The Leipzig players didn’t even have to hear Marco Rose on that November evening in Milan to understand him. The attempt to prevail against the Tifosi at San Siro would probably have been hopeless anyway. Very few people manage to do that. Inter coach Simone Inzaghi, for example, whom the fans admire so much that they would probably remain silent at his request, has, as a solution, gotten into the habit of communicating with his hands, as if he were a conductor at the city’s opera, the Scala, and not working in the football stadium. And Rose? On Tuesday evening he mainly used his neck muscles to communicate: again and again you could see his head sinking towards his chest because of his disillusionment with what was happening on the field.
RB Leipzig’s record this Champions League season reads as relentlessly disastrous: five defeats from five games, fourth from bottom among the 36 best European clubs. That is not Leipzig’s claim, which also applies to a 0-1 defeat in Milan, where the result could have been clearer. This can of course also be explained. Among other things, one of the reasons for the lowered rose head.
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Assan Ouedraogo, who came on as a substitute in the 61st minute, had only played nine minutes when he sat down on the pitch injured without being affected by the opponent and had to be substituted shortly afterwards. The youth international is 18 years old, having just returned from an injury and whom Rose called up because he didn’t have much else to do: there were only six RB substitutes due to the numerous injuries (including regular players Xavi Simons and David Raum). ) traveled to Milan, everyone except substitute goalkeeper Maarten Vandevoordt was used. These difficult circumstances should be mentioned in the context of the Champions League misery, but they are not an excuse for everything.
“I’m only human,” said Marco Rose later: “If an 18-year-old boy gets injured there (…), that can also result in his head being down for a short time.” The Leipzig coach assured that He talked Ouedraogo well and raised his head again shortly afterwards (“It’s no use”). He still didn’t see much positive.
Despite all justified acknowledgment of the circumstances, it was a shockingly poor performance by Leipzig in parts, fittingly crowned by an own goal from Castello Lukeba that ultimately won the game (27th minute). Particularly in the first half, the team hardly had any impact in the opponent’s half and found themselves in exactly the same way Football again, which according to the definition of the Red Bull doctrine is actually strictly prohibited. Courageous, high starts, energetic follow-up, these are all the basic virtues of the school, which have always earned the Leipzig location a minimum of respect from many critical voices over the past decade. But again there was no sign of them against Inter, as Rose also noted: “In the first half it was clear to us that we were struggling with our self-image.”
Two extremes collided. On the other side: a temporary Champions League leader from Milan, who celebrates his dominance and security with a calmness of mind in possession of the ball. Everything at Inter seems orchestrated and staged, well-rehearsed and routine, as if made for the big stage. The team of the brilliant conductor Inzaghi has not yet conceded a goal in the competition, which is also due to the fact that they are very aware of their footballing principles at the San Siro: slowness in certain actions is a stylistic device at Inter that is used to maintain the rhythm of the game to control the game.
RB CEO Mintzlaff visits the dressing room before the game in Milan
At Leipzig, however, the slowness was an expression of playful helplessness. Unlike in the best times a few years ago, the people of Leipzig no longer make the music themselves, but rather follow it: the players not only seem unsettled as a unit, but also individually. Christoph Baumgartner and Nicolas Seiwald, for example, are currently playing more successful RB football with the Austrian national team under Ralf Rangnick than with Leipzig.
Group board member Oliver Mintzlaff, who remains remarkably close to the football figurehead of Red Bull’s sporting ambitions, also observed this from the stands in Milan. Before the game he visited the dressing room, and he is currently in close contact with head coach Rose, who even spoke to him on the phone again in the afternoon, as he said at the press conference. Rose used the same event for a kind of lawn ball sport confession of faith: “I believe in God, I believe in my boys, I believe in our path, in our club,” said Rose, but otherwise “not in the situation to watch myself here explain.” He seemed somewhat defiant at this moment, at least he had his head held high.
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