Ole Werner picks best and worst moments of RB Leipzig’s season

RB Leipzig’s Ole Werner was the guest in this week’s “Midweek Interviews” segment by Bundesliga. Amongst many topics, the 38-year-old discusses his first season at the club with great detail.

“Qualifying for the Champions League confirms that we’ve had a very good season and achieved our mission,” the former Holstein Kiel and Werder Bremen coach started his assessment with the recent news.

RB Leipzig secured their spot in next season’s Champions League with their 20th win of the season against St. Pauli. If they beat the Europa League finalists SC Freiburg on Saturday, Werner would hold the record for most Bundesliga wins in a single season at the club.

“We had a situation in the summer where we didn’t know what direction things would go,” Werner reflected on the uncertainties in the summer. “We had a big upheaval after a difficult season for the club. I think the squad planners and people in charge did a very good job, putting together a team that should play a different kind of football and play differently.”

Regardless of the results on the final matchday, Leipzig are certain to finish third in Bundesliga standings. In the DFB-Pokal, they failed to reach the semi-final for only the second time in six seasons.

“We would’ve liked to have gone further in the cup,” Werner referred to the 2-0 defeat to FC Bayern in the quarter-finals. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t get through in Munich. In the league, we need to acknowledge that the two teams above us have had excellent seasons. We’ve come up a bit short there. Honestly, I think we can definitely live with third place.”

Leipzig also struggled against FC Bayern in the head-to-head Bundesliga fixtures. Including the 6-0 scoreline in the opening Bundesliga game of the season, Vincent Kompany’s side scored 11 goals against Werner’s troops.

“You obviously hope to make a better start, but Bayern’s season has also put things into context in hindsight, because we weren’t the only ones to be on the end of a thrashing,” Werner said about the heavy defeat in his first Bundesliga game at RB Leipzig.

“There were a lot of questions for us at the time. Our squad wasn’t finalized yet. We had starting players who were probably leaving in a few days. All those things led to that result. It’s not the start you want, but it was also the first test for a new team. Maybe it helped us in the end.”

Accordingly, Werner decided to go for another game when he was quizzed to pick his worst moment this season. “Many would probably say the first game against Bayern, but that had many aspects that made it more explainable,” Werner said as he shifted his attention to one of the only three defeats at home.

“The Mainz home game comes to mind. I was disappointed with the energy and quality. It was a moment where you came away knowing we needed a lot of energy to turn things around.”

His last point proved decisive as the game he picked as the best moment came less than two months after the 2-1 defeat to Mainz. “Our best moment was maybe the win at home to Hoffenheim,” Werner pointed to the 5-0 success where they scored four first-half goals against fellow Champions League hopefuls.

“I think that was a really important game where we could’ve fallen six points behind the Champions League spots, but suddenly moved up to third thanks to a big win at home. That was definitely a special and important moment.”