"I don't feel like the players have let me down," said Peter Bosz in the wake of the Werder Bremen clash. "They are the ones on the pitch, but I am ultimately responsible," he explained at the post-match press conference. What followed was an unsparing analysis from the coach.

"In the first half in particular, we played very badly. That was the worst performance I've seen since I've been here – not only in footballing terms, but in the challenges too," bemoaned Peter Bosz, who believed that the visitors were good value for their lead at the half-time interval. For a brief spell after the break, the Dutchman had a feeling his charges might manage to turn the game around. The period he was referring to came in the first 20 minutes of the second half, when his team was playing well, and not only found the net through Aubameyang to level the score at 1-1 but were also briefly in the hunt for another goal. "Then Bremen went 2-1 ahead following a corner, and after that we tried again but we were lacking quality. Bremen therefore deserved to win."

Both coach and players would certainly have had different expectations for a Saturday afternoon at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK. "It's inexplicable," Bosz continued. "In the wake of the Real match we spoke with each other about how we wanted to perform against Bremen, about how we needed to win home games like this. I still feel the same way," he said. There had been different expectations and the team had trained with those in mind throughout the week. Even the change to the starting line-up with Shinji Kagawa and Mo Dahoud in midfield was probably a result of that. "We discussed that among the coaching staff before the game," explained Bosz, who added: "But we hardly managed to put the opponent under any pressure, we couldn't find the right footballing solutions."
Dennis-Julian Gottschlich