Can We Play The Favre Way?

By: Abby | December 13th, 2007

That’s the question being asked in the German press. Lucien Favre was a very successful manager in his native Switzerland, promoting two clubs (one to the second league, one to the first), winning two Swiss Cups, and also taking the last two titles with FC Zürich.

He’s also known for his ability in training young players and his love of attacking football. He wants to see his teams play attractively. He brought that desire to Hertha, declaring it from the outset and seemingly making good on Dieter Hoeness’ claims that he would bring in a “new coach with new ideas.” It was a good thought. The only problem was that the team was Hertha, and there’s only so much a coach can actually do.

It started off well. The players that were brought in, such as Lucio, were looking good. He found a good young talent in local boy Patrick Ebert. They beat the defending champions in the second week, recorded an away win (it was against Duisburg, but I’ll take it), and were even on top of the table for about a minute. It actually looked like the potential of Hertha Berlin was slowly starting to turn into actuality.

Then Lucio got hurt. Patrick Ebert got hurt. It’s now been three losses in a row and something is definitely going wrong. Having not actually watched most of the games, I can’t really say for sure what’s going on, but the German press is pointing to Hertha’s “old guard”, specifically naming Arne Friedrich, Gilberto, and Josip Simunic as under-performing.

Which brings the question- can these players, without a doubt talented, full internationals for some excellent sides (Germany, Brazil, and Croatia), fit into the system Favre is attempting to implement for Hertha? Can they play the way he wants to? Are they willing to change to fit? It’s the new players/discoveries that are playing the best, for the most part, although a big exception must be made for Marko Panetlic. Lulu says that the side “lacks balance” and that there’s some kind of mental issue the team is struggling with. Considering how often they’ve lost a lead, that only makes sense.

So what now? There are reports of €2.7 million being made available for reinforcements in January, but that’s not a lot. Unless, of course, someone is sold.

Hell, if he did what he did while managing Yverdon, he’d have enough money raised to buy all of four or five players, I bet.