“It doesn’t matter!” Oliver Glasner was unsparingly open in his criticism of his players – and himself – after the 2-1 defeat to Hertha BSC.
Alcohol is not a solution, but Oliver Glasner did not want to completely close his mind to it on Saturday either. “Maybe I’ll have a drink today,” Eintracht Frankfurt’s coach answered the last question of the press conference with a bitter smile. Then “maybe” he would think of something.
Glasner’s side had just suffered their first home defeat in 22 games with a 2-1 loss to Hertha BSC and the short-lived elation after the lucky first win of the season at FC Bayern before the international break had been completely dispelled. It was a worrying performance followed by a memorable media session.
“We’ll just play out to Filip Kostic, he should cross and then something will happen. That’s just not enough. “
OLIVER GLASNER
“When I look at the statistics: Rafael Borré comes in in the 60th minute, came from South America yesterday at 7.30pm – and is the one who has the most shots on goal with us. I can stop talking there,” Glasner was hard on his players. Especially in the first half, he saw “nothing at all” of “what we set out to do”.
Only things didn’t get much better after that. “In the second half we put a bit more pressure on them, but from my point of view we were too simple-minded. We just play out to Filip Kostic, who is supposed to cross, and then something will happen. That’s just not enough.” Only because Hertha gave Frankfurt a “lucky penalty” (Glasner) in the final phase did they even briefly find their way back into the game.
Glasner: “That was too little from all of us, from me as well “
Glasner sees a pattern that he has not been able to fix so far: “We find it difficult to create clear scoring chances against defensively well-organised teams that play very robustly. That is the ‘learning’ of this season so far. We don’t need to beat around the bush, that’s the way it is. We just have to be more assertive, win one-on-ones, play faster. “
The obvious problems (“We were far too error-prone in the build-up to the game, couldn’t really assert ourselves up front”) were only addressed by Glasner at the break with a double change and the switch to a four-man backline. “Now you can say that was too late,” he admitted. “At the end of the day, we are all to blame for this defeat today. I don’t want to put it on the players. It was just too little from all of us, from me as well.”
Would it perhaps be advisable to stop the many personnel and systematic changes and settle on one system? “I’m amused by the question right now,” Glasner replied, reviewing the start of the season: “We started in a 3-4-3 like last year, then it didn’t work out. Then we switched to a four-man backline, then it was the fault of Filip Kostic not being able to play to his strengths and we only drew. Then the five-man backline was the super system against Bayern Munich, and today it was bad again. “
“Whether with one, two or six sixes, it doesn’t matter!”
Glasner’s message: “It doesn’t matter shit in which system we play if we don’t do our jobs. If we play with the sixes with five ball contacts in the centre, you lose the ball in the Bundesliga. Full stop! Whether we play with one, with two or with six sixes, it doesn’t matter shit!”
Especially on the outer lanes, the team obviously did not stick to the instructions. “We were much too high with the outsides,” Glasner criticised, referring in particular to Timothy Chandler, who was substituted at the break, without mentioning him by name: “Actually, it was agreed that we would play a bit more reserved on the right side. We didn’t do that, then the three (defenders, editor’s note) were often on their own, and they just couldn’t manage it. “
As 14th in the table with eight points, Eintracht are “only” three places and three points worse off than at the same point in the previous season. But the possibilities to work on the fundamental deficits are limited for Glasner in view of the double burden; Olympiakos Piraeus are already waiting in the Europa League on Thursday.
He will look for solutions, but has no “stamp” that will make everything suddenly better, Glasner concluded the PK. “I’m very, very honest about that, too. “