The door remained closed for half an hour. Bo Svensson gathered his team in the dressing room for so long, and none of them answered the questions of the waiting journalists. What they had discussed internally remained internal; no outsider knew whether the word “crisis” was mentioned.
They didn’t mention it publicly; the descriptions of the condition didn’t go beyond “difficult phase”. But if they are still not in crisis at FSV Mainz 05, the 3-1 defeat against VfB Stuttgart was at least another step in that direction.
In any case, the Bundesliga club has not yet found itself in a more difficult situation under coach Svensson. Not even when he took office in January 2021. At that time, the Rheinhessen, who had fallen behind in the table, were considered certain to be relegated; they could only win, which they did extensively in the following months.
Individual mistakes
They have lost this ability for some time. The appropriate symbolism was provided on Saturday afternoon by press spokeswoman Silke Bannick, who – due to a jogging accident – appeared at the press conference with a leg in a cast and on crutches.
The Mainz professionals had previously made two too many missteps in order to score points against a competitor who had Serhou Guirassy, who was in excellent form. The striker scored all three goals and benefited from individual mistakes. When the score was 0-1 in the 56th minute, Stefan Bell jumped under the ball. When the score was 1-2 in the 84th minute, Edimilson Fernandes intercepted the ball but slipped unchallenged.
This goal turned out to be fatal for Rheinhessen, because after Leandro Barreiro equalized (70th), Bo Svensson had the “very good feeling that if a team wins, it will be us”.
Serhou Guirassy scores all three goals for VfB Stuttgart. : Image: dpa
The reason: For the first time in many weeks, the substitutes brought new dynamics to Mainz’s offensive game. Tom Krauß hit the post with a direct shot from distance after a header from Ludovic Ajorque, Aymen Barkok prepared the 1-1 and was later unlucky with two shots.
If it had remained a draw, Mainz could have been accused of having put together a sensible offensive game too late. Defensively, however, they were good as a team, nothing compared to the chaos that reigned in the 4-0 defeat in Bremen. Bo Svensson would also have liked more transition attacks from the ball wins that were available in the first half, but his men lacked self-confidence and precision.
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“When you see how the players train with conviction and courage during the week, and then you see how the person who gets the ball turns and plays inside,” said sports director Martin Schmidt, describing the discrepancy between practice and the real thing. “Or that the central defenders get the balls back that they play into the midfield.” Scenes that show that the nine-game streak without a win is not leaving the professionals unscathed.
Bell looked crestfallen. “I have to digest that first,” he commented on the result and his mistake before the 0:1. “For almost an hour we eliminated a team with a lot of offensive power,” said the central defender. “It’s bitter that after that almost every loss of the ball resulted in a goal being conceded.”
Neither he nor the sports director spoke of a “crisis”. “Such phases are not new, we have always had weeks in which it was more difficult,” said Bell. “It’s a matter of mind that things aren’t going easy for us at the moment,” said Schmidt. “But we are far from falling over, we have 100 percent confidence in Bo’s work.”
