Once again, Bayer 04 Leverkusen failed to hold on to a lead – and once again, they failed to keep a clean sheet. While coach Xabi Alonso was annoyed, defense chief Jonathan Tah felt partly responsible for the goals conceded.
“It feels like shit, definitely like a defeat,” said Tah on Sky, summing up the emotional state of the team at Bayer 04 after the 2-2 draw in Bremen. On match day 8, the Rhinelanders once again failed to keep a clean sheet. Leverkusen have now conceded 15 goals, which is more than they conceded in the entire previous championship season by match day 22.
“I feel responsible for that,” Tah continued. ‘It’s my job to make sure that we defend to the end and that we are organized.’ That was not the case in Bremen, at least not when Marvin Ducksch scored the first goal. However, Tah’s teammate Edmond Tapsoba had also created the situation with a bad pass.
“Bad passes are part of football,” said midfielder Granit Xhaka in defense of the central defender. “If you don’t make mistakes, you don’t concede goals. But it can’t be that a player makes a mistake and then the other team score. We also have to do the other things better, get closer to the opponents. The way we’re conceding goals today is too easy.” This point in particular got up the Swiss’s nose. ”We’re not conceding that many goals, but the ones we are are too easy. That’s not good enough at this level. We’re a step too late in our own box. That can’t be.”
Coach Xabi Alonso was visibly annoyed after the game and even raised the question of whether his team had perhaps defended too softly. “We have to suffer together, like last week against Frankfurt.” That did not happen on Saturday evening in Bremen. “We made it too easy for Bremen,” criticized the Spaniard. “We want the good feeling when we take the lead and think: Yes, we can control the game today. We didn’t do that well today.”
Tah wants to ‘muzzle critics’ again
Tah admitted that it’s ‘not just about defense,’ but he didn’t want to take himself out of the line of fire. ”The whole team has to defend better, it starts with us at the back – and we have to take responsibility there. It has to get better. It starts in the small situations where we weren’t 100 percent alert, lost the ball, and in the end you push an opponent and give him the feeling that maybe something is still possible. We have to stop that as quickly as possible.”
The reigning champions are already five points behind RB Leipzig – and perhaps also behind FC Bayern, who can also pull away with a win in Bochum on Sunday. And in the next ten days, two more difficult games await. After the cup walkover against Elversberg on Tuesday, the team faces last season’s runners-up Stuttgart, followed by the Champions League game at Anfield against Liverpool. “We can prove ourselves again and silence all the people who are starting to talk now.”
