Kramer: "We have to face the truth"

Christoph Kramer answered the media’s questions on Monday after the 2-1 defeat to Union Berlin. The midfielder on…

… the performance in the game against Union Berlin: It was definitely a different performance to the one a week ago against Leverkusen. We had hoped for a different result, so we can’t look back too positively on the game because we’ve lost, and that’s what matters. In that regard, we can’t be pleased with our performance.

… the missing punch: We had a lot of possession in our own half and at times took risks, and invested a lot in getting the ball into the opposition half. As soon as we came over the halfway line, we often lost possession. As a result, we didn’t get forward enough in the game and didn’t create enough dangerous moments in the Union area. In the closing phase, we played with more long balls and had more players on their back line. That had been lacking from our game throughout the match.

… the two goals conceded: As I already mentioned, we took risks in our own half. That’s our style and is good. Jordan Beyer’s pass in the lead up to conceding the opening goal was the right decision. 49 out of 50 times, that pass is successful. The facts that it lead to conceding a goal is unlucky. It’s a similar case for the second goal. It’s tough that Union capitalised on both mistakes so well, but that’s football. When you play with such risks in your game, you have to accept that.

… the unsuccessful start in the league: Of course, you can talk about a bad start when the team has picked up one point from three games. We can not be pleased with it and have to face the truth. Part of this truth is that we’d talked about taking much more from these three games, but another part of it is that our opening fixtures were not exactly easy. All three of our opponents deservedly finished ahead of us in the league last season. These three results can happen over the course of a season. The fact that they’ve come one after another just increases the pressure a little.

… the upcoming home game against Bielefeld: You need to pick up positive results in football, so we have to pick up three  to get back into a good spell. We can’t get into a negative mindset and believe that the whole season will be difficult. There are still 31 games to be played, in which we can put things right. The international break comes at just the right time for us. We can now concentrate on certain elements for two weeks, and then get back to it full of energy.