The man who claims that he insulted numerous football players from the home team at Borussia Park on Friday evening and did so several times has not been held accountable. Rather, they cheered him and patted him on the back. There is no threat of repercussions either, because this man is the Gladbach coach himself.
Daniel Farke tongue-tied the various (softly murmured!) insults after the game in the form of a “secret” to indicate that despite a 1-0 win against Hertha BSC from Berlin, he was not happy with some of his players’ actions. “I actually insult the whole team in every game,” he teased, “because as a perfectionist I always find something I don’t like.” However, he does this so quietly that sometimes not even the bank staff behind him hear anything about it.
So this is an anecdote that is not meant to be taken very seriously, and the new Gladbach coach was also tempted to publish it at the press conference because his team was in first place in the Bundesliga after three games with two wins and one draw at least on Saturday night -Table was allowed to spend. Anyone who thought that this would make the skeptical coach cheer in high tones was wrong. “We’re a long way from being able to call ourselves a top team,” said Farke sternly.
Gladbach obviously found it difficult to create good chances with the new style of play, the ball control. It took two hand penalties to beat Berlin and Borussia even allowed themselves to convert just one of the two. The Frenchman Alassane Plea scored in the 34th minute (hand ball: Maximilian Mittelstädt). Jonas Hofmann scored the second penalty in the 70th minute after a handball by Filip Uremovic so poorly that Berlin goalkeeper Oliver Christensen was able to parry thanks to the right choice of corner. Since Uremovic was also sent off for his handball with a yellow-red card, the Berliners only played ten men for the last half hour and were all the more surprised that they still created the better chances and almost managed to equalize. The curses of the Gladbach coach in this phase of the game were lost in the noise of the stadium.
After the game, no one asked the new Berlin coach Sandro Schwarz whether he was quietly insulting his players given just one point from the first three games and a place in the slums of the table, but there was nothing in his statements to suggest so. Schwarz praised his team and emphasized that, given the false start and the table constellation, he had “no worries, because I would only worry if you couldn’t see how we want to play football”. However, he recognizes this very well, found the defeat undeserved and even earned praise from his superior Fredi Bobic. The Hertha managing director called the performance of the Berliners “very neat” and himself “rather proud than sad”. Hertha could now well postpone their hopes to the next game, a home game, but they will host Borussia Dortmund next Saturday, and that will probably be a very difficult task again.
The Gladbachers also go into the game next Saturday evening at FC Bayern Munich with lowered expectations. Coach Farke continues to work on stabilizing and harmonizing the team that he played through almost completely in the first three games. He didn’t want to change for the sake of a change, but rather let his regular formation find its rhythm, he explained, but also pointed out that he didn’t really have that many alternatives.
And he could even lose players from this regular formation by the end of the transfer period, because goalkeeper Yann Sommer, left-back Ramy Bensebaini and attacker Plea have all not renewed a year before the end of their contract. “We are in very open talks,” said Sommer after the game. It is possible that he will neither be extended nor leave until September 1st, but will aim for a free transfer next year. That would be the worst solution for Borussia. Then maybe the new sports director Roland Virkus would swear a curse. A very quiet one.