“I have the Sandro Wagner gene. I want to win every game. I’m a bit of a freak that way,” Sandro Wagner stressed in the summer of 2021 when he took over as Unterhaching coach.
Five years later, the self-proclaimed freak is in charge of Hannover 96 and has so far been desperately trying to inject his team with the “Sandro Wagner gene.” But today, more than ever, the coach had better hope his injection has worked. Because he could have the entire city breathing down his neck.
That might sound a little exaggerated at first. But only at first. Because the Reds’ match today at 1:30 p.m. is no ordinary fixture for Sandro Wagner. Hannover 96 visit Eintracht Braunschweig for one of Germany’s biggest derbies. Just how much can these clashes mean to an entire city?
Let’s ask Said El Mala. All of Cologne recently celebrated their superstar after he fired FC to a 2–1 derby win over Gladbach. “Every Bundesliga goal is special, but scoring in a derby is something else,” the 20-year-old enthused to 'Sky' afterwards.
At Schalke, children will probably still know Naldo’s name in 20 years, after his header completed the Royal Blues’ comeback from 4–0 down to draw 4–4 in 2017.
But while heroes are celebrated on one side, the mood on the other can turn sour incredibly quickly. Hannover’s ultras provided the perfect example in the spring of 2023.
After Hannover lost 1–0 at Braunschweig, they vented their anger outside their own stadium. Hours after the game, they rioted outside the former Niedersachsenstadion and ultimately had to be pushed back by police using water cannons.
At the time, 96 had gone nine games without a win. Things are not looking much better under Wagner right now.
Little has gone right for the coach since he took over a few weeks ago. A crushing 3–0 opening defeat to Magdeburg was followed by a disappointing 1–1 draw against St. Pauli on his home debut. Clearly nowhere near good enough for a club with promotion ambitions.
96 currently sit 14th in the table. Another defeat could, in the worst case, leave them as many as ten points off the promotion places. They could also slip into the relegation play-off spot.
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Particularly frustrating for Wagner: he managed to get on the wrong side of the fans straight away with the defeat to Magdeburg.
“I always struggle with the term fans. Some of these people are in their thirties, forties or fifties. I don’t know whether they want to be labelled fans when they travel to games,” Sandro Wagner explained at the press conference when asked why he did not refer to Hannover fans.
Those remarks drew plenty of criticism from the “fans,” particularly on social media.
At least the former Bayern striker seems to have won over some of his players already. “He uses video analysis to show us exactly how he wants things done. His team talks are excellent. He gets through to the team and talks to everyone. The team will benefit a lot from that in the future,” Marcel Hartel told “kicker” when asked about his new coach.
Wagner will be hoping those benefits are already on show today. If not? Well, the 38-year-old could soon be feeling an awful lot of people breathing down his neck.
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.