Unnecessary and bitter

It was another home defeat against Wolfsburg that can be categorised as unnecessary. After the furious performance against Dortmund, the Werkself could have made up ground today against a fellow competitor for Europe and kept the opponent at bay. After the furious opening phase, you could almost guess that it would backfire. And lo and behold: suddenly, after a good half hour, it was actually 1:0 for the Wolves.

But the performance in the second half was off the charts. Trailing and then one shot on target in the second 45 minutes. The Werkself was lacking at all corners and ends today. We can do better and must do better again quickly, otherwise the other teams will be in the fast lane and we will suddenly only be in midfield.

You can

In English we would say: The Werkself is back on track. Back on track after yesterday's 2-1 home win against Borussia Dortmund, that's the core message. Strictly speaking, hardly anyone expected our team to win the game after the results of the last few weeks.

It's a pity that in the reports afterwards and today, the focus was and is always on the Dortmund defeat and not on the Bayer victory. But I'd rather have a three-point win for us and the lack of attention than the other way round, no question.

Unnecessary

Judging by the course of the game, I would classify the defeat at Union as completely unnecessary. Bayer controlled the game, but Union counter-attacked dangerously at all times and one of them led to the lucky punch three minutes before the end. It's a shame, because a three-point win would have pushed the Werkself further ahead.

Even if the Union player apologised to Amiri: There is no place for racism in the Bundesliga. Even in the heat of the moment, such remarks are not appropriate, especially as the Bild newspaper also reports that a "similar" remark was directed at Leon Bailey in the 58th minute. Normally, Leverkusen should have won the match, even if this was not justified.

We stay in the lottery

In the cup, it's all about advancing and the Werkself did just that last night with a well-deserved 4:1 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt. It took a long time for the Werkself to get going and the stars did not look good for a long time after the Hessians took an early 1:0 lead. But Alario can be relied on for penalties and standards are our new weapon, thank goodness. In the end, the red card for Tah has to be seen in a positive light, because I don't want to know how it would have turned out if Eintracht had reduced the score to 3:2 in that situation. Man of the Match for me, however, was once again Amiri, who I think has made the biggest leap of all in the current season and is indispensable.

Since the draw for the next cup round has already been made, we know that we'll be going to Essen, the league leaders in the Regionalliga. They kicked out Bielefeld and Düsseldorf in the first two rounds. But I think the Werkself is a different calibre and so we can look forward to the next round and hope that our logo will be in the draw again.

Oh man

I don't know why there is such a thing as a fearful opponent. In recent years, Bayer has never been able to pull up a tree at home against Werder and so today it remained a 1-1 draw, even though more would have been possible against Bremen's offensively weak side. In the first half, however, the team lacked any drive towards the goal and only really got into the game a little better after going behind.

Now the English weeks start again. Our squad is currently rather thin with all the injuries, but the transfer window is open. I hope that our management will act this time.

And not to forget, even if it's not an excuse: the Bremen player's handball in the 90th minute was actually a clear penalty for us, but I've long since stopped getting upset about the VAR.

Never give up

I haven't counted it, but it feels like the Bavarians have lost more than three quarters of all first games in a new year. Unfortunately, this has not changed in 2021. The 2-1 defeat in Frankfurt was completely deserved. And let's be clear: despite conceding two goals, it was the forwards who lost the game, not the defence. No bite from the strikers and hardly any chances, so you can't take anything with you in Frankfurt.

There's no reason to panic. There always comes a point in a season when you don't perform at 100% for a few games. The important thing is to get back on track. Our lead over a non-Champions League place is still OK. But we still have two direct duels in the first half of the season with Union and Dortmund, and Bremen has annoyed us often enough at the BayArena. Nevertheless, we are looking positively at the next few weeks, because the team has shown that it can do it.