After Borussia Mönchengladbach’s last thrilling victory, the team experienced a great disillusionment. Now last week’s Derby victory should not serve as the basis for a step backwards – Daniel Farke wants to make sure of that.
In the 3-0 win against RB Leipzig, Gladbach showed what is probably their best performance of the season so far. It was all the more disappointing on the following matchday when they lost 5-1 to Werder Bremen. And that with a disastrous initial phase.
There was another great victory last weekend: the prestigious derby against 1. FC Köln was won 5-2 at home. A threesome that is even more meaningful for the fans – and thus the basis for another step backwards?
It is now a matter of ending the upward and downward movement and freeing oneself from this circle with another good performance. Then Borussia would also have the chance to tackle the Champions League places again early. They are currently in sixth place and at the top of the home table, while the away games were rather modest.
“I have a good gut feeling. The boys are focused and have trained well,” said Daniel Farke at the press conference on Thursday (quotes via picture). At VfL Wolfsburg, a focused appearance should succeed, which makes the next three points as likely as possible.
“The game after a special highlight is always the most difficult,” the coach also knew how to emphasize. “But the situation is completely different than in Bremen. We didn’t have the team together for two weeks.”
Above all, the early phase of the game will be very important, said Farke. After all, there is “never a guarantee that you’ll start the next game great”. This time, hence the emphasis on the focus of his players, the Fohlenelf can’t afford a shaky start. It will be important to get the last stability shown on the pitch.
The Farke warning: “We have to be wide awake right from the start, we can’t afford an initial phase like the 20 minutes in Bremen. Wolfsburg has an extremely high quality. An opponent with so much quality, even in individual players, punishes that immediately.”
However, he would like to focus less on the aspect of the strong home and weak away balance. In principle, he found the previous performances, far away from his own stadium, to be “stable”. The coach referred to the point at FC Bayern and SC Freiburg, and the last-minute equalizer from Schalke 04. “The only exception was Bremen,” Farke made clear.
“Of course it’s more comfortable to play in front of your own fans, you know the conditions. But the rules of the game are the same. You have a pitch, 11-a-side, and at the end of the pitch there are two rectangles where you have to put the ball.” , he was already taking away a potential excuse.
This article was originally published on 90min.com/de as After the derby victory: Farke wants to avoid Gladbach going backwards again.
