The VfL Bochum U19s recently lost three competitive matches in a row. Coach Heiko Butscher expects his team to concentrate more on football.

Accordingly, the changes before the second half were drastic, with Butscher making four changes: “We had to make some changes, of course I could have changed after 30 minutes. But I wanted to keep my options open. I would have preferred to make more changes, but that just wasn’t possible.”

In the second half, VfL initially managed to turn the game around. But then the Bochum defence caused two penalties in the final phase, of which goalkeeper Finn Kotyrba was able to save the first. “It’s inexplicable how you can throw things away like that. It’s our own fault. Even on the second penalty kick, there are ten men behind the ball, in a situation like that you can’t go into the man like that. I simply have no explanation for it,” Butscher confessed after the game.

Players lack focus

The former Bundesliga professional now expects a reaction from his team: “Maybe this will give us a push. Everything that is currently bothering us has been ruthlessly exposed. But I think the boys are preoccupied with other things at the moment than the game itself. We’re going ape here, explaining, doing, preparing the boys for the opposition. Then when you see something like that, of course you’re dismayed after the game. “

We started properly and showed a good development. But you have to say quite clearly that things have been going in the wrong direction in the last few games.

Heiko Butscher

The first half of the season has now been played in the A-Junioren Bundesliga. VfL Bochum are in sixth place with thirteen points, eight points behind the league leaders. “We started properly and have shown good development. But you have to say quite clearly that things are going in the wrong direction in the last few games. We have to be careful to get back to our level quickly. The training performances are very good, it’s inexplicable why we can’t transport that into the game. We have to make sure that we get back on track,” said Butscher, setting the course for the coming weeks.

Last weekend, VfL already lost surprisingly with 0:1 at SC Verl. After the long break without a matchday, the Bochum team seems to be lacking a bit of rhythm. For Butscher, however, this is no excuse: “It’s clear that you have no rhythm when there are only 15 games in a season. But we have played so many test matches that the boys have enough match practice. But they are preoccupied with far too many things, they should concentrate on football. That’s a shame, that’s where we need to get back to.”

Next weekend, Bochum have the opportunity to turn things around at Fortuna Düsseldorf.