Arminia Bielefeld has parted ways with head coach Frank Kramer after 13 months in the Bundesliga relegation battle.
The club announced this on Wednesday after the "Neue Westfälische" and the "Westfalen-Blatt" had previously reported on it.
The club no longer trusts the 49-year-old to initiate a turnaround after the 3-0 defeat at the weekend against FC Bayern Munich in the final spurt of the season with four games left.
"After many intensive discussions and a detailed analysis of the current situation, we are no longer convinced that we can do this again in the existing constellation.
We want to give the team an impetus to stay in the Bundesliga," said Arminia's sporting director Samir Arabi.
In December and January, Kramer had led the team from the bottom of the table to 14th place with six games without defeat.
However, the team had suffered six defeats in the past seven games without a win and scored just one goal.
In the table, Arminia is two points behind the relegation rank and three points behind rank 15. Next Saturday (3.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky) the game at 1. FC Köln is coming up, after that the games will follow against the direct competitor Hertha BSC as well as against VfL Bochum and RB Leipzig.
Rise of the goalkeeping coach
The new head coach will be the previous goalkeeping coach Marco Kostmann, who will be supported by Michael Henke.
Ottmar Hitzfeld's long-time assistant coach at Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern Munich was recently without a club.
The new team of coaches led the first session with the team on Wednesday morning.
Kramer was hired on March 2, 2021 as the successor to promotion coach Uwe Neuhaus, from whom Arminia had parted ways after five games without a win, and led East Westphalia to remain in the class.
At the end of the season, after a 2-0 win at VfB Stuttgart on matchday 34, the Bielefeld team took the saving 15th place in the table.
“Frank Kramer managed to stay up with the team last year.
No one will ever take this success away from him.
After a bumpy start to the season, we got out of the crisis very successfully together, but haven't been able to retrieve this form lately," explained Arabi.
In addition to Kramer, who still has a contract until June 30, 2023, assistant coach Ilia Gruev is no longer in the team.
It is the fifth sacking this season after Mark van Bommel (VfL Wolfsburg), Pal Dardai and Tayfun Korkut (both Hertha BSC) and Jesse Marsch (RB Leipzig).