After a 2-1 away loss to bottom three side Köln, Bochum are under immense pressure to survive in the Bundesliga. Who feels this most of all? Bochum manager Thomas Letsch.
Bochum were seemingly cruising into an uneventful, relatively insignificant Bundesliga season this year following massive wins against Stuttgart and Bayern Munich in 2024.
With a large gap between the bottom three and themselves, Bochum looked to already be sure of staying up this season.
However, failure to win in three consecutive games against bottom three opponents Köln, Darmstadt and Mainz means that they are within touching distance of Mainz and Köln heading into the final six games.
The losses against Mainz (2-0) and Köln (2-1) will hurt especially seeing as these are the two teams directly below the side from the Ruhr Pott.
Thomas Letsch has been one of not many coaches in the bottom half of the Bundesliga that has survived this season so far at the same club.
Managers like Niko Kovač, Bo Svensson, Jan Siewert, Steffen Baumgart and Urs Fischer have all suffered greatly at the hands of their clubs and have either been sacked or have left per mutual consent.
We have seen managers like Friedhelm Funkel and Sebastian Hoeneß come in and save sides from relegation late on in the season with very little games left in recent years.
With this in mind, the board at Bochum will no doubt be looking to see if it is worth getting a new manager who could heroically save Bochum throughout the rest of the campaign.
The only question around this is: Do you stick with the manager you know and have, or do you risk a short-term replacement?
Match Result
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