Before the turn of the year and the almost two-week winter break, Borussia Dortmund was in a terrible earnings crisis. BVB has only won one of the last eight games in the Bundesliga since mid-October, plus they lost the DFB Cup against VfB Stuttgart (0-2). In an interview, he revealed how midfield star Julian Brandt dealt with this difficult phase.
After the 1-1 draw against Mainz 05 on matchday 16, the last competitive game before the short winter break, the national player just wanted to leave, he told “kicker”.
“It was clear to me that I had to use these days off as quickly as possible because I was really running on the rim. I cut off all contacts with football and basically fled. And that was a good thing,” said Brandt, who said dropped off with his brother in the USA and traveled for a few days.
“We just drove around, looked at a few things and chilled out. Because of the time difference, I didn’t notice everyday German life. […] And no one there is interested in you, that’s the good thing. They don’t know you, they didn’t care about me at all. “That was really nice,” said the 27-year-old, enjoying his anonymity in the United States.
BVB star Julian Brandt: “It wears you out at some point”
Brandt admitted that he was mentally exhausted after the heavy triple load in the first half of the season. In addition, the midfielder was also physically at his limit, having already played 24 competitive games until Christmas this season.
“If you’re automatically just busy with football every single day, that’s of course fun, but at some point it’ll destroy you if you don’t have any compensation left. Then in your head it’s just about what we have to do better tactically and playfully and where I could have scored a goal or shouldn’t have fouled. That wears you out at some point,” said Brandt, who was in the starting eleven for BVB in 14 of the 16 Bundesliga games this season.
The Black and Yellows’ regular player emphasized that the mental factor is particularly important in order to be able to achieve one’s top performance: “In the end, everything in football goes over the head, even if it is a physical sport. If you If you are in some kind of anxiety or preoccupied with other issues, you can never perform at 100 percent.”