All in and out?! German coaching star fighting for his job tonight | OneFootball

"This year, I chose 'All In' as our motto," explained Düsseldorf's coach Daniel Thioune shortly before the start of the season. The Rhinelanders want to get into the Bundesliga, and the successful coach left no doubt about that.

"I would be happy if we could see a few other stadiums. That is definitely the goal, there's no need to beat around the bush," Thioune added in the new Fortuna podcast 'Rot & Schweiß - Das Gespräch.' What he didn't know at the time: after just two matchdays, the 51-year-old could have already gambled away all his coaching credit.

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As 'SportBild' reported last week, today's first-round match in the DFB-Pokal against third-division side Schweinfurt (6 p.m.) could possibly be Thioune's last F95 poker round. No question, the coach has lost a few chips in the first league matchdays. First, the 1:5 defeat against promoted Bielefeld, then the meager 0:2 against Hannover. At the start of the season in Düsseldorf, far more than the minimum bets for the big and small blind went to the competition. But didn't Thioune just have some damn bad luck with the cards?

Things initially went pretty well for his team against Bielefeld. Cedric Itten had put Düsseldorf in the lead. The visitors then controlled the game. Only a controversial red card and a handball penalty turned the game on its head.

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96, on the other hand, showed Fortuna their limits.  In the home defeat, Düsseldorf was the worse team for long stretches and barely created any dangerous chances up front. On the other hand, here too it was an individual mistake that led to a penalty and ultimately to defeat. But is a loss against the Lower Saxony promotion contender really such a disaster?

Apparently, for those in charge, it is. They are said to doubt whether Thioune can gamble Düsseldorf to promotion. It's somewhat surprising, given that Thioune has played so many good hands in recent years.

When the former HSV coach took over Düsseldorf in 16th place in the 2. Bundesliga, the Bundesliga was hardly on anyone's mind. But that was about to change. Thioune, who cleverly raised the stakes and occasionally bluffed at just the right moment, finished his first season in Düsseldorf in tenth place.

After that, there was a fourth-place finish. In the 2023/24 season, Fortuna even finished third and only failed in the end because of the river card, aka relegation opponent Bochum. Even last season, promotion was on the cards for a long time. Only in the final sprint of the season did Düsseldorf fall behind and ultimately finished sixth. And now there aren't enough poker chips left for several more rounds?

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According to the report, apparently not. The decision-makers seem to see the repeated narrow misses at promotion more as a failure than as proof of consistently good work.

Although only two matchdays have been played and, as is well known, in the 2. Bundesliga all the teams steal points from each other in the promotion race, Thioune is allegedly on the brink. But before the coach has to vacate his post, he at least still has one more chance.

If the all-in against Schweinfurt succeeds and Düsseldorf beats Paderborn on the third matchday (August 23, from 1 p.m.), the successful Fortuna coach could continue to gamble on his promotion hand. That's how quickly things can change in poker. Uh, of course, we mean in professional football.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

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