Marco Rose has become a lawyer in his own case this season. RB Leipzig’s painful 3-2 defeat against Aston Villa on Tuesday evening was less than an hour old when Rose spoke into the microphones shortly before midnight. By then the team had already expressed themselves in a crumpled manner, disappointment was evident on their faces. Christoph Baumgartner reported that it was quiet in the cabin, with heads hanging low. But then Marco Rose sat there – and seemed almost unaffected by the situation.
Of course, the coach also spoke of disappointment about the early exit from the Champions League, but he then also said this sentence: He would now “check the box” “relatively quickly”. As if they hadn’t exactly been eliminated without a point after six games, being the first German team. With an appearance that gave little reason to be positive about the tasks ahead. And yet, there’s a catch?
:Marco Rose is a coach who is being publicly crushed
To understand Marco Rose, it helps to take a look at the events of the past few months. The 48-year-old has had to adopt a number of survival strategies this season, and that is leaving its mark. Shaken by a formative series of injuries to its players, RB only breathed a sigh of relief last week: the 3-0 win in the round of 16 of the DFB Cup against Eintracht Frankfurt was a relief after six previous games without a win in the following league -Away win at Holstein Kiel further calmed the mood, at least in terms of results. But a turnaround, as we now found out against Aston Villa, has apparently not yet been initiated.
What is enough for RB Leipzig against the Bundesliga clubs is far too little in the Champions League
The Leipzig team were too error-prone and, above all, had no clear idea of how to eliminate the English defense. The fact that we managed to score two goals was thanks to two long balls, with Loïs Openda as a grateful receiver. And the nonchalance of Aston Villa’s Diego Carlos and goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, who misjudged the score at 1-1 so much that Openda was able to score unchallenged. A remarkable lob by Baumgartner made it 2-2. But the score was 2:3, and Aston Villa’s winning goal saw a long-range shot by Lukas Klostermann deflected unstoppable to Péter Gulácsi. “That speaks a bit for our Champions League this year that you still score such a cucumber goal,” said managing director Marcel Schäfer.
The message of the evening was ultimately: What is currently enough for Leipzig against Bundesliga clubs is far too little in the Champions League, as evidenced by the defeats against Atletico Madrid, Juventus Turin, Liverpool, Celtic Glasgow, Inter Milan and now Aston Villa. On the sixth of eight matchdays, RB is in 34th place out of 36 teams, the clubs behind them Slovan Bratislava and Young Boys Bern were only challenged on Wednesday. “An unbelievable amount” was missing, said sports director Schäfer, and he saw the ticking off completely differently than his coach: “I have to let it sink in first,” said Schäfer, the disappointment was too great to give up now to look at the upcoming games. Leipzig’s ambitions in the Champions League were ultimately completely different after they narrowly failed in the round of 16 against Real Madrid last season. But those – and this realization must also take hold – were different times.
The difference players from RB Leipzig will be sorely missed
Especially because the loss of key players is noticeable at Leipzig: the difference player Dani Olmo has been sorely missed since his move to FC Barcelona in the summer, the remaining difference players are not playing due to injuries. “Last year we never had eight injuries and four of them were players who simply couldn’t be replaced in their positions,” stated Rose. He meant the defenders Castello Lukeba and David Raum as well as Xaver Schlager and Xavi Simons in midfield. Rose was recently able to fall back on Schlager after his long-term knee injury, but he was rested for the Champions League. “We have to reinvent ourselves a little bit, that’s what we’re trying to do,” said Rose, who had to make changes to the thinned out positions, “that’s what led to it being wild today.” The lack of unity was particularly noticeable in defense; when John McGinn made it 0-1 in the third minute, no one seemed to feel responsible for stopping the attacker.
Managing director Marcel Schäfer did not think that the squad should have been planned to be larger before the season, but of course they are now investigating the causes in Leipzig. Why there are so many injured people is an issue “that we have to deal with,” he said. The approaching Christmas break is longed for in Leipzig. “It’s certainly good for us when we can think about a lot of things, but not about Football,” said Schäfer. These are worrying signals ahead of the remaining games against Frankfurt on Sunday and at FC Bayern next week.
#Leipzig #lacks #ideas #players #Champions #League
