The unfortunate injury to Nico Elvedi meant that Florian Neuhaus came into the game early against Mainz – and struck as a joker just ten minutes later. Even if the player finds his current situation unsatisfactory, his coach Adi Hütter believes that this is conducive to development
Gladbach have struggled away from home so far this season. Before the game in Mainz, Borussia had lost four times away from home and won only once (3:1 in Wolfsburg). On Friday evening, there was at least a 1-1 draw at FSV. At least because Gladbach lost a lot in the second half and could thank keeper Yann Sommer for not conceding the equaliser earlier. So they had to be satisfied with the point, said coach Adi Hütter after the game on DAZN.
Gladbach stop playing football
Hütter thought the first half was “absolutely okay”. But Mainz turned up the heat after the change of ends and played “with passion, with power and emotion football”, which Hütter would have liked to see from his eleven for longer. However, Borussia only showed their fast game after the opening goal by Florian Neuhaus, who replaced the injured Nico Elvedi (suspected lateral ligament injury) – and that only until the interval whistle. “We then stop playing football a bit in the second half,” Neuhaus also wondered. He and his team-mates played far too many long balls instead of “breaking up the pitch and then just running the ball bravely”.
Neuhaus showed that sometimes it’s also a question of willpower when he scored and used the goal to describe his current situation as a substitute: “I’m all the more pleased that it was a goal where it’s not so much a question of footballing ability but of willpower and the mental strength to simply run through. That was important for me in the last few weeks. “
Neuhaus wish astonishes Hütter
Because will is needed by the 24-year-old, who has currently lost his regular place from the start of the season to Kouadio Koné and Denis Zakaria. This new, unfamiliar situation is not easy, he says. He would have liked “a bit more backing from the club”, which “is probably a bit of wishful thinking in professional football”, said Neuhaus. Nevertheless, he accepts the decision and wants to get back into the starting eleven of Borussia with good training performances – as we all know, goals usually help.
His coach promptly attested to his good training performance and was also happy about the personal sense of achievement, but also reacted a little surprised to his player’s statements: “I’m not the club, I’m the coach, and there is also a performance principle. He added that Borussia were very well-staffed in the centre of midfield. “The fact that the situation is new and different for him is part of the development of a very good player”, Hütter said.
