Hasenhuttl appointed as Wolfsburg coach hours after Kovac sacking

Reuters

Hasenhuettl on the sideline for Southampton AFP

VfL Wolfsburg appointed Ralph Hasenhuttl as coach on Sunday, hours after parting ways with Niko Kovac following Saturday's 3-1 home loss to Augsburg which was their third league defeat in a row.

Austrian Hasenhuttl, who coached RB Leipzig and Ingolstadt in the Bundesliga before a four-year spell at Southampton in the Premier League until 2022, will officially be presented on Monday.

Earlier on Sunday, Wolfsburg managing director Marcel Schaefer said a change of coach was needed "to give the team a new impulse, in order to stabilise the situation".

Wolfsburg's last league win dates back to December 16th and the team have now gone 11 consecutive Bundesliga matches without a victory. Saturday's defeat sent the Wolves down to 14th in the league.

"(Hasenhuttl) signed a longer contract with the club and will lead training from Tuesday onwards," Wolfsburg said. It gave no details on the duration of the deal.

Kovac, a former Croatia international who also coached Bayern Munich in 2018-19, took over at Wolfsburg ahead of the 2022/23 campaign and led them to an eighth-place finish in his first season in charge.

This season, however, has been anything but successful with the team currently on 25 points, six above the relegation playoff spot.

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