Things haven’t worked out at all for Borussia Mönchengladbach in 2024! Rocco Reitz, here on December 15, 2023, also cannot build on his performance from the first half of the season.
Copyright: IMAGO/RHR-Foto
Every spring, Borussia fans despair of their club!
Now in the fourth season in a row – and with the fourth coach, mind you – Borussia Mönchengladbach has managed to get itself into trouble in the spring.
Gladbach comment: relegation battle! That has to change now at Borussia
The results are lacking, the performance is weak – the energy is missing. The current consequence: Borussia has slipped to 15th place in the table and has to seriously deal with the relegation battle.
The 2-0 loss in Leipzig may have been a kind of déjà vu for many Fohlen fans. In the previous three years there was also a worrying triad: the team is playing poorly, the fans are very worried – but it is increasingly being expressed again that they do not get the feeling that their concerns are not being taken into account in the club. Is there a risk of sleepwalking into the relegation swamp?
The euphoria of the start of the season is long gone, but the fans are still putting their foot down! Around 3,500 fans made the unpleasant journey to the game at Brause-Klub Leipzig, and only three Bundesliga clubs have more away fans traveling with them than the Fohlen.
Borussia shouldn’t go into panic mode now! But the fans deserve not to feel like they are left alone with their emotions. How can Borussia prove otherwise? In the coming weeks it will be clear that the “fight” in the relegation battle will come into focus.
Things are bound to get unpleasant in the Gladbach cosmos in the coming weeks – in three respects. Internally, be it in the team or in other areas, unpleasant questions must be allowed more than ever. Anything that leads to short-term success in a difficult situation.
Borussia’s style of play must be unpleasant for their own team. What this means is that, especially against teams that are weaker in terms of play but strong in combat, it will be important to accept the painful duel and the final sprint with tired legs.
This goes hand in hand with the third “unpleasant” point: Borussia must be really unpleasant to play against for their upcoming opponents. Borussia Park as a fortress? This is only possible if the spark spreads from the pitch to the stands – with passion, heart and soul and an approach that ideally makes the opponent say afterwards: “It was really disgusting against that team.”
Appropriately, Borussia recently switched to this mode when the Fohlenelf last played two Bundesliga games in a row – in March 2022 under Adi Hütter (54).
The Austrian jumped over his own shadow in the looming relegation battle, relying on five trained defenders and a very pragmatic style of play. Back then – as now – it was against teams that were individually weaker.
Borussia initially held out in the 2-0 wins against Hertha and Bochum (the game was then stopped when the cup was thrown) and then used their own quality to win. Incidentally, three of the four goals came from set pieces – actually also a strength under Gerardo Seoane (45).
Did the fans complain about the approach against Hertha in Borussia Park or in the Bochum away block? No! It was about the points – it wasn’t pretty, but it was intense and successful. Afterwards, the victory and the team celebrated wildly.
If Borussia wins the upcoming big point games like two years ago, this time against Bochum, Mainz and Cologne, Gladbach will have 31 points in their account – and will already be out of the looming relegation battle.
Once this has been mastered, no follower will have a problem with other virtues coming into focus in addition to fighting. Now it’s all about passion and solidarity between the club and the fans – and they deserve that Borussia will do everything they can to counter this in the next three games.
However, if Gladbach does not win against their direct competitors in relegation, the tree in Borussia Park will burn ablaze. And the signs are anything but good. The last time Borussia won a football game was on January 14, 2024 against VfB Stuttgart. The Foals lost three of their last five games, and Gladbach even missed out on a home win against bottom team Darmstadt in the new year.
The situation is alarming. The Gladbachers in 15th place still have a six-point cushion over relegation place 16 and 1. FC Cologne, but now the weeks of truth are coming with games against Bochum, in Mainz and the derby against Cologne – and there are no more excuses .
2024-02-21 09:31:48
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