BVB boss Kovac warns: "We can't afford to make that mistake…" | OneFootball

Niko Kovac warns against complacency after BVB’s end-of-season run and demands more consistency from his team. At the same time, the coach announces new impulses and improvements.

Borussia Dortmund secured their place in the Champions League at the last minute with a winning streak at the end of the season. But coach Niko Kovac does not want this upswing to be seen as a given. On the contrary: the 53-year-old warns against stagnation and announces changes.

“I am a fan of cautionary words – and I prefer to speak up too early rather than too late,” Kovac explained in the DFL-Magazin Bundesliga. While the performance at the end of the season was “already strong,” now “everything has been reset to zero.” The coach emphasized: “We must not make the mistake of thinking: We can get by with less effort.”

BVB had just managed to climb to fourth place in the Bundesliga with five consecutive wins – despite the intense double burden of league and Champions League play up to the quarterfinals. For Kovac, this was also the result of hard work on previously lacking fitness. “Physical fitness is one of the factors for good, attractive, and intense football. If I can’t keep up with today’s usual intensity, then I lack concentration, I lack coordination, I lack almost everything,” he made clear.

Complacency at BVB? Kovac sounds the alarm

Better physical condition made it possible to “run opponents into the ground.” But that, he said, is only an intermediate step. Kovac announced that the physical condition would need to be further improved in order to consistently maintain their style of play.

In addition to fitness and mentality, he is focusing on a topic that has long concerned BVB: consistency. “It was a big topic of conversation within the team and in the media,” said Kovac. The goal is to permanently maintain the stability that was shown, among other things, during the Club World Cup. A weak start to the season like in previous years must not be repeated. “We can’t afford that. We have to be at our best right from the start.”

However, things will not remain unchanged. Niko Kovac wants to continue developing the team step by step. In doing so, he relies on a simple principle that he has made his motto: “In simplicity lies the beauty of football, but also its difficulty. Many want to do something special. I think: Just keep it simple, that’s the most effective.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.