History repeating

Much is being made of the crisis that has apparently set in at the Gottlieb Daimler stadium. VfB Stuttgart have not won a Bundesliga or Champions League home match there since mid August, they languish in 13th place in the German league and are third in their European Cup group with two draws and one defeat to their name. Pundits are calling the game against Hanover on Saturday a crunch match which may determine coach Markus Babbel's future at the club. Everything points to a team tanking in every respect.

But is Stuttgart's form this year really a huge shock? Is the fact that they are struggling to climb the table right now or make any serious challenge in any of the competitions they are involved in at this stage of the season really such a surprise?

Statistics and recent history show that Stuttgart have never really been a consistently high-achieving team whose mainly indifferent seasons in the Bundesliga have been punctuated by sporadically giddy highs.

A graph of Stuttgart's highs and lows over the last 20 years resembles a dramatic mountain range which would give even the most experienced climber very little respite.

Twenty years of peaks and troughs

Back in the 1979/80 season, the demands wouldn't have been too high for an ambitious hiker. Following on from the previous season's second placed finish, Stuttgart dropped slightly to fourth. The incline the following year was gentle as they finished third but the real peaks and troughs were about to begin. In the years between 1981 and 1984, Stuttgart finished as low as ninth and as high as the championship summit before wavering in the top five and eventually plummeting to the depths of 12th in 1987. They were champions again in the 1991/92 season but didn't break into the top three again until 2002/03, leaving various lower mid-table finishes behind them, including a lowly 15th at the turn of the millennium.

Even the runners-up spot in 2003 couldn't instill any consistency in the team and a steady decline to tenth over the next three seasons was finally arrested by Stuttgart's first Bundesliga title in 13 years in 2007. But even that couldn't prevent gravity again taking its toll and while the last two campaigns have seen a steady climb again, history could have shown anyone that Stuttgart was due another season in the valleys this year or next.

These are, of course, statistics which only tell one part of the story and that's the tale which comes with the season's end. What usually happens to Stuttgart in between is equally undulating.

Stuttgart's seasons all about dive and climb

Last season, Stuttgart spent a period in the middle of the campaign rooted to 11th place after taking a slow, gradual stroll down the slope from third. It wasn't until after the winter break that Stuttgart found some kind of upward mobility. This came after Babbel took over from Armin Veh in late November. Under Babbel's stewardship, Stuttgart took their time ascending via various plateaus, eventually returning to where they started. Babbel had taken a team seemingly resigned to mid-table mediocrity to a third-placed finish and Champions League qualification.

This season, however, may require an even more impressive turnaround if Stuttgart are to mount a serious attempt on the summit. Babbel and his team started the season at base camp, but climbed from bottom to seventh by the second game. Perhaps such a leap brought on a bout of altitude sickness because Stuttgart then began one of their regular descents down the league table, bottoming out in 15th place four games later. True to form, they then started to climb again only to find a more comfortable place at their current position of 13th.

With this kind of record, maybe it is a little early to start talking about a crisis at Stuttgart, especially when their performances after the winter break in the past four seasons have shown a consistent, upward trajectory. It certainly should be time for a reassessment of the expectations put on Stuttgart, a team which – in all honesty – has done very little in the past twenty years to deserve the amount of pressure heaped on it.

Babbel needs patience not pressure

And as for Markus Babbel – the game at Hanover on Saturday should bear no more significance than any other at this stage of the season. It should be about getting three points and not about whether the coach will still have his job by the end of the 90 minutes.

If Stuttgart are still 13th or lower in February maybe then Babbel's position should be reviewed. If there traditional second-half surge fails to materialize this year then it would be only prudent at that point to assess the coach's suitability.

For now at least, Babbel and his team should just do their jobs while everyone else should find something else to talk about. There are plenty of other real crises out there.


Author: Nick Amies
Editor: Chuck Penfold