The end of the year could not have looked worse for Dynamo Dresden. Rarely have aspirations and reality been so far apart this season as they were in the 3-0 defeat in Ingolstadt.
FC Ingolstadt, bottom of the table, had just one win in the first half of the season. Dynamo Dresden travelled south with the good memory of their 3-0 win over the Bavarians at the start of the season. After a turbulent first half of the season, the Saxons wanted to give themselves a present with a three-goal win in Ingolstadt. Just in time for the end of the year, the Dresdeners would then have had a whopping 25 points on their points account. However, after the 3-0 defeat against the last team in the table, which was as clear as it was deserved, the pre-Christmas mood has been severely dampened.
Lacky defence, haphazard offence
“It was a day to forget,” Dresden head coach Alexander Schmidt was annoyed. That sums it up perfectly. Rarely have aspirations and reality been so far apart this season. After weeks of stabilisation, the defensive line was full of holes and lost almost all decisive duels in the air. The offensive play seemed haphazard and disjointed. In principle, the promoted team beat the SGD with its own weapons. “They were hungry and gripping in the duels “, said Schmidt, “that’s what I missed with my boys. “
Instead of eight points ahead of SV Sandhausen, who are in relegation place with 17 points, it is only their five.
The match plan was thrown out of order early on. Already in the first minute Dynamo fell behind through Nico Antonitsch, in the 17th minute Dresden was already 0:2 behind through Kevin Ehlers’ own goal.
With one or two exceptions, no player in Schmidt’s team even came close to normal form.
Change robbed the team of any playfulness
The coach also has to take some of the blame for the disastrous performance. Compared to the successful previous weeks (three wins from four games), the 53-year-old adjusted his formation. Instead of a four-man backline, Schmidt played with a three-man backline. The idea of orienting oneself to the opponent’s physicality makes sense, but in the end it robbed the team of any playfulness and thus of its own punch.
“I need a day or two to digest something like that. It’s really annoying, “, said Schmidt. “I can only promise that we will work hard and come back again. “
Winter reinforcements?
Whether or not they make any additions to their squad will also depend on whether Dynamo manage to offload attackers Pascal Sohm (30) and Philipp Hosiner (32) on the winter transfer market.
After the two test matches against SC Freital (5 January) and FC Erzgebirge Aue (8 January), the league continues on Friday, 14 January against Hamburger SV. Undoubtedly a different calibre than FC Ingolstadt.
