Hütter: “We need to perform better”

Before the away game at RB Leipzig on Saturday (15:30 CET), head coach Adi Hütter and sporting director Max Eberl spoke to the media.

Head coach Adi Hütter on...

...the squad: Apart from Jordan Beyer, we’ve got no injured players. We had 23 players on the training ground today, which was great to see.

...coming to terms with the last game: It’s important to focus on the facts and what happened. It was the first time that I’d ever experienced a game like that and being 6-0 down after 36 minutes. You can’t just get back to your day-to-day business on days after a match like that. We sat down with the team and spoke about things. We had some really constructive discussions.

...the 6-0 defeat against Freiburg: We all messed up. There’s no bones about it – we were asleep at the start. Freiburg surprised us somewhat with their long balls. We didn’t defend our box well enough, let them cross too easily and failed to stop them getting shots away despite having more men than them in the area. On top of that, we looked really bad from set pieces.

...the current situation: We had a terrible week when it comes to results. Nevertheless, we were on the right track before this. We’ve suffered some setbacks, so we need to get up back again together. We’re obviously required to perform better after the Freiburg game. I can promise that everyone here wants to try and improve. We want and need to show a different side to us and bring our qualities onto the pitch.

...the upcoming opponents: RB have a really good squad with lots of talented individuals. A lot has happened there this week. Domenico Tedesco has arrived with a new coaching team and took his first training session today. We will have to see what he can change in a short space of time and how much he can influence the tactics and personnel. We can’t know for sure what to expect, though we know how his teams played at Spartak and before that at Schalke.

...a game behind closed doors: It’s definitely another setback, but we’re familiar with them already and had to play them for long enough previously. We obviously need to talk about it, however my lads are familiar with the feeling of playing in front of empty stands. It won’t change anything about my coaching.

...distance covered: I gladly look at statistics like this, however sometimes they don’t mean all that much. For example, if you’re really dominant and you have the opponents pinned in their own half, you’re not running as much. Nonetheless, we’ve had games where we’ve run 120km because it was that kind of match. The decisive thing is the distance you cover in the key moments. It would be wrong to say that we’d win every game if we cover 118km each time. The important thing is that the team can run hard to win a game if they need to.

Sporting director Max Eberl on...

...the two recent defeats: We have conceded 10 goals in the last two games and that’s way too many. You have to assess the two matches separately, however. We showed a good reaction to going 1-0 down against Köln and were pushing to take the lead after we equalised. They scored twice quickly and then they got a fourth goal, which really annoyed us because a final scoreline of 4-1 sounds really convincing. The 6-0 against Freiburg then happened on top of that. We were asleep for the opening stages and were slightly surprised by their game. We were too passive from crosses and set pieces in particular. We need to defend crosses better and be dominant in our box so we can stop conceding so many goals. We didn’t manage this at all on Sunday. Being 6-0 down after 35 minutes was no normal defeat, we know that. We have to show a reaction on Saturday now.

...fans possibly staying away: If a game – that was definitely not good and none of us enjoyed – were to lead to us fearing fans turning their backs on us then that would be very strange. We can do without those fans that stop backing us after just one game. Our club sticks together. We celebrate wins like the 5-0 over Bayern together, and we all suffer after defeats like this 6-0 against Freiburg together. It’s natural to expect the coaching team and players to do things better next time. We need our fans during the difficult times. We simply dealt with this game behind closed doors. We’ve now got a job to be done in Leipzig and we want to do that together with our fans.

...the apparent lack of leaders: When things were going well, nobody was criticising saying we were missing leaders. Now we’ve lost two games and the critics are back. For me, a leader is someone that takes on the responsibility and does what the coach wants on the pitch. If they can then support a teammate too, whether it’s verbally or in a challenge, then that’s an added bonus.

...a possible loan move for Conor Noß: A loan move to another club could obviously make sense for him. If that were to happen, it wouldn’t be a sign that we don’t place any importance on our own youth players, but rather the opposite. We’re thinking about the next and best move for Conor’s development so that we eventually can see him on the pitch in a Borussia shirt. Conor has developed really well under Adi Hütter. We now need to decide on what we can do for him to bring him to the next level.