“Hard to put it into words” - #BMGSCF reaction

We gathered the thoughts of Patrick Herrmann, sporting director Max Eberl and the two head coaches after Borussia’s 6-0 loss to SC Freiburg on Sunday evening.

Patrick Herrmann: It’s hard to put the game into words. We had already thrown it away after a matter of minutes. We just weren’t at the races at all in the first half – it was a catastrophic performance. The game was lost pretty quickly. Freiburg put in some get deliveries from set-pieces, but we knew that before the game. We didn’t pick up our man and didn’t go up for the ball. Our opponents didn’t have to work too hard to score their goals. When you’re 4-0 down after 20 minutes, and then the fifth goes in, everyone knows that the game is done. Nothing came together at all today. We only have ourselves to blame. We have conceded 10 goals in the past two games and haven’t done enough going forward. We have to fight our way out of this situation, nothing else will do. We have to give our all in Leipzig on Saturday.

Max Eberl: That was surreal at times. We conceded two early goals and you could see how nervy it made everyone. No one wanted the ball, although, to be honest, we didn’t have much of the ball in the opening period anyway. We just had this inexplicable lethargy and didn’t carry a threat at all. We were very sloppy from Freiburg’s set-plays; we simply have to defend them better. That’s what frustrates me the most. I’m a bit bewildered right now. Tomorrow is about picking ourselves back up and digesting the defeat. We conceded four goals in Cologne, and now six today, but we also didn’t do enough going forward with enough incisiveness either. There’s plenty for us to work on before we go to Leipzig on Saturday with the aim of improving.

Adi Hütter: I’m incredibly disappointed. I’m very sorry for the fans that have made their way to the stadium today. We win together and we lose together. A few weeks ago, we beat Bayern 5-0 here and we were all over the moon. Today, we saw a match that should never have played out the way it did. Of course, we knew that Freiburg are strong from set-pieces and we prepared for that in training, but I had the feeling that we were paralysed from them. I don’t have an explanation for that right now. First and foremost, we have to apologise for the way we played today. That is unacceptable. If you saw the level in training, you would never imagine that a performance like that could happen. But then when you’re 5-0 down after 25 minutes, it’s obviously very disconcerting.

SC Freiburg head coach Christian Streich: Ahead of the game, we decided to adopt a system that we hadn’t played before, and that we would be courageous with our pressing. Every shot in the first 30 minutes ended up in the back of the net. I’ve been a coach for a long time, but I have never experienced anything like that. The team put in a magnificent performance – sometimes everything just comes together. We were very relaxed in the second half. We could have conceded a couple of goals, as Gladbach kept on working. At the end of the day, it’s just nice to have won a game in Mönchengladbach, as that hasn’t happened in a long time.