Back and forth!

Views on the Köln game
Leonardo Bittencourt’s penalty brought Werder level (nordphoto).
First Team
Friday, 06.11.2020 / 23:13

Another goal, another point and another game added to the unbeaten run: The bare facts after the game against 1. FC Köln don’t look too bad at all. But bare facts is all they are. In reality, the 1-1 draw left much to be desired. "A part of me is happy, because this is the kind of game we would have lost last season. But another part of me says that we gave them no more than one and a half chances and failed to put pressure on for too long," said head coach Florian Kohfeldt after full time.

On the game:

Christian Groß and co. had to settle for a point in the end (nordphoto).

Florian Kohfeldt: "In the first half, we kept getting past the first line of defence and then nothing else after that. Still, we had a few chances and could have scored the winner after going level, which is why I’m a bit torn in giving my overall verdict on the game. This game showed us where we still have to improve: When our opponent sits deep and waits to counter, we didn’t find enough ways of breaking them down. We kept Köln in the game, which was not necessary in my opinion. There wasn’t enough directness in the midfield and we weren’t playing the ball into the spaces that were opening up in the final third. We also weren’t getting into positions where players could take the opponents on in one-on-ones, like Tahith did at the end – he really was a good substitute today. I would still reject any notion of criticism about our approach to playing football. Obviously it’s easier when there is more space, there wasn’t a lot today. Köln defended really well for most of the game."

Leonardo Bittencourt: "We found it difficult because Köln sat so deep. We didn’t really have the right tools to break them down. Later on we had a player on the pitch in Tahith, who could run at players down the wing – that was very important. On the whole we lacked the right ideas today, because we aren’t used to playing against teams defending so deep. We need to work on that. In the end we have another point on the board, but there was more in it for us."

Christian Groß: "Both sides struggled to create chances. If we look back at how the game went we have to be happy with the point. It was hard to get back into it after falling behind – Köln were extremely deep and poised for counterattacks. If we’d take the lead with our first chance the game would have looked entirely different. As it was though, it was extremely difficult for us."

Theodor Gebre Selassie: "The draw is not enough for us. After all these draws of late we were desperate to win today, but we had difficulties in attack. We know Köln are dangerous from set-pieces, and that’s how they scored as well. So we’re pleased to have another point on the board, but we wanted more today."

On the conceded goal:

Jiri Pavlenka was powerless to prevent the Köln goal (nordphoto)

Florian Kohfeldt: “I think that today we’ve demonstrated that we can deal with setbacks when they occur. We responded well to going behind. There’s a part of me that’s definitely satisfied as we would have probably lost a game like this here last season. But there’s another part that says we’re allowing too many chances against us and we’re struggling to build up sustained pressure for longer periods.”

Leo Bittencourt: “We knew, and we said so at half time, that Köln were going to be dangerous and that’s how it turned out to be. It was a bad feeling to go behind but we really woke up after that. Going behind really made us think “Right, we have to give it everything we’ve got now going forward.” We started to play better after that and then it finally paid off with the penalty.”

Theodor Gebre Selassie: "The way that we went behind was very unfortunate. Niklas was attempting to clear the ball and just didn’t connect with it properly. It happens to the best of us.”

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