After the debacle in Mainz, coach Markus Weinzierl is increasing the pressure on his players – and points to problems that have been with FC Augsburg for some time. In the cup match in Bochum on Wednesday, FCA wants to get back on track.
The shocking 1:4 defeat against Mainz raises fundamental questions in Augsburg. In terms of tackling, willingness and mentality, the team had lacked everything. Weinzierl made this clear to his players once again when reviewing the game. “We delivered a game that should not happen to us,” the FCA coach stressed at the press conference on Tuesday. However, he had already made similar comments after the almost equally lifeless performance in the 0:3 in Freiburg at the end of September – obviously without lasting effect.
Desolate performances without the necessary excitement are a phenomenon that occurs again and again at FCA – which points to deep-seated causes. “The problem is not new,” also says Weinzierl, who began his second spell in charge at Augsburg in April and identifies a mentality problem: “I noticed it when I arrived here, I notice it now and I realised it on the TV that the club and things here are not like you get 110 per cent out of you or the individual players get out of themselves. “
“The only way to do that is to have one line in the leadership, to speak one language. “
MARKUS WEINZIERL
But that’s where we have to get to: “We can only do that by having one line in the management, by speaking one language. By holding the players accountable and looking at who is contributing and who is not: Who is up to it and who is not? We can’t wait forever until we get performance. The players are there to give their best for the club. That wasn’t the case on Friday. “
“The team only jumps as high as they have to “
The professionals are too quickly satisfied, Weinzierl criticises. “The team only jumps as high as it has to. If it has won once, it goes with 90 per cent once in the next game. But you don’t win anything with 90 per cent. Against Bielefeld we lead 1:0, then we manage. That has grown, somewhere,” Weinzierl thinks. “This greed, this urge to always push for success to 100 per cent, that is of course missing,” complains the 46-year-old: “We have to fight back as a team and above all as a club.”
Weinzierl refers to his start in Augsburg in 2012, when he tightened the reins with FCA in the winter after a disastrous first half of the season and got things back on track: “The only way is through cohesion and a line. The bosses determine what the line looks like. The rest of the team has to follow. And those who don’t run after them run alone. “
Translated, this means: President Klaus Hofmann, manager Stefan Reuter and Weinzierl must agree on a clear line as soon as possible – and transfer it to the team. Captain Jeffrey Gouweleeuw had recently complained about a lack of communication within the team. Weinzierl commented harshly on this hint from his defender: “Then he should talk. Then he is the first to have something to say. He is challenged. We as a team are challenged, each individual, the leading players.” While he has “full confidence in the leading players”, Weinzierl stressed, “I expect, when things are not going well, that they take the whole thing into their own hands. “
“I can’t take out as many as were bad. “
MARKUS WEINZIERL
Personally, Weinzierl made it clear with a view to the game in Bochum: “I can’t take out as many as were bad.” He added that the players therefore had a duty to do better. “We will put out our best line-up. With the aim of progressing and getting ourselves on track,” said the FCA coach, who sees the English week with the DFB Cup and the league match against Stuttgart on Sunday as an opportunity: “With two wins in five days, we have every chance of turning it around in a positive direction.” But if there are no wins, the situation will become even more explosive.