Following the decision of Borussia Monchengladbach coach, Marcos Rose to leave Borussia Park at the end of the season, club captain Lars Stindl has aroused the consciousness of the German side to strive for success
Stindl said this in a long dialogue he had with newsmen, speaking about the current state of the club in the German topflight – as they will be playing, Mainz and RB Leipzig, with the hope of passing the test on the UEFA Champions League round of 16 with Manchester City in a couple of days.
Fourth-placed Gladbach is sixteen points behind league leaders, Bayern Munich, bagging fifteen wins, four draws, and two losses in 21 matches.
The captain said the squad was a bit disappointed at the forthcoming exit of Rose, as they reacted professionally having known his reasons for leaving. He said the German coach quickly shelves the distraction that made them focus on the next task ahead.
“The team were of course a bit disappointed, but reacted very professionally to the news. It was a good discussion with Max Eberl and Marco Rose. The coach laid out the reasons behind his decision and explained why he made this choice. He then immediately put the focus back on the upcoming tasks that lie ahead of us.” said Lars Stindl on the club website
“Within the team, we accepted his decision because something like that is normal these days in football. At the same time, we also all said that we want to take advantage of what we can still achieve this season, together with this coach and his team” he added.
But he confidently said there is no negative impact following the decision of Marcos Rose, saying that they are ambitious to know the possibilities to achieve goals and to strive for maximum success
“Not at all. Of course we’ve picked up on some of the unrest outside of the club. That’s to be expected after a decision like this. Overall, however, we as a team and as a club have been able to handle it well. I’m confident that nothing will change in that regard over the next weeks and months.” He said.
“Our coach is ambitious enough to want to achieve the maximum of what’s possible here. As players, we’re just as ambitious. We know what’s still possible for us this season. For this reason alone, we will have to make it our number one goal, and strive for maximum success.”
The German attacking midfielder said the squad needs to improve even though The Colts started strongly at the beginning of the season. He said that the goal of the club is to bypass all those challenges by the time the season ends
“We started strong after the winter break. However, we also had to improve on our results at the end of 2020, which we managed to do at the start of this year. We’re currently treading water a bit, with the two draws and the frustrating defeat in the derby recently.” He said
“That’s why we really want to win again in order to close the gap to the teams currently ahead of us. Our goal is to bypass some of them before the end of the season. But, we’re taking it all step-by-step and right now our focus is only on the upcoming game against Mainz on Saturday.”
As regards the UCL round of 16 against Josep Guardiola’s strong army, Stindl said the team is looking forward to it, not ignoring the fact that City are the favorites. But he assured that the team is will do everything possible to get a ‘positive result’
“We’re currently focused solely on the game against Mainz, but the game against Man City is certainly on our minds. It’s a highlight, one that we worked to achieve in the group stage. We’re looking forward to it, even it if means that we have to face what is probably the best team in the world at the moment.” Lars Stindl said
“But, we knew already that we wouldn’t have an easy go of it in this competition. We proved during the group stage that we can compete with the big teams and will look to take our chances against City. They are the clear favorites, but we will do everything we can to get a positive result on Wednesday in order to set ourselves up well for the second leg.”
