Bochum Battler

To steer a team successfully through a relegation battle a coach has to convince underperformers that they're better than they are. Knowing when to criticize and when to turn a blind eye toward sub-par performances is crucial to clawing out the points a side needs to survive.

From an objective point-of-view, Bochum's most recent nil-nil draw against Cologne was one of the dreariest matches of the season, and the home side was particularly disappointing, failing to generate any clear chances and almost handing three points to the team with the league's worst offense.

So what did Bochum coach Heiko Herrlich have to say after a display that had fans tearing out their hair? He praised his players' fighting spirit and said their lack of confidence was "normal and human."

Bochum have earned four points in four matches since Herrlich took over October 27. That's hardly a miracle turnaround, but it has been enough to lift the team from the very bottom into the relegation play-off spot in the table.

And the coach says the team is on the right track.

"There's no magic potion you can give players to change everything in five weeks," Herrlich told Deutsche Welle. "But you can take it step by step and improve. I do see a small positive development."

Herrlich knows what he's talking about when he refers to taking things step by step. He himself, after all, was forced to come back from a potentially fatal illness.

A promising career cut short

Herrlich was one of Germany's top strikers in the 1990s, scoring 70 goals in 187 matches for the two Borussias, Moenchengladbach and Dortmund.

He was also part of the Germany squad that qualified for the 1996 European Championship - his strike partner was none other than Juergen Klinsmann.

Germany went on to win the tournament, but Herrlich was sidelined by injury. And the striker's fortunes took a horrific turn for the worse in 2000 when he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.

"You think about lots of things in life that suddenly become insignificant when you get the diagnosis: brain tumor," Herrlich said. "Your wife is three months pregnant, and you don't know whether you'll ever see your child. All your dreams, your thoughts, all your material desires, all the little things you used to get upset about all of sudden become completely unimportant."

As a player, Herrlich's quality was such that Dortmund had paid a then-record transfer sum for a German player to bring him in from Gladbach. Suddenly, his career was all but over. The striker returned to the game in 2001 after successful chemotherapy but never recaptured his previous form.

In 2005, Herrlich got his coaching license and began working in Germany's national youth ranks under his protege and former teammate and mentor Matthias Sammer. It was there that the SOS from Bochum reached him.

An unusual perspective

Every relegation fight is unique, but one thing coaches who have success in this situation share is the ability to take pressure off their players. Hans Meier, who saved Hertha, Nuremberg and Gladbach from the drop in recent years, is known not just for running a tight ship but for using humor to attract media attention to himself and criticism away from his charges.

So while Herrlich does not have any experience as a coach lifting teams up from the bottom of the table, his personal knowledge that football is, ultimately, just a game gives him an unusual qualification for this particular job.

Herrlich himself says that his experience with a potentially fatal illness has given him the "courage" to tackle other difficult tasks.

He'll need it. After the Cologne match, Germany's Bild newspaper attacked the rookie coach, saying that his choice of relatively conservative tactics had cost Bochum four points in their previous matches.

Herrlich himself doesn't pay the nay-sayers much mind.

"Whenever you have goals, there will be people around you who say: 'He's aiming high. Let's wait until he falls!'" Herrlich told Deutsche Welle. "I don't care how people get their amusement. I have goals. And I pursue them to the utmost. And if I fall down, I get back up again."

Realistically, Herrlich has a good chance of getting the job done. Defensively his squad is stable. Bochum have kept two clean sheets in a row and haven't conceded more than two goals since a thrashing by Bremen that cost Herrlich's predecessor his job.

His biggest problem will be reviving Bochum's moribund attack. Three of the team's forwards are looking past their sell-by date, but in Stanislav Sestak, he does have a striker who's shown he can score goals.

And with Herrlich a former top striker himself, it's hardly improbable that Sestak will improve under his tutelage - much as Leverkusen's Stefan Kiessling, the league's leading goal scorer, has benefited from the coaching of Jupp Heynckes.

So at this point in the season, Bochum are more likely to stay up than not. And Heiko Herrlich undoubtedly knows that the world won't come to an end, one way or the other.

Author: Jefferson Chase
Editor: Michael Lawton