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Mainz 05 before SC Freiburg with problems

Wf the standings in the table would be an indication of satisfaction, there was a good atmosphere at FSV Mainz 05. Not a boisterous one, the home record with two points from three games is not enough, but a good one. The Rheinhessen are eighth, eleven points just one behind fifth-placed FC Bayern Munich, but six ahead of the potential relegation zone. So everything is fine before the game against Freiburg (3.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky)? no way.

Bo Svensson can certainly distinguish between the results achieved and the performances shown. The coach has been doing that since he took office in January 2020. Just as he was often satisfied with his team despite defeats, he does not hide when things are the other way around. “It wasn’t good enough in terms of content” – Svensson stuck this label more or less over all previous matchdays.

Overly critical voices fall silent

For example after the 2-1 win in Bochum: “We were lucky that the opponent didn’t punish us for our passivity.” The tough 0-0 against Union Berlin didn’t make even the Mainz kickers happy; Central defender Maxim Leitsch spoke of a “fucking game”. In the 0:3 against Bayer Leverkusen, the 05ers scored an own goal and passed the other two goals on to the opponent. In Gladbach (1-0) Svensson praised his team for the first half hour, later the actions in the majority became too sleepy and sloppy.

At the latest after the last game before the international break, those voices that had classified Svensson as overly critical fell silent. The 1-1 draw against Hertha BSC only came about because Mainz managed to pull down the clearly better Berliners to turf level after the break and Anthony Caci equalized with the last action. “You can’t expect us to dominate an entire game, but we didn’t have a phase in which we were particularly good,” said the coach afterwards.

With the exception of goalkeeper Robin Zentner, the problems run through all parts of the team. Partly understandable, because the protagonists are mainly young and inexperienced players at the first division level. Like Anton Stach, who came from Fürth last summer and became a shooting star. The 23-year-old is currently far from the form that national coach Hansi Flick unexpectedly made him a senior national player for.

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