Gambled Away

In Freiburg, Sebastian Hoeneß struggled with personnel issues—and drew the wrong conclusions from them. But that doesn’t fully explain the loss of control in the middle of the first half. After all, there was little truly new for the team in this match.

Sometimes, success can lead to a tendency to romanticize the past. I don’t mean the quality of the VfB team, which I still don’t doubt even after the opening defeat in Freiburg. No, it’s more about the fact that while the team is capable of playing breathtaking football, it also occasionally allows a highly motivated and well-organized opponent to take the upper hand. This has happened in Heidenheim, in Bochum, and now in Freiburg. The Breisgauer, under Julian Schuster, play in a way that’s, unsurprisingly, quite similar to how they did under Christian Streich: good set-pieces, clean build-up play, ruthless efficiency in attack, and high intensity. The goals didn’t come from the impressive Junior Adamu, who shone during pre-season, but from evergreens like Lukas Kübler and Ritsu Doan, assisted by Christian Günter and Vincenzo Grifo. Sebastian Hoeneß and his team knew exactly what to expect but could only handle it in the early stages when Ermedin Demirović marked his first Bundesliga chance for VfB with a spectacular goal. After Julian Schuster gathered his players during the first drink break, the team completely lost control of the game, reminiscent of another poor performance from last season, namely the defeat in Leipzig.

Back then, too, VfB took the lead, only to fall apart afterward. Although SCF didn’t score five goals against their guests, it could have easily happened. A week after a strong performance in Leverkusen, VfB lacked a lot— the right attitude towards the game, assertiveness in the opponent’s penalty area, and concentration—but above all, they lacked structure. Sebastian Hoeneß responded to the absences of Leonidas Stergiou, Anthony Rouault, Josha Vagnoman, and Daxo Zagadou by pulling Angelo Stiller back into defense and moving Enzo Millot to the holding midfielder position. Both were sorely missed in their usual positions and also made glaring errors: Millot gave Patrick Osterhage far too much space in midfield before the equalizer, allowing the attack through Adamu to begin; Stiller repeatedly failed to clear crosses from the sides, for example, before the 2–1 goal, and made a crucial passing error in his own penalty area before the corner that led to the 3–1. Besides these individual errors, Millot was missing from an otherwise shockingly harmless offense, while Atakan Karazor often looked lost without his usual partner. On the other hand, looking at the performance of debutant Anrie Chase against a still-dangerous but less intense Freiburg team, one can’t help but consider him a better solution for the injury crisis.

No Structure, No Control

Sebastian Hoeneß surely had more reasons to pull Stiller back than just the excellent performance he showed in this position against Dortmund. The comparison to that game, however, reveals why it worked then but not now. When Stiller replaced Anton in April, the team was well-coordinated and riding a wave of success. Currently, the team is still trying to find its footing, especially defensively. With Chabot and Krätzig, two newcomers were in the back four, Pascal Stenzel isn’t exactly a regular, and the transitions to midfield weren’t clean either. An established and well-practiced double-six in front of a back four with newcomers and a young Bundesliga debutant would, in my opinion, have provided much more stability and a more balanced approach, including offensively. Instead, Deniz Undav was completely isolated, reduced to two long shots, while Jamie Leweling was hardly seen.

In addition to individual and structural errors, it was also striking how quickly VfB lost control of the game. After Freiburg ended the first drink break with a goal kick from Florian Müller, VfB didn’t get hold of the ball until the equalizer. As in the last ten minutes in Leverkusen, VfB couldn’t get a foothold afterward and failed to mount any significant resistance to Freiburg’s storming attacks. In such situations, you tend to concede goals like the 2–1, where probably only Alex Nübel knows why he didn’t use his privilege of being able to handle the ball with his hands. The defeat was not only inevitable but also thoroughly deserved. Once again, it was evident that anything less than full effort is not enough. Perhaps the most telling moment was just before halftime when Undav lost the ball in the center circle during a counterattack by Osterhage.

A Reaction Will Come

What reads like a general criticism is also a general criticism, because the game was really bad. At the same time, it’s not a reason to despair after the lost Supercup and the botched opener. As mentioned earlier, VfB also had such games last season, and the team was able to respond. Moreover, the situation in central defense is expected to ease with another transfer and the eventual return of Stergiou, Rouault, Zagadou, and Vagnoman. The criticism that, instead of signing, for example, El Bilal Touré (more background on him soon), a central defender should have been the priority, is something I can’t understand. Apparently, it was easier to find a suitable backup for the striker position than a potential starter in central defense. The deadline is next weekend, not the first matchday. And while it certainly would have made sense to start Anrie Chase, I see no reason to rush into the transfer market because of one game.

Perhaps—although I could do without it—this defeat is yet another wake-up call that the team has needed in the past to refocus. The excitement in recent weeks has been high and should remain so—after all, the Champions League draw is on Thursday! The team now needs to sharpen its focus and, fortunately, can prove as early as Tuesday in Münster what their only goalscorer of the season so far said after the game: “We’re still an awesome team.”

For something completely different: Rest in peace, Christoph Daum