Mainz 05: Crisis situation with no guarantee of rescue

Switching off over the holidays? Celebrate a contemplative Christmas? Christian Heidel immediately shook his head at such thoughts on the fourth Advent. The sports director of FSV Mainz 05 said he didn’t want to deny that “I also think about something else for a moment on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Football takes up those two days, and I’ll do that too.” Otherwise, there is work to be done, emphasized Heidel. Because once again the sporting alarm bells are ringing in Mainz, an economically healthy location for medium-sized Bundesliga players, before the turn of the year.

After the zero number in the basement duel on Sunday with the third-from-bottom St. Pauli, the zero-five teams overwintered as bottom with a measly eight points. What gives hope: The doer Heidel, 62, already knows all of this. The Mainz native would not have returned to his hometown club before Christmas 2020 if the entire club had not been in free fall at the time. In this respect, Heidel was important to emphasize on Sunday: “You can’t compare it at all!” In the current crisis, unlike 2020, there is “peace in the club and a stable team”. Back then, “everything was completely swapped and turned upside down. That’s not necessary at all now.” In addition, Mainz has already “mastered five or six difficult relegation battles” since being promoted to the first division in 2009, Heidel recalled: “If you would rather win almost all the games, you have to go to Bayern Munich.”

On the other hand, the shirtless Heidel has been in the business too long to derive a guarantee from his experience with crisis situations: “Everyone tells me: You can do it! That’s our claim too, but there’s no guarantee. We’re hunters again – but we have to hunt really hard.” Like five years ago, when coach Bo Svensson, who he brought back and started with just six points, made a fabulous comeback in the second half of the season, which was repeated in a similar way under Bo Henriksen in 2024, when Mainz was in a relegation zone with twelve points after 21 match days.

The level-headed Swiss Urs Fischer is now expected to follow in the footsteps of the two Danish rescuers. True to his nature, Fischer, 59, also took the precaution of reminding people that history does not result in automatism. Heidel praised that everything the new coach does is “hand and foot”. However, Fischer’s pragmatic approach tends to ignore the fact that the Bundesliga is actually an entertainment business. So on Sunday there was a basement duel for the horror chamber.

Manager Heidel rejects the accusation of relying too much on Talent Weiper to succeed Burkardt

“I had the feeling that St. Pauli didn’t want to win here,” speculated 05 national player Nadiem Amiri, who suffered from having to act as a striker and not as a playmaker. Mainz also made an extreme amount of mistakes in the attacking third. “We had 13 shots on goal, but only one was on target,” said Fischer, describing the main shortcoming. It was only in stoppage time that his team tested visiting goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj for the first and only time. The Mainz team could also have put the much-quoted “Grandma in the goal” instead of their replacement goalkeeper Daniel Batz. St. Pauli coach Alexander Blessin said it was clear that it would be “a game with few chances”. One point for both of them was the highest possible pre-Christmas reward for such a negative performance.

Fischer didn’t want to criticize his Mainz team too much, especially since they had previously shown a high level of effectiveness at FC Bayern (2:2) and in the Conference League against Samsunspor (2:0). In his first four games without defeat, Fischer managed to stabilize the structure. At Union Berlin, an iron foundation once served as the basis for Fischer’s successful work. There is also a basis in Mainz, it is “not a construction site,” explained Heidel: “It is a huge advantage that everything is in order in this team.” Nevertheless, new impulses are needed from the transfer market in January. According to Heidel, he will not reveal which position needs to be increased, because: “Then the prices will rise by 50 percent.” However, it is obvious that a goalscorer is on Mainz’s wish list.

Heidel is annoyed by the accusation of having placed too much trust in talented Nelson Weiper after Jonathan Burkardt’s move to Eintracht Frankfurt: “The boy is 20 years old, that is always forgotten.” Comparisons with the senior national player Burkardt, who, as a mature captain at the age of 25, contributed 18 goals in the previous season, are not productive: “I refuse to say: We are there because we don’t have a center forward who has scored ten goals. We were hoping that Nelly (Weiper) would get into this position. You are always smarter in hindsight. But of course we have to take a closer look on the offensive,” announced Heidel. A storming hopeful would ideally arrive by the start of training on January 2nd. Shortly afterwards, between January 10th and 17th, the English week will be against Union Berlin, Heidenheim and Cologne one after the other. Three opponents who should still be the same size.