“We only have ourselves to blame” | OneFootball

Board member for sport Markus Krösche, head coach Dino Toppmöller and captain Kevin Trapp were highly critical of the performance in the 2-1 defeat to Union Berlin.

Board member for sport Markus Krösche: “It was a poor second half from us and completely unnecessary to let Union back into the game. We didn’t score a second goal because we were far too frantic and gave the ball away easily on too many occasions. We made too many mistakes, lost our structure, let them impose their game on us and lost all our composure in the press. We deserved to lose and only have ourselves to blame. The goals we conceded were too soft. We have to address those mistakes head-on – we can’t let it happen again. We’ll address things matter-of-factly. It’s extremely frustrating.”

Head coach Dino Toppmöller: “We changed our system five minutes before kick-off because Arthur was ruled out at short notice. He couldn’t play because he was in too much pain. We won the penalty from a move involving Ansgar [Knauff] and Rasmus [Kristensen] which we wanted to see much more often – but we didn’t make the right decisions. We didn’t score the penalty. It was a bad day and we’re disappointed. We have to dust ourselves off now and focus on Thursday. We’re in for a completely different game [against AFC Ajax in the UEFA Europa League].”

Kevin Trapp: “We all know we only have ourselves to blame for the defeat, because we stopped playing in the second half. We have to ask ourselves why that was. We’ve all been playing football long enough to know that a good 45 minutes isn’t enough to win games in the Bundesliga. We’re doing quite well in the league and have the chance to reach the quarter-finals of the Europa League in front of our fans on Thursday – but a defeat like this is extremely painful.”