Rose lauds RB comeback, explains start for Poulsen
RB Leipzig head-coach Marco Rose praised the leadership qualities inherent in his team following last night's 5-1 rout of Stuttgart and also explained his decision to start Yussuf Poulsen over slumping German striker Timo Werner.
Matters were not looking very positive for Marco Rose's Saxons last night as they headed into their home locker room down 0-1 against visiting Stuttgart. Speaking to the DAZN microphones afterwards, acting squad captain Willi Orban revealed what it was like in the RB locker room at the half.
The German-Hungarian let it be known that both he and eventual goal-scorers Benjamin Henrichs and Dani Olmo made a deliberate effort to cheer up David Raum after a passing error from the left-back enabled Stuttgart to take the lead. Henrichs even personally assured Raum that the game would be won.
"That was a 'dream goal'," Orban remarked with intentional sarcasm when reflecting on Henrichs' fluky equalizer that opened the door for five unanswered Leipzig tallies, "Often times one needs something like that. Once the shackles are off and we get rolling, we're very difficult to play against."
Orban painted a "noisy and energetic" scene inside the locker room at the half. According to the Kaiserslautern-native, trainer Rose was "loudest". Orban further noted that the team took the energy from the team talk straight onto the pitch. Rose confirmed that he was pleased with how his players responded to the deficit.
"They became increasingly sharp," Rose noted, "Willi took his emotions as captain into the cabin. We scored a lot of goals today, including one for Stuttgart."
Rose also commented on what was, for Germans, the most significant personnel change of the evening. Slumping German striker Timo Werner was benched after an unconvincing pre-season and out-of-form two opening matches left Rose looking for a change. Werner cannot seem to find his groove despite the fact that the left-lane of Rose's 4-2-2-2 appears almost perfectly tailored to his natural talents.
Surpassingly enough, Werner's replacement was not star signing Benjamin Sesko. Rose tapped Danish veteran Yussuf Poulsen to start alongside Loïs Openda instead. Rose explained his reasoning afterwards, insisting that the 29-year-old had "fully earned" his place in the XI with his performances in training.
Poulsen played a spirited 80 minutes, making endless compelling sprints forward and looking incredibly lively in the duels. The Copenhagen native also played with a turban for most of the match after a fearlessly contested aerial duel left him with a gash on his temple.