Frings replaced interim coach Roman Berndroth with the Lilies at the foot of the Bundesliga after 16 matches - © © imago
Frings replaced interim coach Roman Berndroth with the Lilies at the foot of the Bundesliga after 16 matches - © © imago

Darmstadt look to Frings in battle to stay up

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To thunderous applause from a couple of hundred expectant fans, Torsten Frings took to the pitch with his new charges for his first training session as head coach of SV Darmstadt 98. “It felt great. The lads are really looking forward to the second half of the season. We're all in this together and everyone's eager to do their bit for the club.”

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Coach and players alike will have to pull out all the stops if Darmstadt are to emerge from the current campaign with their top-flight status intact. The modestly-resourced underdogs started into the new year propping up the table on a paltry eight points – four fewer than second-bottom FC Ingolstadt 04 and a further four away from the safety of 15th place.

Frings has certainly gone in at the deep end in his first head coach posting but the 79-time Germany international is nothing if not a battler. “Everyone knows it's going to be tough but we're not buried yet,” he said; “Over the coming months, Bundesliga survival has to define our whole outlook. We have to imbue the team with qualities like self-belief, energy and willpower.”

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“We've grown together again as a team. We stepped on the gas at the training camp and it really helped,” said attacking all-rounder Marcel Heller: “We've a long, hard road ahead of us, but by hook or by crook, we all believe we can still do it.”  

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