Four Goals Conceded, Plenty of Excuses – Bayer 04 Pay the Price Against Stuttgart

There are plenty of ways to sugarcoat a 4-2 home defeat. More possession, more shots, better passing accuracy, and a team that kept fighting until the final whistle. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? Unfortunately, football doesn't award points for impressive statistics. And when I hear after an afternoon like this at the BayArena that the attitude and commitment were right, I have to wonder whether we're gradually lowering our expectations. Because one thing is clear to me: if you concede four goals at home, you can't simply blame bad luck.

I'm not suggesting Bayer 04 played badly throughout the match against VfB Stuttgart. Quite the opposite, in fact. There were some attractive attacking combinations, dangerous opportunities, and enough chances to take the game in a different direction. Patrik Schick continues to do what we need him to do, while Ibrahim Maza is increasingly becoming a player I genuinely enjoy watching. But what's the point of all that attacking quality when we keep leaving the back door wide open?

Sixteen goals conceded in eight Bundesliga matches is no longer an unfortunate coincidence. That's an average of two per game, and it points to a serious problem. What frustrates me most is just how easy we sometimes make things for our opponents. Stuttgart hardly needed to produce an attacking masterclass to score four goals. A few decisive moves were enough, while our defenders occasionally seemed more interested in escorting Stuttgart's attackers towards goal than actually stopping them. Against a direct rival for European qualification, that's simply unacceptable.

Of course, Stuttgart were considerably more clinical in front of goal. But I find it dangerous to make that the main explanation for our defeat. If you repeatedly waste opportunities while remaining so vulnerable defensively, you're going to lose matches like this. That's not bad luck. It's a lack of quality in the moments that matter most. Bayer's 24 shots might look impressive on paper, but they don't change the fact that Stuttgart were at least equally dangerous when it really counted.

Coach Carles Martínez understandably prefers to focus on the positives after disappointing results. I can appreciate that. After all, he has to maintain confidence within the squad. Nevertheless, I'd like to hear a little more honesty about what is going wrong. Conceding two early goals against Nürnberg in the cup should already have set alarm bells ringing. Against Stuttgart, we received another uncomfortable reminder. Anyone who believes these defensive weaknesses can be permanently compensated for by attacking firepower is likely heading for a rude awakening.

What makes the situation even more puzzling is the contrast between our Bundesliga performances and our Europa League campaign. Three European victories without conceding a single goal suggest that this team is perfectly capable of defending with discipline and organisation. So why does that ability disappear so regularly in domestic competition? That's a question Martínez urgently needs to answer. A few tactical adjustments won't be enough if individual mistakes and poor defensive coordination continue to produce the same problems.

Having said all that, I don't want to make this team sound worse than it actually is. The commitment is there, nobody gave up against Stuttgart, and there is still plenty of footballing potential in this squad. That's precisely why this defeat annoys me so much. We have enough quality to be considerably higher in the table, provided we start making better use of it. After two consecutive Bundesliga defeats and slipping out of the Champions League places, it's about time those promising performances started producing points again.

With Marseille coming up in the Europa League, followed by the derby against Cologne, we now face two matches in which I'd rather not spend another evening discussing possession percentages and attractive passing combinations. What matters to me is whether Bayer 04 can finally rediscover the right balance between attack and defence. Because as much as I enjoy attacking football, conceding four goals at home isn't just an unfortunate accident that can be explained away with a handful of encouraging statistics.

I'll remain optimistic, of course. I'm a Bayer supporter, after all, and I've lived through far more difficult times than these. But even my red-and-black-tinted glasses aren't strong enough to hide our defensive shortcomings. Stuttgart reminded us that commitment and attractive football alone are not enough. Now Martínez needs to demonstrate that he can draw the right conclusions from defeats like this. Otherwise, we'll soon find ourselves praising another decent performance while wondering where the points have disappeared to.