The sports director talked himself into a rage, the professionals seemed at a loss, and the coach asked the question of character: Borussia Mönchengladbach staggered through the Bundesliga in gray mediocrity.
“We make such stupid mistakes, it goes against the grain,” scolded sporting director Roland Virkus after the bitter 4-0 defeat at FSV Mainz 05. Once in motion, the 56-year-old followed suit. “We have to stop what’s happening in the away games. It’s relatively easy to score goals against us. That upsets me so much. I can understand the frustration of the fans. I’m frustrated too,” Virkus said about the weak Borussia’s performance on Friday evening in front of 32,500 spectators.
Critical Deficits
In the sixth defeat of the season abroad, the team once again revealed serious deficits, which coach Daniel Farke clearly named afterwards. “It’s a quality that our game lacks, that we defend ourselves against falling behind and continue to make mistakes. We lack that. We have to show a different level of resilience,” criticized the 46-year-old.
Farke denied his protégés the unconditional will to assert themselves in difficult situations. “We weren’t willing to go into counter-pressing after losing the ball and send a signal straight away. You win such a tight game over to your side. We miss that quality over the course of the game,” he emphasized.
He was also not satisfied with the body language and the mileage of his players, who unwound a total of nine kilometers less than the Mainz team. “These are things that I don’t like and that the club have been complaining about for a number of seasons,” said Farke. There were also big mistakes on the defensive. No wonder Virkus announced a tough debate: “We will address the errors mercilessly.”
Mainz series
In a duel with Mainz, for whom Jae-Sung Lee (25th), Marcus Ingvartsen (49th), Ludovic Ajorque (72nd) and Nelson Weiper (90th 3) scored for the third win in a row, Borussia was after one proper first half fell apart after the break. “That can’t be and I feel sorry for our fans,” said defender Stefan Lainer. “We made too many careless mistakes.”
Six days after the acclaimed 3-2 win over record champions Bayern Munich, Mönchengladbach were almost unrecognizable and disappointed across the board. “It concerns us as a team why we can’t achieve consistency,” admitted Lainer.
To make matters worse, goalkeeper Jonas Omlin also suffered a torn muscle fiber in the adductor area, according to Farke. The 29-year-old Swiss, who came from Montpellier in winter for his compatriot Yann Sommer, who switched to FC Bayern Munich, will be out for the time being. Former world champion Christoph Kramer summed up the mood around the Bökelberg: “It doesn’t make sense to talk about anything that was positive. After a 0: 4 in Mainz you can say what you want, it all feels shit on.”
