Red-White won the league Erfurt has only played one of the last nine games and is now out of the cup – plus there are great worries about “football god” Artur Mergel (25).
The offensive player sat out for the first half during the Meuselwitz defeat. “He hadn’t trained all week, then got injected and only took part in the final training session,” explains trainer Fabian Gerber (43).The attacker’s damaged knee currently makes regular training impossible. He hyperextended his knee in the 3-1 win against BFC and has been out of action since then. “The boys who train every day deserve to play,” says Mergel.
What was striking was that the RWE game went much better with him in the second half and extra time. But he doesn’t see himself as THE difference player: “We’ve done better together. Everyone fought and worked. We were then more effective as a team.”
But even Mergel couldn’t avert the cup exit. You can only get out of the crisis if you finally bring the enormous quality that is in the team back onto the pitch. “Then we’ll get a lot of points by winter,” adds Mergel. And yet: “We lost everything in the league and lost everything in the cup. “It’s difficult for the head,” says Mergel.