Mediocrity continues

By: Pete | October 5th, 2009

Stuttgart’s latest defeat at the hands of Werder Bremen 2-0 sink them lower down the table yet again. Bremen struck early on and never really looked back. Stuttgart had a few decent chances in the first half but weren’t able to capitalize. And yet again, as they’ve done so many times this year, Stuttgart came out flat in the 2nd half, conceding the 2nd goal to put the match away and sealing their fate. Poor, poor performance out of the break.

vfb-bremen4_348x348 There are times when you face an opponent who plain and simple outplays you. I think Pizarro’s early goal took the proverbial wind out of Stuttgart’s sail. That being said, there are some glaring concerns that Stuttgart need to deal with. It’s the same old story every week.

There’s clearly a lack of inspiration on the Stuttgart side, which is sad considering the position we’re in playing at the highest level of European competition in addition to domestic and cup competitions. All top flight players gravitate towards teams that are playing in all major competitions. But Stuttgart seem to lack that competitive edge and drive that was so evident in their run last year. It’s clear that Babbel’s installation last year sparked the team with a wonderful late run that put them in the position they’re in this year. But clearly his motivating tactics have worn thin on the players because they aren’t playing with that same drive from only a year back.

There’s also certainly a problem with the overall makeup of the team. Perhaps the personnel is just not right for the tactics Babbel is trying to employ, at which point you have to ask yourself, do we blame the players for not being able to make the grade, or do we blame the manager for not adjusting his gameplan to the strengths that the present squad has? He’s certainly rotated enough players in and out, trying to find some apparently mystical combination of midfielders and strikers to make the offense click. It just hasn’t been there, at least not yet. As one reader suggested, maybe we’re just lacking that creative central midfielder that more successful teams have. Hleb is out, and his return is apparently unclear. And while I certainly agree that it’d be nice to have that, it’s not like we lost a big presence like that in the midfield last year like Werder lost Diego. We did, however, lose the consistent goal scoring threat that we’ve always been able to rely on, and that’s certainly a part of the problem.

Anyways, I don’t think there’s much more to say at this point that isn’t just more speculation and grumbling. We all know the struggles and unfortunately it’s something that the team just needs to battle through.