RB Leipzig in crisis: “Arrived in the head” – 4 points from 5 games

After 2:5 in Stuttgart

What you should call this worst negative phase under coach Marco Rose doesn’t matter to RB Leipzig. “Crisis, false start – choose a word,” replied national player Benjamin Henrichs (26) angrily. “Definitely not good enough for our needs. Something has to change quickly.” After the violent 2:5 (1:2) at VfB Stuttgart and a weak performance, it is certainly appropriate to say that the ambitious RB team has slipped into a crisis.

“Always talking about the fact that only the results are missing no longer works from today on,” said RB coach Rose soberly: “Three defeats in a row with today’s performance – we know that there can’t be any points for that.” That They are still without a counter in 2024 and even four games in the Bundesliga without a win seem to unsettle what is actually a strong squad. And is currently also endangering the minimum goal of the Champions League.

Only 1. FC Köln (2), TSG Hoffenheim (2), Darmstadt 98 (2; still in action at Union on Sunday) and Mainz 05 (3) have scored fewer points from the last five games than the Saxons. Of 96 teams in Europe’s top five leagues, 17 were worse than Leipzig during this period (to the international form table). Instead of overtaking the surprise third-placed Stuttgart as hoped, RB is now four points behind the Swabians in the table. “It’s not enough for the goals we have. This is too little. “Everyone has to do more,” said Christoph Baumgartner (24).

What was particularly worrying from the guests’ point of view was the way they performed against VfB, who had also previously had no points after the winter break. Rose’s problems continue to grow. As in the 2:3 against league leaders Bayer Leverkusen, the goals conceded from set pieces were a problem. But Rose listed a whole series of shortcomings.

Leipzig coach Rose: “Overall, we’re defending too poorly at the moment”

“Overall, we’re defending too poorly at the moment, in a lot of situations – whether it’s high pressing or midfield pressing,” explained the 47-year-old. His players were also not close enough in their own penalty area. “And we didn’t attack well either, you have to say.” The guests didn’t have much more to offer offensively than the two goals from Benjamin Sesko (20) in the 32nd and Loïs Openda (23) in the 55th minute . There were only three defeats in a row for RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga once, in November/December 2021. At that time, the negative trend cost coach Jesse Marsch his job. Rose is not discussed in Leipzig.

But the coach still presented a completely different picture than the freely cheering Stuttgart team around the three-goal scorer Deniz Undav. The lack of success is noticeable mentally, said Rose. “It’s clear to us somewhere that the last three results have arrived in our minds. “You could see that in our game today,” said the RB coach. Baumgartner agreed. “We are hiding a bit, afraid of making a mistake,” admitted the midfielder. “The very first thing that has to come into our heads is that we win games again.”

The duel with 1. FC Union Berlin will now be an “incredibly important home game,” said Baumgartner. The Austrian would like to “get his frustration off his chest” next Sunday. But Rose has a lot of work waiting for her. “We didn’t have the conviction, the trust in a lot of things that are normally normal for us. We have to work through that,” he explained. “Then we have to come up with a good plan for next week, a simple plan. Possibly also to free up the other parts of the boys’ brains for the game so that they don’t think so much.” You already have “a backpack now,” says Rose. And in just over two weeks, Real Madrid’s star ensemble will be waiting in the first leg of the round of 16 of the Champions League.

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