Following a crucial defeat suffered by Borussia Monchengladbach in the hands of FC Koln, Christopher Kramer had admitted that the German side still has a long way to go at Borussia Park.
The Colts were upended by Markus Gisdol’s men at home. A brace from Elvis Rexhbecaj- the 3rd and 55th minutes- was all Koln got to gain a maximum of three points away, Florian Neuhaus 16th minute goal could not give Marco Rose’s men to level a goal deficit
In the post-match conference, Kramer said the squad went with a plan to gain a maximum of three points in the derby match but went the other way round for the German side. He admitted that the derby loss was not ‘good for the mentality’
“We had it in our heads the whole time that we simply had to take all three points at home in a derby against Köln, that we needed them to help our position in the table. That’s not good for your mentality, though.” He said in the club website
He added that they did not stick with game plan, which gave room for mistakes in the play, by conceding some silly goals.
“We suffered early, annoying and avoidable setbacks in both halves. We gave away goals that you just can’t allow yourselves to concede. That goes without saying. We weren’t really at it at those moments. We always have to be on the ball, that’s really important.”
” After that we rushed things and got sloppy at times. Our positioning was off too. We didn’t stick to our gameplan, we weren’t finding those pockets of space. Our plan definitely wasn’t to launch crosses into a box filled with ten Köln defenders, but they sat really deep and defended diligently.” he said
Kramer further said that the fact that the squad was rotated does not have anything to do with the derby loss, as the process has done a lot of good for the club in its entirety.
” We have always rotated a lot over the past 18 months under Marco Rose. It’s always done us good. Our loss yesterday was nothing to do with the changes. The rotation wasn’t the reason for us losing.” he said
Giving his take on what it means to lose a derby, hr said the game was different from another league game, which means a lot to them, but it hurts that the team lost
“The derby isn’t just another game. It means a lot to us but this time we lost, unfortunately, and that really hurts us all. Obviously it isn’t nice to have the Köln players celebrating in front of us in the stadium, having to watch them celebrate by the corner flag. But that’s football sometimes.”
But Kramer said there were lessons the team had to take home from the match. He emphatically stated that the team should approach every game like a Champions League match.
“If we have learned anything from this game it is that we have to approach every fixture as if it were a Champions League match. If you just let a match pass you by, or if you’re even slightly below par, then you will come away with nothing.”
The German said he does not want to blame anybody for the loss, saying that the team should go back to the drawing board as the team has a long way to go if they want to be winning matches
” I don’t want to blame anybody for having that attitude, though. This match just went about as badly as it possibly could. We had to play catch-up twice. . All in all it was a rough day and we lost the derby when three points would have helped us a lot. There’s still a long way to go this season.” he ended
Monchengladbach is seated seventh on the Bundesliga table– sixteen points behind league leaders, Bayern Munich and four points below fourth-placed Eintracht Frankfurt.
They will face Wolfsburg on the 14th this month.
