Borussia’s managing director for sport Roland Virkus and sporting director Nils Schmadtke speak to us about the Foals’ sporting situation.
First came a dramatic 3-3 draw in the derby against 1. FC Köln, then a hugely disappointing Pokal defeat at 1. FC Saarbrücken and finally a hard-fought 1-1 draw at 1. FC Heidenheim. What is the atmosphere like in the team after an eventful and turbulent week?
Nils Schmadtke: The week has been and will remain notable above all for the devastating defeat in Saarbrücken. The team and everyone around them were hanging their heads on Tuesday evening. There’s no other way to put it. That’s because everyone knows that we let a huge chance slip. We can’t put it right and we can’t change anything. We therefore had to pick ourselves off the floor and tackle the next challenge in Heidenheim.
How do you assess the 1-1 draw on Saturday?
Roland Virkus: First and foremost, it has to be said that the team were under a huge amount of pressure. Quite rightly, because everyone was waiting to see how the team would react. The first thing you need to do after such a huge setback is to come to terms with it. I think the team did well in the first half and should have scored a second goal. After the break though, the opponent posed us more and more problems, and we conceded too many set pieces and therefore chances from these situations. We did defend most of them well, but overall we just didn’t ease the pressure on ourselves enough in the second half. We were too reactive rather than proactive.
The fans at the stadium were less supportive than usual. You were sometimes even booed.
Roland Virkus: A lot of the fans who were at the stadium on Saturday were either in Saarbrücken on Tuesday or watched the match on TV. They were still disappointed, as were we. They’ve been behind us all season, even though there’ve been some games where disappointment was the prevailing emotion at the final whistle. They’ve helped us hugely and of course we want that. We have to work on and off the pitch to strengthen the sense of togetherness that can be vital in difficult situations in football.
What’s the plan for the next few days?
Nils Schmadtke: We start our week of training on Monday without the players who’ve been called up for their national teams. We’ve then arranged a friendly against KAS Eupen on Thursday. It’s a good opportunity for one or two players to show us what they can do, and also to keep the excitement going, because this season is far from over.
What can Borussia still achieve?
Roland Virkus: We’re one of a very large group of teams in mid-table. Of course we want to put some distance between us and the bottom as soon as possible, but we also want to aim higher and move up one or two places. We finished tenth last season and we want to aim for that again this year, and maybe even a bit higher. We’re not in a position to be sloganeering yet though. We have to put things right on the pitch first.
What has to improve in order to achieve that goal?
Nils Schmadtke: It’s a case of defending our leads better, of course, and ideally extending them when we can. All too often we aren’t consistent enough throughout a game and when we’ve been coasting for periods of a game – which is normal – we’ve had trouble getting back out of second gear. There’s not just one obvious thing, though, because otherwise it would just be a case of stopping that. It’s much more that we’ve made the wrong decisions in certain situations of late. You might even say it’s become something of a mental block for us recently. In that regard, it might be a good thing to have an international break now.
As early as last summer you were saying that this would be a complicated season for Borussia. Where does the club stand now, in your view?
Roland Virkus: Obviously we’d hoped to have more points under our belt by this stage of the season. And there have certainly been good performances that we could have picked up better results from. I think we could have had five or six more points. On the one hand, that’s incredibly annoying and shows us we have a lot to work on in training, as well as changes that need to be made to the squad. But on the other hand, it also shows the potential we’ve yet to unlock.
Nils Schmadtke: There is still a lot to do – there are things to develop aside from results, too. The team is still finding itself. We have a squad which has lost key players and big personalities over the last two years, and a new hierarchy, a new club culture and a new squad dynamic are all taking shape. In such a balanced league, these are all enormously important factors if we want to be part of the chasing pack behind the title contenders. For that reason, we will continue to work on those areas. It’s certainly also pleasing to see how we’ve been able to compensate for our loss of attacking options.
Head coach Gerardo Seoane was asked after the game what needs to be done in the summer, and he essentially said a new Gladbach has to be built.
Roland Virkus: And that is exactly the sort of change we are talking about and that we have already started. We’re all working on it together. We were able to add some new quality to the squad last summer. We have to continue in that vein this summer and continue to make changes to the team.
