session, have a few conversations, make a constellation, just give two speeches: one to greet them on Friday, one before kick-off on Saturday.
Huub Stevens couldn't do much on the sidelines
Source: dpa / Guido Kirchner
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The game will very likely remain the only Bundesliga game that he coaches as part of his fourth engagement with his club, Stevens made it clear on Saturday - albeit with a wink.
"Let yourself be surprised," he said again.
“I would like to be at home in peace on Christmas and New Year's Eve.
I'm not allowed to do anything else. ”On Tuesday, after the DFB Cup game against SSV Ulm, it should be over for good.
Schneider has trainers in mind
Nobody knows what will happen to the Schalke guys, who seem to be stumbling towards relegation.
“We agreed to two games with Huub and it will stay that way.
I assume so, ”Jochen Schneider told Sky.
Even the sports director doesn't want to or can't commit.
Because if he does not succeed in hiring a successor, he might have to speak to Stevens again.
However, according to Schneider, he already had a new coach “in his head”.
So the speculation continues.
On the one hand there is Friedhelm Funkel, like Stevens 67 and actually already out of business.
After he was released from Fortuna Düsseldorf in January, he had declared his career over.
Stevens had done that at the end of his last engagement at Schalke in May 2019.
Sparkle would be someone who has proven to be able to stabilize teams that are in free fall.
However, Schneider has not yet approached him.
"I have no contact with Schalke at all," said Funkel on Sunday to WELT.
"And I'm not at all worried about what might happen."
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This suggests that Schneider is thinking in a different direction.
Dimitrios Grammozis, who last worked for second division Darmstadt 98, was one of the candidates in September when Schalke separated from David Wagner.
Thorsten Fink, who resigned from the Japanese first division club Vissel Kobe in September, was also traded at that time.
Another name was played on Sunday: Alexander Zorniger.
Schneider knows the 53-year-old, who worked at Bröndby IF in Denmark until February 2019, from his time at VfB Stuttgart, where Zorniger was a youth coach in 2009.
How capable of action is Schneider still?
However, it is questionable how autonomously Schneider can still act on the trainer question.
He is also heavily criticized at least by parts of the supervisory board.
Another question is what options the new coach would have at all.
The economic situation is tense.
Reinforcements would probably only be possible if other players were to be successfully removed from the payroll beforehand.
It is increasingly doubted whether the team in its current composition is able to turn things around after 29 straight Bundesliga games without a win.
On Saturday, the Schalke team did not manage to bring Bielefeld into serious trouble.
Attack attempts ricocheted off, there was no depth in the game.
A long-range shot by Nassim Boujellab, which Bielefeld keeper Stefan Ortega was able to parry, was the only possibility before Arminen captain Fabian Klos (53rd) made it 0-1, who came completely free to the header.
A blocked shot by substitute Ahmed Kutucu was the only equalizer that deserved the name.
With only four points and six points behind the relegation place, hope is gradually fading - regardless of who will follow Stevens and when.
The players were also repeatedly asked whether there was a risk that they would give up.
"If you think about giving up, you should go," said Captain Omar Mascarell.
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