New Year, Same Old Frustration: Cheers from the Horror Zone

Well then, happy new year. If you thought Bayer 04 would kick off 2026 with a bang, you were technically right – just not the kind of bang we hoped for. A 1–4 home defeat to Stuttgart. At home. In the BayArena. And honestly, the game was over before halftime. Stuttgart used to be our favourite punching bag. Now we’re their life coach, helping them work through past traumas with generous gifts. Therapy in red and black.

The Werkself looked less like a team returning from a focused winter training camp and more like they'd been on a mindfulness retreat. Yes, we had possession. But ideas? None. Passion? Missing. Physicality? Only from Stuttgart. That post-match honesty from Grimaldo and Quansah? Appreciated, but painfully telling. When your own players are apologising like they broke your favourite vase, it says a lot.

Sure, we were missing players – Africa Cup, injuries, the usual suspects. But that doesn’t explain why the whole squad seemed to be playing with the handbrake on. Stuttgart was simply sharper, hungrier, more switched-on – and, let’s face it, smarter.

There were some positives, if you squint: Fernández back in the starting XI, Grimaldo’s penalty taking his stats up a notch, and the second half at least looked like professional football again. Small steps, we tell ourselves, because we have to. Because we were "only" 12 points behind Bayern before the break. Now? It’s not the loss itself that stings. It’s how we lost – with a shrug instead of a fight.

Next up: HSV, away, under the lights. A freshly promoted side, in January chill – the perfect setting to prove we still remember how to play football. And not just how to gift goals. No more excuses. We want a Werkself that earns its name again: a team that works, grinds, pushes. Not one that lets itself get pantsed before the first half ends.

Otherwise, the dream of a title challenge might turn into a Europa League scrap faster than you can say “Angstgegner.”