After the final whistle of the game against Hannover, it was surprisingly quiet in the Magdeburg Arena. While there had been occasional whistles during the game, there was now a kind of paralysis. With the 0:3, 1. FC Magdeburg’s third defeat in the 2nd Bundesliga was perfect – and once again they had themselves to blame for the defeat.
The 0-1 was the twelfth goal conceded after losing the ball; with the other goals, Hannover benefited from a weak FCM defense. Magdeburg’s vice-captain Baris Atik seemed appropriately served, but above all at a loss. “We deserved to lose the three points. How are our heads supposed to be clear after the 7-0 defeat?” the 26-year-old recalled the heavy defeat in Karlsruhe before the international break.
“We have to analyze the mistakes better and change something,” demanded the captain. And coach Christian Titz also emphasized that the team had to solve situations like before the 0-1 loss differently. “Our idea is that we are a team that wants to outplay when it is attacked,” explained the 53-year-old and added: “We had done that well until three match days ago, now we have started not to do it and are been punished several times for this.”
However, limitations in the Magdeburg squad also became apparent against Hannover. Jean Hugonet initially played as a right-back to limit Hannover’s transition play – an experiment that only lasted a quarter of an hour. The Frenchman then moved into the usual midfield and Mohammed El Hankouri and Alexander Nollenberger defended on the outside. So the speed and creativity in the headquarters that El Hankouri brings with him were lost again.
In addition, the central defense seems to be too thin, with Daniel Heber having been out of shape for weeks, but still apparently enjoying the trust of the coaching team more than Andi Hoti. The winter departure of veteran Cristiano Piccini hurts even more here. With SV Elversberg, FCM will face an opponent on Saturday who will be looking for redemption after their surprising 5-0 defeat.
“We make mistakes and we have to improve something. You try to pull out all the stops and then we’ll see what happens,” said Atik, announcing the route for the training week. “We have to defend consistently and get into the transition game more quickly,” said Titz, summarizing the lessons learned from the defeats. The FCM now just has to implement this, otherwise there is a risk of falling to relegation place 16 on the next match day.
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