Marked for Peter Bergmann
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Oct 2040
Peter Bergmann damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match20 Oct 2040
A 2-goal lead gone for Mainz 05
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. VfL Wolfsburg kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Mainz 05 will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings22 Oct 2040
A brace, and Tamerlan Musaev takes the afternoon — 8.44
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tamerlan Musaev provided it, and the 8.44 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad22 Oct 2040
Eric Martel falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad22 Oct 2040
Facundo Di Sibio was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match20 Oct 2040
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings22 Oct 2040
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad22 Oct 2040
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market22 Oct 2040
The name of Christoph Busch keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Mainz 05 say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Oct 2040
Peter Bergmann damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market15 Oct 2040
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dedryck Fellaini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mainz 05 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Oct 2040
Words at Mainz 05 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kaishu Sano is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad15 Oct 2040
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mainz 05 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Oct 2040
The manager makes an example of Tobias Jäger
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings15 Oct 2040
19 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings15 Oct 2040
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings15 Oct 2040
Defensive actions: 15, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match13 Oct 2040
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Union Berlin came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces8 Oct 2040
The mood at Mainz 05 has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad8 Oct 2040
Peter Bergmann damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad8 Oct 2040
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad8 Oct 2040
374 appearances across 12 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Mainz 05 know what they have.
Player ratings8 Oct 2040
Age has not caught Paul Nebel yet — 8.21
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.21 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad8 Oct 2040
Eric Martel falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings8 Oct 2040
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match6 Oct 2040
It finished 2‑1, and it was Paul Nebel’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Mainz 05.
Player ratings8 Oct 2040
Marked 8.06 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Oct 2040
Peter Bergmann damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 38 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match29 Sep 2040
Beaten 0‑6 by Borussia Dortmund, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad1 Oct 2040
Filippo Tripi breaks a bone — 17 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings1 Oct 2040
No sign of nerves from Oliver Schreiber at 21 — 8.07
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Oliver Schreiber did not need any: 8.07, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad1 Oct 2040
373 appearances across 12 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Mainz 05 know what they have.
Player ratings1 Oct 2040
Defensive actions: 26. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad1 Oct 2040
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mainz 05 may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match29 Sep 2040
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Mainz 05 and Borussia Dortmund, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.