The defeat in Berlin was unsurprisingly one of the talking points at the Adi-Preißler-Allee on Monday. Thomas Tuchel emphasised: "The commitment, will and desire were there, the performance was okay!"

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The fact that the team consistently struggles to pick up points in the Bundesliga following midweek Champions League matches is not a new phenomenon. It has been an issue for the club in the past too – and sometimes to a much greater extent than this season, where there is still an even record of three victories, two draws and three defeats following matches in Europe's elite club competition. However, the points average of 1.4 in those games is considerably lower than the 2.0 in the rest of the matches.

"There's not just one reason and there's not just one solution we need to find," said Tuchel, who labelled it as "a process that we go through together. It concerns those weeks with two fixtures and little time for recovery in between." For both the coaching staff and some of the players, the physically and mentally demanding performances in the Champions League represent uncharted territory.

The 2-1 defeat away at Hertha follows this trend in terms of the result, according to Tuchel, "but not in terms of the manner of the loss. Commitment, will and desire were there, the performance was okay. We could've won the match ourselves." (br)