At the end of the day, a lot of people at Bayer Leverkusen were talking about good and bad luck. “Luck was not on our side today,” said coach Gerardo Seoane. “We have to work on forcing luck,” explained sporting director Simon Rolfes. And it was also close. The only goal in the 0-1 draw at Club Brugge came from a half own goal, while the Werkself recorded a shot at the post and two goals disallowed for offside. So the game could have ended the other way around. But it’s not that easy.
Bad luck can explain defeat. Maybe for two. But rather not for six in seven games. And with such a talented team. In the cup with the third division promoted, in the league at home against the sixth, ninth and fourteenth of the previous year. And now in the Champions League at number 44 in Europe, who never survived the preliminary round in nine attempts.
Seoane still has backup
Cult trainer Hermann Gerland had commented on the talk about the Bayern Dusel with the beautiful words during his time at FC Bayern: “Always luck is ability.” The question remains, whatever bad luck is. Lack of quality maybe. Or a head problem. The former would be difficult to fix. The latter already. But then you automatically end up with the coach at some point in the analysis.
That coach, Gerardo Seoane, probably doesn’t have to worry about his job seriously at the moment. Rolfes responded to all relevant inquiries with a stoic “No”. The Swiss is still living on the good previous season, on his good relationship with the team and on the fact that he is valued as a person in the management team. But the question is: for how much longer? Before the international break, he should score points in the games at Hertha, in the Champions League against Atlético Madrid and against Bremen. Not just because Domenico Tedesco and Thomas Tuchel have been two coaches on the market since Wednesday that Bayer have shown interest in in the past.
“This defeat hurts,” said Seoane on Wednesday evening in Belgium. “The team has shown a different face in recent weeks. But the effort has not been rewarded.” That’s correct. But in the end there is only one truth: results. “We play football to win games,” said Rolfes. And that should happen soon.
