Leipzig (dpa) – It was only four months ago that Julian Nagelsmann let his frustration run free with his summit cross speech.
RB Leipzig had just lost 0-2 at Eintracht Frankfurt and the ambitious coach asked his players via TV microphones whether they wanted to linger to the top shortly before the summit or rather to have a picnic. Before the game at 1. FC Köln on Monday (8.30 p.m. / DAZN) there is no more talk of the summit. Rather, RB is fighting for the picnic area with the prospect of another season in the Champions League.
Leipzig has won only three of the nine games since Frankfurt. The 15 points earned result in an average of 1.67 points per encounter – too little for your own demands. “Overall, we have too many fluctuations in our performance, it’s about single player performance, not about the team as a whole,” emphasized Nagelsmann. Bavaria has little of these fluctuations.
But the difference to the sovereign league leader is currently not only in experience or form. The key issue is the usurer. “The decisive fact is our exploitation of great opportunities, which used to be 67 percent, now it is 31 or 32 percent, that is an extreme difference,” said Nagelsmann. This was most evident in the 1-1 draw against Freiburg in the first game after the Corona break. Only 22 goals were scored.
In addition, RB has developed a tendency to fall behind. That was the case at home games against Gladbach, Leverkusen, Freiburg and Hertha – and in the end there was a draw. “If you then fall behind, as was often the case in the second half of the season, it will be more difficult at the end of the day to score the same number of points that Bayern Munich scores in this case,” said the coach. In addition, his professionals were recently very amateurish when it came to defending standards.
The players are well aware of this. «Of course, a certain criticism is always appropriate. However, it takes place after every game anyway, after all, we always want to improve, »said national player Lukas Klostermann at« Amazon ». “We know how to classify this and we still have our season goals clearly in mind. We are also convinced that we can reach them. »
Actually, everything is ready to actually achieve this goal – at least fourth place in the league and thus qualification for the Champions League. The game plan means well with RB, the game against Paderborn follows to Cologne, then to Hoffenheim and finally against Düsseldorf. With the Leipzig claims, the maximum yield of twelve points should be obtained in order to go to the last home game against Dortmund with less stress.
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