Ríos Alonso frustrated – “This is just shit!”

Third-division club Rot-Weiss Essen is in search of form. José-Enrique Ríos Alonso was visibly served after the 0:1 defeat at Viktoria Köln.

Rot-Weiss Essen remained unbeaten in the 3rd division for almost four months, but RWE conceded their second defeat in the third second-round match at Viktoria Köln (0:1) on Monday evening.

The Red-Whites also had one point after three games in the first half of the season.

There was a lack of determination, ideas and surprises on the offensive – it was too static and easy to count out for Viktoria’s alert central defenders with their strong headers.

The best Essen player on this used evening was defender José-Enrique Ríos Alonso. The 22-year-old prevailed in many direct duels and saved his team from falling further behind several times in the second half.

Viktoria Köln - RWE 1:013. February 2023 — Viktoria Köln – RWE 1:013. February 2023

The central defence with Ríos Alonso and Felix Herzenbruch continues to harmonise solidly, but there are other areas of improvement – especially in the game with the ball.

I’ve said it for the third time now: This is just shit! We actually started well, but then lost control of the game a bit. The goal we conceded was unnecessary, plus the yellow card. We just don’t have that bit of luck up front and don’t make the last pass. We have to work on that so that we can score goals as quickly as possible.

Ríos Alonso.

The German-Spanish player also knows that: “I’m saying it for the third time now: This is just shit! We actually started well, but then lost control of the game a bit. The goal we conceded was unnecessary, plus the yellow card. We just don’t have that bit of luck up front and don’t make the last pass. We have to work on that so that we can score goals as quickly as possible. We have to come up with something. We’ve proven our quality often enough in training, we just have to get it right on the pitch when it comes to points.”

RWE have already proved this season that they can do better. Five goals in Oldenburg, three goals at Freiburg II, two goals in Mannheim. What is missing, however, is consistency. Ríos Alonso still firmly believes that the knot will soon break and the team can celebrate victories together with the fans again.

“I trust our offensive players to find solutions. At the moment they are not the right solutions, but I think we will get there,” emphasised Essen’s centre-back.