Frank Baumann: “We didn’t give enough”

Freiburg match reaction

Werder have suffered "a small setback" against newly-promoted side SC Freiburg. (Photo: nordphoto).
First Team
Saturday, 29.10.2016 / 19:59

It just wasn’t Werder’s day. Rather than now pushing for a place in the middle of the Bundesliga table, the Green Whites are forced to look over their shoulder - the 3-1 home defeat to SC Freiburg was therefore a step back for SVW. “It was a tough day. We didn’t perform how we promised ourselves we would,” explained the self-critical Fin Bartels after the game. Frustration and disappointment characterised the Werder performance, especially in the first-half. “We were awful in the first 45 minutes,” said captain Clemens Fritz, on behalf of the whole team. “All in all, the performance we put in was not what we had envisaged. We didn’t do enough,” explained sporting director Frank Baumann.

WERDER.DE were in the mixed zone after the game and have summarised the reaction to the clash with Freiburg:

On the game:

Frank Baumann: “All in all, we didn’t give enough today. But the team are self-critical. In the Bundesliga, you can’t afford to slack off. You have to give everything. Especially in defensive areas, we have to be more consistent at important moments. Just like in Leipzig, we had good numbers at the back, but still didn’t manage to prevent a goal. Even in possession, we couldn’t find the right solutions. Today’s game shows that we still have a lot more work to do.”

Alexander Nouri: “The expectations on us were high today. I’m sorry that we couldn’t fulfil those. Above all, we are disappointed with our first-half performance. Both going forward and defensively, we weren’t compact enough and so couldn’t give the level of performances that we have shown in recent weeks. In our last few games, I have only seen good things from the team, but today it was the opposite. We have to push ourselves to the limit in every game in order to get points. That’s what we have learnt from today. In the last few weeks, we have laid a good foundation. Today that foundation has taken a little bit of a dent, but we are still on the right track. We have to draw on the lessons from today’s game."

Abrashi's deflected strike gave Werder an almost impossible task to get back into the game. (Photo: nordphoto).

Clemens Fritz: “Our game in the first half was a catastrophe. We didn’t commit to the challenges and weren’t willing enough to run. Recently in games, we’ve played at our limits and beyond but that wasn’t the case today. We perhaps though that things would somehow fall into place playing against Freiburg, who haven’t taken anything from away games yet this season. But if we don’t give our all every week then we won’t win any games.”

Felix Wiedwald: “We did well to get ourselves back in the game and we had good chances. But today we didn’t make the most of these chances. We were unfortunate to concede a deflected goal.”

Zlatko Junuzovic: “We weren’t good in the first half. We weren’t playing consistently and we slacked off. We have to get closer to the opposition players on throw ins. We didn’t do this and we ended up outnumbered at the back. We were a bit better in the second half and managed to get a goal back.”

Fin Bartels: “We didn’t perform like we wanted to today. After a good start, we didn’t create any more good chances and SC Freiburg managed to make the most of theirs and score. We gave it our all until the final whistle but we couldn’t find the breakthrough. We know that we will have to face results like this and now we need to work hard and improve.”

On the current situation:

Frank Baumann: “We have to critically analyse what went wrong. Both teams had the same number of chances but we went in 2-0 down at half-time. We made mistakes and were punished for them.”

Felix Wiedwald: “We have to keep our heads up and pull ourselves together. We will get points again if we take care of things properly at the back and make the most of our chances upfront.”

Clemens Fritz: “The relegation battle isn’t new to us. However, today we played a lot worse than we should have. Therefore, we have to ask what went wrong as a team, not blame individuals. We know that we have a lot of quality in the team. That gives me confidence for our upcoming match against Schalke. We will work hard towards this match over the next couple of days in training.”

On the Green-Whites' mentality

Straight after the final whistle, the Werder players formed a circle and showed their dedication to turning their season around. (Photo: nordphoto).

Alexander Nouri: “There were lots of things that we improved on a lot last week, which we failed to do today. Freiburg worked harder, were very alert and we expected them to play like that. We knew what we’d be up against but we have to do the right things in every training session and every match. We all need to learn from each other and need to use the intensity of the match to our advantage."

Clemens Fritz: “We have to give it our all in every single match. We didn’t push ourselves to the limit today and it wasn’t good enough. We need to look critically at our performance because we all know that we gave too little today.”

Zlatko Junuzovic: “We all need to contribute so we can support each other. We need to bring back our mentality and passion because that is exactly what our strength is. I didn’t feel that intensity today, we all have to take responsibility for that. Everyone has to do all they can to support everyone else and to cause problems for the opposition."

On Sané's injury:

Frank Baumann: “Unfortunately, I cannot give a diagnosis right now but Lamine has been examined and it is definitely a knee injury. He will have further scans to determine all the details.

 

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