The sports director grumbles, the players are at a loss: Bayern conqueror Borussia Mönchengladbach comes under the wheels in Mainz – and sinks into the gray mediocrity.
First Jonas Hofmann, Christoph Kramer and Co. got a hearty announcement from the fans, then the sports director hit it hard. “We make such stupid mistakes, and that goes against the grain. That upsets me so much,” said Roland Virkus – and after the Borussia Mönchengladbach debacle demanded: “We all have to take care of our own noses.”
Just a week after the coup against Bayern Munich (3:2), the mood on the Lower Rhine seems to have hit rock bottom. The brief euphoria? gone. The top teams? Hurry. More than mediocrity is probably not possible this year – that was shown again with the bloodless performance at 0: 4 (0: 1) at FSV Mainz 05. To make matters worse, the new goalkeeper Jonas Omlin was injured and he is threatened with a longer absence.
“Everything feels like shit and every positive word you could say about the game feels wrong,” Kramer said on DAZN. Once again, the Gladbach team missed out on scoring two wins in a row for the first time this season, and once again VfL delivered a completely disappointing performance abroad – this is the main reason why the foals are stumbling through no man’s land in the table.
Hofmann stomped out of the arena without a word, Virkus raged about the next desolate defensive performance. “When you see the goals we eat, it’s inexplicable for me,” he said, shaking his head. The team must start “doing everything to keep the zero”. Against Mainz, however, Borussia fell apart after conceding goals.
Gladbach: Summer successor Omlin injured
An explanation for the two different VfL faces? The coach openly put the squad to the test. It’s been “the same issues for a while. Not just since this season, but longer,” said Daniel Farke. There is a lack of “resilience in the backlog”, the will to fight back, to fight back. This quality must be added “urgently”.
A request to the sports director? One thing is clear: in the coming weeks, a lot of things about Borussia Park should be questioned. You always look at “what’s missing in the team,” explained Virkus, although this doesn’t depend on “whether it’s 0: 4 or 3: 2”.
However, the Gladbachers have to deal with a construction site immediately: goalkeeper Omlin, who only came in as a replacement for Yann Sommer in the winter, had to be injured in the middle of the first half. According to Farke, the Swiss suffered a torn muscle fiber in the adductor area. Virkus did not want to give a diagnosis before the upcoming MRI scan.
