Stindl: “We’re not turning our words into actions”

Borussia captain Lars Stindl spoke to the media following Wednesday’s 3-0 DFB-Pokal defeat at the hands of Hannover 96.

Lars Stindl on…

…the disappointment of going out of the cup: It’s hard to put the game into words. The cup was a huge opportunity for us to achieve something special. We spoke about that before the game and had seen the results from Tuesday’s matches, and then we go and put in a performance like that. I don’t get it. We spoke about a number of things at half time as well and changed things up, but then we come out for the second half and Hannover have two huge chances straightaway even before they scored the third. We talked about making things happen, but we didn’t bring any of that out onto the pitch.

…the reasons for the defeat: We didn’t start well at all. Hannover worked the ball out of the back and we pressed them down individually, but we didn’t have any intensity in our play and didn’t get stuck in to the challenges. When Hannover played long balls, we were just left chasing it. We made a number of bad decisions on an individual level leading up to their goals. Those things can happen sometimes, it’s not the end of the world, but it’s just not a one-off with us – this has been going on all season. Every week is the same. That makes things incredibly difficult.

…self-criticism: We’re a team, of course we are, and I know that it’s hard to offer arguments to back that up after a match like that, but we talk openly and intensively about these things internally. We had long conversations during the winter break and thought that we had made some progress. The same again before today’s game and at half time, but we’re just not turning our words into actions as a group. You can see individually that we want to work, but we aren’t following it up as a team and that leads to us losing important challenges. Then it becomes very difficult for you, regardless of who you’re playing. It so hard to get a structure into your game.

…the current sporting situation: We know the position we find ourselves in. We had put the current season out of our minds for this game. We came to Hannover buzzing, but none of that made it out onto the pitch. We only have ourselves to blame and the criticism is completely warranted. It’s important that we tackle those issues now. We need to work hard to get back on track. It won’t happen by itself. Every one of us is willing to put the work in.