Derry Scherhant still has the old Derry Scherhant – if you can even say that about a 21-year-old – in his repertoire. Only on Saturday, in the match against 1. FC Nurembergit has come to light once again.
A good half hour had been played when Scherhant moved into the opponent’s penalty area from the left with the ball on his right foot and dribbled past two Nuremberg defenders with apparent ease. But when it came down to it, Scherhant somehow got tangled up between his own feet.
Head down, and then through the middle, without looking left or right: That is the old Derry Scherhant. More than once he has been given the evil looks of his colleagues at Hertha BSC who had been waiting for a pass from him. Often in vain.
Scherhant showed on Saturday in Nuremberg that he can do things differently. Ten minutes before half-time, he put the Berlin second division football team in the lead and thus made a valuable contribution to his team’s 2-0 victory and Hertha’s second away win this season.
In the aftermath of Berlin’s opening goal, the main focus was Ibrahim Maza who held his own against two Nuremberg players on the left and then played a perfect pass into Scherhant’s path. “It’s great that he saw me there,” said the goalscorer later.
But he was also worth a closer look. Scherhant himself initiated the attack that ended with a 1-0 lead when he held on to a ball in his own half against two Nuremberg players. He then sprinted from deep in the area and, after Maza’s perfect pass, beat Nuremberg goalkeeper Jan Reichert with a precise shot into the far corner. The similarities with his goal against Kaiserslautern were obvious.
Derry Scherhant has already scored two goals in the young season. Not only does he lead Hertha’s internal goalscoring list (together with center forward Luca Schuler), he has also already equaled his number from the previous season. The same applies to appearances in the starting eleven. There were five in the entire 2023/24 season. There are also five now, after just six match days.
Of course, Scherhant benefits from the fact that Fabian Reese due to a long-term injury and he is filling his position on the left in the attacking three-man line. But he is increasingly justifying his inclusion through good performances. Against Nuremberg, Scherhant had five shots on goal – more than any other player on the pitch. He dared to dribble three times and was successful three times.
There’s something about Derry Scherhant that’s hard to learn, but easy to take away if it falls into the wrong hands.
Standing still, not working, being late for meetings, being late for training: that cannot be.
Pal Dardaiformer coach of Hertha BSC, about Derry Scherhant
This was not the case with Scherhant because his path to professional football was not the usual one. Apart from a few weeks in Hertha’s U19 team, Scherhant has never been part of a youth performance center (NLZ).
The certified NLZ training does increase the chance of making it to the top. On the other hand, it has also been proven in the past standardized footballers producedwho have been weaned off the wild side. Derry Scherhant is still pleasingly unpolished in this respect.
There is something anarchic about his game. That is his greatest strength, but it was also his greatest weakness in the past. In his worst moments, Scherhant still seems like a junior footballer who meets up with his friends to play a game on the rubber pitch.
Coach Fiél relies on him
He had a hard time with this attitude under his former coach Pal Dardai. The Hungarian has – also publicly – unusually critical of the offensive playerHe attested to his deficits in terms of game intelligence, accused him of a lack of enthusiasm in defensive work and a lack of professionalism in general.
“He is not my favourite player,” Dardai said at the end of last year. “Standing still, not working, being late for meetings, being late for training: that cannot be.”
Scherhant is now much better at finding the balance between stubbornness and responsibility for the bigger picture. Although Hertha signed Jon Dagur Thorsteinsson, an Icelandic international, for the wing shortly before the end of the transfer window, Scherhant has so far maintained his place in the team.
If in doubt, Marten Winkler is more likely to be affected on the other side at the moment. In the last three games, he was substituted late once, substituted early once, and was not used at all once.
In transition football under Pal Dardai Winkler was more or less set with his speed and directnessBut under Cristian Fiél, Dardai’s successor as coach, the whole team is moving up the ranks. As a result, Winker lacks the depth he needs for his game.
Derry Scherhant and his footballing skills, especially in tight spaces, are more in demand. He notices this himself. “I feel the coach’s trust this season,” he says.
In the summer, Scherhant didn’t see any particularly good prospects for himself at Hertha. He wanted to leave, or at least be loaned out to get more match practice. Coach Fiél was not the least of them, who vehemently opposed this. He values the offensive player. And has done so for a long time. Last season, 1. FC Nuremberg, along with several other clubs, was said to be interested in signing Derry Scherhant. His coach was Cristian Fiél.
