Eberl: “A turbulent and surreal year”

Max Eberl looked back at the year as a whole and spoke about the ups and downs, the change in head coach, the various restrictions imposed due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the tricky phase in which the club currently finds itself, and his hopes for the new year.

Max, which one word would you use to describe this year? 

Eberl: Turbulent is an adjective that would work appropriately here. So much has happened that it’s impossible to describe the year with one solitary word. But when I do look back at the year gone by, I can say with certainty that I’m glad it’s almost the new year and that 2021 is finally over. 

The year began promisingly with victories over Bielefeld and Bayern... 

Eberl: You’re right, the best two weeks of the year came right at the very start. I was enjoying time off in the mountains which helped me gain strength and a new energy. But then came the saga with Breel Embolo, so I cut my time off short by two and a half weeks because I wanted to be present as the club dealt with this situation. In reality, the impact of this was rather hard and fast. 

It also started to go a little wrong for Borussia on the pitch, too. They lost 2-1 in the derby against Köln and then came a run of five without a win... 

Eberl: That time was also slightly impacted by the news surrounding Marco Rose. There were a lot of discussions going on about whether he would stay or go. The derby defeat brought about a lot of raw emotion, partially because we had lost the game, but partially because Marco Rose made six changes to the starting XI going into the game and he was accused of not understanding the significance of the derby. Marco then informed me before the Wolfsburg game that he was going to leave us in the summer. We then announced this publicly the day after, for which we heavily criticised. I saw no alternative at the time because I didn’t want to lie to the fans for weeks on end. We weren’t happy with the decision, but we wanted to be transparent with our supporters, so we announced it. What followed was an extremely difficult time... 

Are you referring to the Coronavirus restrictions as well? 

Eberl: That’s actually not what I meant in this context. But yes, I’m sure our fans would have convinced Marco Rose to stay. He knew the club inside and out after one and a half years here, but the atmosphere that the fans generate at a full BORUSSIA-PARK may have just persuaded him to stay. We definitely wouldn’t have lost some of the matches which we did if our fans were present at the ground, I’m very sure of that. Their support is so important for the club and the team that I’m confident we would have finished in a European place if we’d had a full house in for the entirety of last season. But unfortunately, that wasn’t to be and we ended up in eighth place. 

You were also eliminated in the round of 16 of the Champions League by Manchester City... 

Eberl: It was the first time Borussia had qualified for the knockout stages of the Champions League (or European Cup) since 1976. Unfortunately for us, the tie against Manchester City came at a time when we were not in best form. We were knocked out, and the negative atmosphere at the time overshadowed the footballing success we had just achieved. It hurt and affected us badly.  

How did you find the final Bundesliga game of the 20/21 season in Bremen? 

Eberl: After losing 2-1 to Stuttgart the game before, we lost control of our own destiny in terms of qualifying for Europe. We did all we could by winning in Bremen, but it wasn’t enough because Union Berlin won their game in injury time and qualified for the UEFA Conference League. On the other hand, our result also saw Werder Bremen relegated. I’ve never experienced such a surreal moment in an empty football stadium in my career. It was the biggest disappointment in time as sporting director. I did everything to try and get us into Europe, but my decisions, in which I had complete faith, didn’t get us there. I had to accept all of the criticism that came our way. 

Borussia managed to retain most of the squad in the summer, despite it being a financially difficult period. That didn’t just happen, did it? 

Eberl: No, that definitely didn’t just happen. We were very open to transfers at the time. You try to bring a new mix and a different chemistry into the squad so there’s plenty of healthy competition for places. Our squad has been practically identical for almost three years, they are all good lads and good players. However, we were looking to change the personnel up a little, but it didn’t work out that way. We still had full faith in our current squad, though.  

How did the effects of Coronavirus on the football transfer market affect your work? 

Eberl: Although we made almost no signings during the window, it was still one of the most exhausting transfer periods in my time here. Corona has completely changed the market. It’s become very complicated, and you have to work around it. We ended up signing Joe Scally, who had already been here since winter, and also picked up two further young players in Lucas Netz and Manu Koné. All three have breathed new life into the squad and have earned every minute of game time they’ve had. Looking back, they are certainly three shining lights of the last six months. 

The new Bundesliga season began with a 1-1 draw against Bayern... 

Eberl: We played very well against FCB and if we had been awarded one of two possible penalties, we may have won the game. Maybe this great start led to us getting a bit carried away with ourselves, because we were way off the mark in our next two games against Leverkusen and Union Berlin. The Leverkusen game hurt a little bit more, because it showed that we had come on enough as a team as we’d thought at the time. The Union defeat was also tough to take, and after losing there, it confirmed we had not started the season well.  

There were then weeks of ups and downs, where we won a few but also lost others... 

Eberl: I wasn’t surprised to see us go through rocky and then better patches of form because we were very unstable and inconsistent in this period due to a variety of different factors at that point. The defeat in Augsburg was certainly sobering. Adi Hütter reacted and that made a few radical changes, such as leaving international players on the bench and giving some of the younger players a chance. The win over Dortmund was a little turning point for us. In summary, we had a very good phase during which we were picking up points regularly and even beat Bayern in the DFB-Pokal - you had the feeling that it was getting better and we were on the right track. 

And then came the 4-1 derby defeat... 

Eberl: This game sort of embodies the story of the first half of our season, In the first half, we put in a tidy performance and showed a good reaction after going behind. You could see the team’s desire to win and they fully deserved the equaliser. We all felt that the team were really in the game and that they would go on to turn it around completely. They then conceded two quick goals that no one was really expecting, and then a fourth came in injury time, which was a really tough result. After we drew level, we got back in the game, our heads were up and we were looking for the win, but we ended up losing 4-1 come full time. Surreal would, once again, be the best word to use to describe what was to come in the weeks after. 

You’re referring to the 6-0 defeat against Freiburg... 

Eberl: I’ve never experienced anything like that in my entire career in football. The 5-0 against Bayern just a few weeks before was a historic match. No one who was there that night will forget that game. The surrealness of that game was just the same as the 6-0 against Freiburg, a type of match which will probably never happen again. To be trailing 6-0 after 35 minutes, I can’t even explain how that came about to this day. Of course, a result like that affects the people involved. It wasn’t a normal defeat which you move on from the day after. It wasn’t just a match that left a scar, but one that shook the team to the core.  

The effects of this defeat were evident in the following matches, too... 

Eberl: Of course everyone hoped that we would bounce straight back and emerge clear victors from our next match, but the impact of the 6-0 was massive. No one was expecting a result like that, and when something as significant as that happens from out of nowhere, you start to doubt yourself. You can’t just brush off all the thoughts you make about games like that straight away. You need to look for something which is going to offer you some encouragement. In Leipzig we did well to come back into it after going 2-0 down, but instead of taking a small step in the right direction and putting in a performance we could build on, we conceded two further late goals. That was frustrating, because we made life, which was already difficult enough for us at that point, even more so.  

We ended the year with a 3-2 defeat against Frankfurt and a 1-1 draw to Hoffenheim. How do you view these two matches? 

Eberl: You could see in the first half signs that we had built on things from the Leipzig game reasonably well and tried to keep things simple. We then conceded an equaliser just before half time as they punished a mistake from us without hesitation. We then got back on top and made it 2-1, just to throw it all away again by making another error. The team aren’t trying to commit errors, it’s just things which simply cannot be explained. Doubt grew with every goal conceded. I’m glad we defended better in Hoffenheim and visibly showed that we’re putting up a real fight. Even though we conceded a bitter equaliser late on, this game was definitely a step in the right direction for us. 

Can you elaborate on that some more? 

Eberl: We did 90% of things right against Frankfurt, but not 100%. These fine margins are the differences between victory and defeat. That’s been our story at the minute. The team made good progress from the Leipzig game to the Frankfurt game and then went a step further in Hoffenheim. We now need to focus on getting the final 10% of things right and add that to our game. Everything is still a bit fragile, but I’d also like it to be known outside of the club that we are working hard to get out of this situation.  

Are you happy to have reached the winter break and that there’s an opportunity to recharge the batteries? 

Eberl: I’m glad that we now have a bit of time to pause and reflect. It’s been very intense recently and it’s taken a toll on us. It’ll be good for us to let it all sink in and try to take the positives out of what has been a relatively miserable last few weeks.  

What did you say to the lads before the break? 

Eberl: I told them clearly to forget about what has happened here at Borussia in the first half of the season come the end of the year, so that they can completely focus on the club and the second half of the season. The players have a few days to switch off and spend time with their loved ones which will also do their minds some good. But they should also use this time to fully recover from any niggles they may have. We’ll also take some action so that we can prepare for the second half of the season as best as possible. 

Can you really start over again after such a short break? 

Eberl: It’s possible for sure, but you can’t reset it all to zero, We’re aware of the difficult situation and will go into the next half of the season with certain feelings and emotions. But it is possible for us to clear our heads. We start with matches against Bayern and Leverkusen which is by no means easy, but we’ll go head on into these challenges and try and pick up some points from the games. 

It’s looking likely that the first games of the new year will take place without any fans in the stadium again... 

Eberl: That’s one thing which we unfortunately cannot control. We can only hope that the new variant of the virus will be suppressed sometime soon but at the minute it’s looking like a bit of a crisis. We’ll need to work with this, as well. The same goes for all the clubs, but when your results are a little bit better than ours at the minute, then it doesn’t have too much of an impact. 

What are you hoping for as we enter the new year? 

Eberl: We need to and are going to take on new challenges together. We’re currently in a bit of a tight spot, but I promise we will do all we can to get out of it as fast as possible. I hope the fans can see and sense this and will go down this tricky path together with us, so that we can achieve something amazing come the end of it.