The Daily Bee: Jesse Marsch Sacked, and Watzke Defends Bellingham

Good morning, everyone. What a weekend, eh?

Watzke: “Zwayer should no longer referee BVB games”

Virtually every player and member of the BVB coaching staff was in an uproar following the conclusion of Der Klassiker on Saturday, with various players taking to the post-match interviews to express their ire at referee Felix Zwayer. Yesterday, Borussia Dortmund’s CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke joined the fray, suggesting that the DFB consider barring Zwayer from reffing BVB games for the time being.

It is never a good thing when after such a spectacular football game you talk almost exclusively about the referee... It would certainly be best for all sides if the DFB decided not to let him direct any more BVB games for the time being.

Watzke also defended Jude Bellingham’s post-match statement, in which the young Englishman criticized Felix Zwayer, specifically citing his past involvement in match fixing. While Bellingham didn’t outright state that Zwayer had fixed the game this weekend as well, it isn’t hard to make that extrapolation from what he did say. Watzke defended Bellingham from some of the claims of defamation made against him, pointing out that Zwayer’s involvement in match fixing is a matter of public record.

To be clear: Jude did not spread lies, but presented what happened in the past. And maybe you should take into account the emotions that arise when an 18-year-old sees himself deprived of success for his performance in such a spectacular game. Of course, this statement shouldn’t have been, but I don’t see anything untrue there.

Jesse Marsch Sacked

With everybody in an uproar about Der Klassiker, I barely noticed that following RB Leipzig’s third consecutive league defeat, the club had sacked American manager Jesse Marsch. With Leipzig having fallen all the way to 11th place, the club had little choice but to let Marsch go.

As an American, it’s a little disappointing that Marsch was so unsuccessful at RB Leipzig. I always felt that with the loss of Konaté, Upamecano, Hannes Wolf, and Marcel Sabitzer, that Marsch had a tough task on his hands, but in the end he still has a talented squad at his disposal, and he just never seemed to be able to generate any momentum with his squad.

The Daily Buzz

Was sacking Marsch the right decision for RB Leipzig?