Hoeneß calls for consistency

VfB were at a level far from their best in Sunday's Baden-Swabia derby, however with the performance considered, Stuttgart possibly deserved a point at the very least. Sebastian Hoeneß though, naturally gave a mixed response after Die Schwaben took part in a draw for the third time in eight days.

“Similar to Prague, we played a lot in their half in the last 30 minutes and had an incredible number of crosses. The quality was not there, but the box presence was.”

“We could have forced ourselves into many more situations. There was enough to maybe score the goal earlier, to maybe win the game in the end," said Hoeneß in summary.

After an inconsistent start to the campaign, the 42-year-old outlined his frustrations regarding dropped points.

“We have too few points to be happy, and it would have been possible to get those points.” 

VfB have now drawn three in a row, failing to use the 5-1 demolition of Borussia Dortmund as a springboard in regards to winning form. Drawing 3-3, 2-2 and 1-1 against Mainz, Wolfsburg and Hoffenheim sees VfB sat in eighth place, with the knowledge that if these three encounters were turned into draws, Die Schwaben would be sat at the top of the Bundesliga.

“We have to work on developing even clearer situations against teams that put themselves at the back," said the coach regarding VfB's struggles against more defensive-minded sides.

Before last campaign, taking nine points from six matches would have been a fantastic return for the club. However, the ambitions of Hoeneß alongside the undoubted quality of the squad create frustration heading into the international break.

“We're happy to have scored such a late goal. The team kept believing until the end, so we look back on this game with mixed emotions. We're happy that we managed to equalise, but we wanted to head into the international break on the back of a victory.”