Collective defense failure
© Imago
Trainer Niko Kovac has rejected criticism of his renewed system change at Borussia Dortmund’s Champions League-Debakel at FC Barcelona. The 0: 4 (0: 1) in the quarter-final first leg on Wednesday evening was the result of a collective defense failure.
“It was not a problem of a chain of four or five,” said Kovac, who had last achieved two convincing victories in the Bundesliga after a switch to a chain of five against the ball. The classic four-way defense hadn’t worked right before.
For the game in Barcelona, however, he surprisingly switched to exactly this system. The full -back Julian Rerson and especially Ramy Bensebaini looked very bad several times.
Kovac warns his BVB players in front of FC Bayern
“Our full -backs have already been left alone,” Kovac defended them and, on the other hand, complained of too little support from the foreign strikers Karim Adeyemi and Jamie Gitten. With a view to the important prestiget duel at the Bundesliga leader Bayern Munich on Saturday (6:30 p.m./Sky), the BVB coach became clear: “We will defend much better and much more than today. Because without defense you will also get problems in Munich.”
Kovac justified the return to the chain of four with the offensive strength of Barcelona in view of the “world -class turmoil” Lamine Yamal, Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha, which, however, were all successful on Wednesday. “If you act with a chain of five from the start, you don’t get relief here at all,” argued the BVB coach.
Support from the BVB team and from sports director Kehl
Kovac received support from the players and sports director Sebastian Kehl. “I don’t think that was due to the tactics,” said Kehl, and captain Emre Can said at “DAZN”: “This has nothing to do with the system. This has to do with it that everyone gives everything and is also ready to go through a pain point.” You didn’t play a good game. “Barcelona was another level today. We have to play better defensively at this level.”
In the quarter-final second leg on Tuesday, even a miracle can no longer help the Bundesliga dating. “We want to show a good face in the second leg and try to win the game. We owe this to our fans,” emphasized Can. “The result is of course frustrating. To catch up with four goals against such a team is a board. It may not be very realistic,” said BVB goalkeeper Gregor Kobel.
