“Technically far too sloppy” | OneFootball

Board member for sport Markus Krösche, head coach Dino Toppmöller and captain Robin Koch analyse the Leverkusen match.

Board member for sport Markus Krösche: “We never really got into the match – we were jittery and half asleep. The goals we conceded all came from set pieces. We shouldn’t have given away the ball the way we did for the second one. In the second half, we bounced back and had a good passage of play, but that wasn’t enough and at the end of the day, it was too little, too late. We’ve still got a lot of work to do and need to learn our lessons from this match.”

Head coach Dino Toppmöller: “The key moment was Grimaldo’s goal from the free-kick and Rasmus Kristensen’s injury that came at the same time. I really like the way the team reacted after the break – we showed some good energy and power. The main problem overall was that we were technically far too sloppy with the ball. The structure was good enough, but we lacked the killer instinct and looked weak in front of goal – we never really put the opposition’s goal under pressure.”

Robin Koch: “We didn’t do enough with the ball, and we also lost possession which led to us gifting them free-kicks and a penalty – and that’s where the goals came from. In the second half, it was a little better but overall, we didn’t create enough when we were in possession, and we need to work on that. Bayer were incredibly quick. The foul I committed for the penalty is something I need to work on – I needed to be a metre further forward. We know what we need to do, though – this match isn’t going to throw us off track.”