Michael Preetz, manager of the German first division (Bundesliga) soccer club Hertha BSC Berlin, is seen during a news conference in Berlin, Germany

Hertha Berlin fired coach Lucien Favre on Monday after six straight losses in the Bundesliga.Favre, who was in his third season in Berlin and had a contract until the end of next season, became the fourth Bundesliga coach to lose his job only seven matches into the season.

The club said Karsten Heine, coach of the Hertha’s under-23 side, will take over from the 51-year-old Swiss for the time being. Hertha plays at Sporting Lisbon in the Europa League on Thursday.

Hertha won its season opener and then lost six in a row, slipping to the bottom of the Bundesliga. In its last two games, it lost 4-0 at home to promoted Freiburg and was thrashed 5-1 at Hoffenheim on Sunday.

Hertha also lost in the German Cup last week on penalties to second-division 1860 Munich.

The only top-division team from the German capital led the Bundesliga for several weeks last season and nearly qualified for the Champions League.

But it is off to its worst start since the 1990-91 season, when it was relegated.

Along with being hit by a series of injuries, the team has been unable to compensate for the departure of several key players. Favre refused to extend the contract of the club’s top scorer Marko Pantelic, who is now with Ajax. Andriy Voronin, another striker, returned to Liverpool after playing in Berlin on loan because Hertha could not afford to buy out his contract.

Josip Simunic, one of the league’s best-rated defenders and who had a strained relationship with Favre, was allowed to move to Hoffenheim.

The club also fired Favre’s assistant Harald Gaemperle.

Gaemperle blamed the players for the slump, saying they had never worked under “such a good” coach before.

“They are playing politics too much … they are talking to the media rather than examining their own performances,” Gaemperle said.

source image via daylife