VfL Bochum has once again given away a home win in injury time. Coach Thomas Letsch was self-critical after the 1-1 draw against Augsburg.

VfL Bochum has once again given away a home win late on. FC Augsburg also scored in stoppage time to make the final score 1:1. VfL coach Thoma Letsch saw the reason for this in the second half – and in himself.

“It was two completely different halves,” said Letsch afterwards. ”In the first half, we were sharp from the first minute. We did what we had in mind, then scored the beautiful goal and should have been leading by a bigger margin.”

Bochum went into the break with a deserved 1-0 lead thanks to Moritz Broschinski’s overhead kick. “We came out for the second half, weren’t as effective and then I just made some very poor decisions.”

In the 68th minute, Letsch took off playmaker Kevin Stöger, brought on another central defender in Keven Schlotterbeck and switched to a 5-4-1 formation. The idea behind it: “That we have one more player in the box for the long balls.”

But the pressure from Augsburg kept growing. “That was very early on that we decided to make a block and defend our goal.” As a result, there was a complete lack of relief going forward.

“We offered our opponent space, defended our goal well, but in the end the pressure kept growing and led to the penalty situation. That bothers me and in this case I’m extremely annoyed with myself.” Of course, hindsight is always 20/20.

“In retrospect, it would have been better to stick to our structure and put the opponent under pressure further up front. I certainly wouldn’t do it again like that now. That’s why I take full responsibility for these three not-won points, because the decisions I made were too defensive.”

However, the VfL coach called for the same self-criticism from everyone involved. “Nevertheless, we also have to say, and we all have to be critical, we had these two moments of transition where we had to decide the game.” Moritz Kwarteng and Matus Bero both missed great chances.

“That’s definitely a weakness we have to work on. It’s the only way you can develop.” That’s why Letsch is not worried that his team will now have the fear of conceding a goal at the back of their minds in every added time.

“I’ll learn a lot from this game. We as a team will make it difficult for the next opponent, even if it’s Bayern Munich here in the stadium. I messed up and on we go.” First up is the away game at Eintracht Frankfurt (Saturday, February 10, 3:30 pm).