Daniel Bauer at VfL Wolfsburg: He can continue for the time being

FFriends of VfL Wolfsburg should be more interested in how things are going with Yannick Gerhardt. Does he simply play the role of a supplementary player who sometimes comes in from the bench and sometimes not? Is he struggling with his status within the team because he was once again presented with sinfully expensive additions? Or is he plowing the Wolfsburg midfield as a regular because the additions have once again proven to be an expensive sin?

On Sunday, in the 4-0 defeat against VfB Stuttgart, Gerhardt, 31, was not only on the pitch from the start. In the absence of Maximilian Arnold, he also wore the captain’s armband on his arm. In, out, important, dispensable – in his almost ten years of service at VfL, Yannick Gerhardt has had every status imaginable. The underlying pattern is clear to see: From the perspective of the Wolfsburg coaches and sports directors, Gerhardt is not someone who embodies visions of the future, but rather an emergency worker who always becomes important when things don’t go well. Or, to put it slightly more bluntly: it is always needed when what can still be saved needs to be saved in the Autostadt.

The fact that Gerhardt has been used more often in the last few weeks is a great thing for him, especially since his personal performances were good. However, as mentioned, its increased importance cannot mean anything good from Wolfsburg’s perspective.

After all the crises that the factory club has gone through in recent years, despite the many millions made available for free use by the parent company VW: VfL Wolfsburg has never been so desolate at this point in a season. 17th place in the table, with 14 defeats, and also thrown out of the DFB Cup against second division club Holstein Kiel, who were also threatened with relegation. In this respect, it is not surprising that there was once again a lot of discussion about the coach in Wolfsburg.

Contrary to what was initially widely reported, the hapless Daniel Bauer, who took over from the Dutchman Paul Simonis last November, will not be followed by the experienced Dieter Hecking. Command back, he said Kicker on Monday: Bauer remains in his job and will have another chance in the home game against Hamburger SV on Saturday. Confirmation from VfL followed promptly. “We discussed and analyzed the overall situation intensively. We came to the conclusion that, together with Daniel Bauer and his coaching team, we were drawing the right conclusions in order to be successful against HSV,” said sports director Peter Christiansen. The situation is “serious”, but not hopeless.

That would have been a nice punch line: Hecking is not only the last VfL coach to have brought the Autostadt a trophy, the 2015 DFB Cup. He is also the first Wolfsburg coach with whom midfielder Yannick Gerhardt had to deal. And there were quite a few of them. Gerhardt has seen an impressive eleven coaches come and go since the summer of 2016, including prominent names such as Niko Kovac, Ralph Hasenhüttl and Mark van Bommel. Only the Austrian Oliver Glasner was really successful during this time, and with VfL he achieved what should be possible more often given the economic conditions: qualifying for the Champions League.

Only coach Oliver Glasner was really successful in Wolfsburg recently

Next one, please? In any case, after the events of the last few days, Bauer seems like a coach who only has a very manageable half-life. One of the more exciting questions regarding this coaching position is who is actually responsible for filling coaching positions in Wolfsburg – and for how long. According to the Wolfsburg General Crisis meetings that lasted several hours were held and were attended by, among others: Supervisory Board Chairman Sebastian Rudolph, Supervisory Board member and ex-goalkeeper Diego Benaglio, Sports Director Peter Christiansen, Sports Director Pirmin Schwegler. The fact that in this constellation a decision was only made after long debates tells us something about the quorum of the Wolfsburg leadership circle.

Christiansen, who has been head of sports since 2024, will most likely not be able to keep his position beyond the summer. Schwegler, successor to Sebastian Schindzielorz, who was kicked out in November, is Wolfsburg’s second sports director this season. According to reports, the supervisory board could have imagined a replacement for the managing director position in those autumn months – namely by Schwegler, who was then appointed behind Christiansen in the Wolfsburg hierarchy. Together, after a few not entirely bottomless performances, they handed the farmer, who initially seemed to be on an interim basis, a contract until 2027, without any hardship, a term until the end of the season would probably have done the trick. This was well received by the Wolfsburg local media: Finally someone with the smell of a stable! However, the performances quickly resembled the confusion that has constantly prevailed in the VfL organizational chart in recent years. And, very directly related to this, also in the Wolfsburg squad.

Midfielder Gerhardt notices a huge gap between expectations and reality

Maybe you should hear from a man who knows the turbulent inner workings of the cabin in question. VfL, Gerhardt reported on Sunday at Dazn, is “not healthy”. There is a huge gap between expectations and reality, which is why the midfielder demanded: “We have to find the players who can somehow get it over the line.” Gerhardt is likely to be one of those players in the current crisis situation – regardless of the coach – even though he was kicked out of the team council in the summer and was supposed to leave the club. An (incomplete) list of other curiosities: Moritz Jenz was also supposed to leave and is now head of defense. Midfielder Vini Souza, presented as a royal transfer before the season, didn’t even make it to part-time work. In Lovro Majer and Christian Eriksen, two playmakers often block each other’s passing lanes. In addition, 20 million euros were invested in defender Jonas Adjetey and attacker Kento Shiogai in the winter – together the two have made two starting eleven appearances since then.

So far, VfL Wolfsburg has always been able to save itself in the end, in 2017 and 2018 if necessary via relegation. At least there is a good omen from Wolfsburg’s point of view: Yannick Gerhardt was also there at the time.