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Augsburg fire coach Dirk Schuster

Chuck Penfold
December 14, 2016

Dirk Schuster is the sixth Bundesliga coach to lose his job this season after a run of poor results. Youth coach Manuel Baum has been named as his replacement at Augsburg on an interim basis.

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Bundesliga FC Augsburg - Bayern München
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Gebert Bundesliga FC Augsburg Bayern München Gestik abschied picture-alliance/dpa/A. Gebert

Augsburg made the surprising announcement that they had sacked head coach Dirk Schuster in a statement released via Twitter on Wednesday. It said that not only Schuster, but also his two assistants, Sascha Franz and Frank Steinmetz had been relieved of their duties.

"Following in-depth analysis of the current situation the management of FC Augsburg have come to the conclusion that there have been differing views on the future direction of the club on the field and the way FCA intends to play football," the statement said.

The statement added that youth coach Manuel Baum would take charge of the team on an interim basis until "at least the winter break". Baum will lead the team for the first time at home to Borussia Moenchengladbach on Saturday.

Augsburg are currently in 13th place in the standings, with three wins and five draws from their first 14 league games, however they have gone winless in their last four.

Schuster had joined Augsburg in the summer after succeeding in avoiding relegation with newly promoted Darmstadt.  His replacement as coach of the Lilies, Norbert Meier, was sacked earlier this month.

He is the sixth Bundesliga coach to be fired this season following Meier, Viktor Skripnik (Bremen), Bruno Labbadia (Hamburg), Dieter Hecking (Wolfsburg) and Markus Kauczinski (Ingolstadt).