After the international “break”, RB Leipzig will continue in the Bundesliga on Saturday. The home game against VfL Bochum is the start of an ultra marathon in which even RB coach Marco Rose doesn’t know exactly how to handle it cleanly.
There are impressive numbers behind the upcoming and so simple-sounding “English weeks”: RB has to play 13 games within six weeks or 43 days. A mammoth program that starts with a manageable task, i.e. gently: VfL Bochum is the current Bundesliga bottom in Leipzig as a guest (radio report and live ticker from 3:30 p.m. in the SpiO app) .
Of course, a win is a must, but RB coach Marco Rose doesn’t feel any particular pressure or doesn’t want to feel it. After all, it doesn’t help, he said on Thursday, to jump on the “We have to” train. “Yes, we always have to anyway – and we always want to,” he emphasized, quite relaxed and shrugging his shoulders.
Time to get things moving
In football, many games within a short space of time mean that the starting XI is constantly changing. But how much rotation is appropriate? What is the strategy for tackling such a challenge? Marco Rose cannot draw on a wealth of experience when it comes to these questions, because he has simply “never experienced such an intensive program. I think it’s called ‘learning by doing’.”
The 46-year-old relies on flexibility. Because: “In the six weeks with 13 games on a Saturday-Tuesday rhythm, we won’t just push the opponent away, win balls, switch gears, score goals. We have to rest with the ball in certain phases. We should try to be clever , so not constantly falling behind.” In his opinion, the most favorable and banal strategy is to score one’s own goal, rest with the ball, get seeds, score the second goal and then bring games home. “That’s also an approach against Bochum.”
Change of coach and Werner problem
Speaking of Bochum: VfL has the Red Lantern firmly in hand in the Bundesliga, has only scored one point in seven games – and changed the coach a week ago. The new one is called Thomas Letsch and was temporarily the boss of the then U16 coach Rose in Salzburg. “Thomas comes from a similar school to me. That means: Bochum may also try to get us higher,” predicts the Leipziger: “They will try to score goals through switching situations. So we have to protect our attacks well. That’s it very important.”
However, the offensive is no less important. “We often have good actions in and around the box, we are often in areas where we can cross or play the last pass. But then we are not consistent enough there, not greedy enough to then score the goal,” Rose analyzed the current RB problem, which striker Timo Werner took a bit far into the last international matches. Marco Rose presented the solution anecdotally on Thursday: “Yesterday I met Timo briefly. The first thing I said to him was: Boy, you have to shoot too!”
