Third division football club Rot-Weiss Essen again showed glaring defensive weaknesses against Viktoria Köln (1:4). Christoph Dabrowski wants to work on this.
After the 1:4 home defeat against Viktoria Köln, Björn Rother, midfielder of Rot-Weiss Essen, put his finger in the wound: “Nine goals conceded in two home games – that’s pretty severe.” The poor defensive performance was clearly the Essen team’s biggest problem in the first three games.
After the opening debacle against fellow promoted team SV Elversberg (1:5) and the 1:4 against Cologne, RWE conceded two more goals in the 2:2 derby draw in Duisburg. No other third league team has conceded a double-digit number of goals so far. Goalkeeper Jakob Golz has already had to get the ball out of the net eleven times – an average of almost four times per game!
We have to improve in all areas. We have to be more courageous in possession and minimise the number of mistakes there. That’s where we would get the security for our game. In addition, we have to have more will to defend our own goal. You can’t take any time-outs in this league, the opponents take advantage of that mercilessly.
Christoph Dabrowski
Head coach Christoph Dabrowski was at a loss to explain the renewed individual errors in the defensive combination when asked by RevierSport. Nevertheless, the 44-year-old former professional was already looking for solutions: “I have the feeling that every mistake is currently being punished. We have to improve in all areas. We have to be more courageous in possession and minimise the number of mistakes. That would give us confidence in our game. In addition, we have to be more willing to defend our own goal. You can’t take time-outs in this league, the opponents take advantage of that mercilessly. We have to learn from that and quickly. We need stability in defence to get points. We have to work on that.”
Compared to the Duisburg game, the coach had called up two new defensive players, Meiko Sponsel and Moritz Römling, for the starting eleven against Cologne. While right-back Sponsel made a good impression and justified his nomination, Römling made a number of hair-raising mis-passes in the build-up to the game. The player on loan from VfL Bochum played with commitment and fought many duels, but he still has to improve if he is to be recommended for a regular place in the long run.
Defensive has to improve a lot
The central defence with the captain Daniel Heber, who has been so strong in recent years, and the veteran Felix Bastians also do not harmonise as desired. As a result, there are coordination errors and no good allocation of opposing attacks and crosses.
The central midfield also needs to improve considerably. Rother has already been self-critical and was not satisfied with his performance. The most conspicuous and best Essen player in the midfield centre was Thomas Eisfeld, who, however, clearly has his strengths in the offensive. It will be exciting to see how Christoph Dabrowski will tackle the defensive problems. On Saturday (13 August, 2 p.m.), the next opponent is Borussia Dortmund’s U23. There, the promoted team must avoid conceding another goal at all costs.