Thomas Tuchel sat down to a tense and fiery conference on Friday - six days after the much discussed press conference right after the 1-2 defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt. One thing became quite clear when Tuchel faced the press again today: the defeat had affected him quite deeply - that is why his reaction had been so  harsh.

Tuchel said on Friday at the press conference before the home fixture on Saturday against Borussia Mönchengladbach: "this is because I like my team, because I know what potential they have, because we had just had a run of four wins, one of them against Bayern Munich, which is a huge bonus." These victories had been achieved with "passion, real spirit and a lot of heart". However in Frankfurt "in such an important game against a direct rival", he had "only felt so little of what the team had been all about in the previous four games."

Tuchel showed a human weakness in Frankfurt that is more than normal: his feelings had taken the upper hand in "such an important phase of the season" - a season that is lacking in continuity, where there are always situations again and again where important players are missing: "every step forward is mixed with a drop of frustration. It is easy to explain this, but it is not always easy to live with it." (br)