After Borussia Mönchengladbach’s false start in the new Bundesliga year, coach Daniel Farke’s mood is irritated. The mood was “rather annoyed,” admitted Farke after the 1-0 defeat at FC Augsburg on Wednesday evening. It was the second defeat of Borussia 2023 after the 2: 3 against Bayer Leverkusen.
“We are where we want to be and what is realistic for us,” said Farke, referring among other things to the club’s limited financial resources. The defender Ko Itakura, loaned by Manchester City to FC Schalke 04, was Borussia’s most spectacular summer transfer.
In addition, the club had to sell goalkeeper Yann Sommer to FC Bayern a few days ago for financial reasons. The Gladbachers are ninth in the table with 22 points after the first half of the season. “We’re solid,” said the 46-year-old coach.
Midfielder Julian Weigl spoke of a “big disappointment” after the defeat in Augsburg and quarreled: “We played a decent first half. In the second half we got involved in the Augsburg game and hardly played football ourselves. They were then simply more grippy and get chances to score that we hardly ever had.”
Mergim Berisha gave Augsburg their first win of the new year with his goal in the 82nd minute. Farke complained that Christoph Kramer was absent from his team after half-time. The midfielder was hit in the head by an opponent’s free kick shortly before the break and then had to be treated for a few minutes on the pitch. Kramer was gone for a “few seconds” and had a headache, Farke reported. The 2014 world champion was substituted at half-time for Florian Neuhaus.
