The quest for stability

Things have become a bit calmer in the capital of late. Five points from the past three league games have lightened the mood at Hertha BSC, who had made an unsuccessful start to the season by taking only one point from their first four league games and getting eliminated from the cup by Eintracht Braunchweig.

The face of their recent revival is Marco Richter. The 24-year-old missed the start to the season after a testicular cancer diagnosis but has come on as a late sub in the last four matches and scored two goals.

Hertha's squad this season largely consists of overseas players. Nineteen players in the squad are from outside Germany – a foreign quota surpassed only by Leverkusen. In their last match against Mainz, the Hertha starting XI included players from nine different countries.

Hertha's transfer strategy has changed. While the capital club spent a figure in the three-digit million range on new signings in the 2019/20 campaign, that sum was down to only €6.4 million in the run-up to this season; three starting XI candidates joined on free transfers, others on loan.

Even though Hertha have not suffered a defeat in their last three games, they still only have one victory on the board with seven rounds of the season now played. The last time the men from Berlin had recorded so few wins at this stage of a season was 13 years ago – and at the end of that campaign, they were relegated to the 2. Bundesliga.

With that in mind, they are in need of wins and points before the winter break to put some distance between themselves and the drop zone. The dream of being a "big city club" is on hold for now; Hertha want to establish themselves in the top tier first. The last two seasons – in which the club survived relegation on the penultimate day and in the play-offs respectively – were warning enough.

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