Bundesliga News

Germany: Bundesliga
FT
0 - 3
(0 - 2)
Leverkusen
Hoffenheim
C. Baumgartner (9), A. Kramarić (35), G. Rutter (78)

Leverkusen players, coach, and sporting director comment on loss: "No one was good enough."

By Peter Weis   @PeterVicey

Leverkusen captain Lukas Hradecky, speaking on the state of his team following their fourth straight defeat, could only rehash some of his comments from match in which the poor run-of-form started. 

Head-coach Gerardo Seoane, defender Jonathan Tah, and even B04 chief sporting executive Simon Rolfes also spoke to the press afterwards.
Jonathan Tah.
Jonathan Tah.Photo: Дмитрий Пукалик/Soccer.ru/CC-by-SA 3.0
When Bayer 04 Leverkusen opened up the start of their competitive campaign with a loss in the opening round of the 2022/23 DFB Pokal, captain Lukas Hradecky commented that there needed to be some serious internal discussions within the Werkself dressing room. The Finnish keeper struggled to come up with novel words after the poor start snowballed into a four-match-losing steak.


"I really can't explain all of this," Hradecky frankly admitted, "There's a greater need to talk than I expected."

Hradecky did offer up some specifics in what the men in front of him were doing wrong.

"The desire to win duels and go for the second ball, I'm not seeing a lot there," he added.

B04 head-coach Gerardo Seoane spoke of similar problems.

"The right bite wasn't there in the duels, especially during the scenes in front of goal," Seoane noted in his own post-match remarks, "It's a difficult time for us. The team looks unsettled and some players really had problems today."


Sometimes German national team defender Jonathan Tah was certainly among those specific players who looked off most of the afternoon. In his own post-match interview, the 26-year-old unleashed a short diatribe.

"Frustration, disappointment, dissatisfaction - that's on all our minds," Tah told his Sky interviewer, "We all have to take on more leadership, every single one of us. No one was good enough, a few percent were missing everywhere. The opponent was constantly one step ahead of us."

B04 top sporting executive Simon Rolfes also had a chance to comment after the loss. Specifically, he was probed about the personnel situation and whether he would pursue any more players before the transfer window closed.

"That is, of course, a thought and a possibility," Rolfes noted, but then being sure to emphasize, "The squad is more or less together. We have to remember what made us strong. This is not only to be solved with new arrivals, but above all from within ourselves."


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