Borussia Mönchengladbach II is currently in second place in the Regionalliga West. Coach Eugen Polanski is doing a good job in his first year as a Regionalliga coach.
The second team of Bundesliga club Borussia Mönchengladbach had just one win after the first six games of the season.
And lo and behold: in mid-November, the “little foals” are in second place in the Regionalliga after a messed-up start to the season and are only three points behind Preußen Münster.
“But also only four points ahead of ninth place,” adds Eugen Polanski. “We had a very good preparation. But things didn’t get off to the start we wanted. I also first had to learn as a coach that preparation is preparation and league games are a different pair of shoes. At some point, however, the automatisms take hold, and at some point results come along. The bottom line is that the boys are doing well at the moment. Our success is a mixture of quality, creativity and a great will,” says the Gladbach II coach.
The 36-year-old former Bundesliga player is doing an excellent job on the Lower Rhine. He can point to a scoring average of 1.81 points. He was previously U17 coach in Mönchengladbach. But working with the U23 team is different, as the 254-time Bundesliga professional explained to RevierSport.
Polanski: “I can expect more from the boys because the basics are there. This is the last step towards professional football. That’s where everyone wants to go. But we will continue to work on various things in the U23s, and character is also enormously important. You can’t expect everyone to grow up. We challenge and encourage. The goal is always to lead this team, these boys, in the right direction, both humanly and athletically.”
Can Polanski eventually lead the team to first place as well? “It was never the goal to get promoted. We can already classify everything well. With two or three points less, we would be fifth or sixth. We just want to stay in the flow and of course win the games. We’ll see what happens in the end,” Polanski replies.
And what if we do end up in first place? Polanski: “Then we certainly wouldn’t fight back. “
