RB Leipzig’s fourth consecutive Bundesliga victory has Get German Football News praising the bounce-back potential of the German Red Bulls. In terms of the table (which is ultimately all that matters), Leipzig are indeed back on course to challenge for the Bundesliga title. RB find themselves only three points off the team, Bayern Munich, that humiliated them in the very first Bundesliga match of the current campaign.
A slender 0-1 away win against Wolfsburg on Saturday afternoon nevertheless left former Wolfsburg chief personnel executive Marcel Schäfer dissatisfied. The current Leipzig sporting director wasn’t entirely sure his team deserved the win, and was quick to reference the Bayern blowout on opening day when explaining why.
The xG of the match (Wolfsburg 2.96, Leipzig 2.41) didn’t reflect the final scoreline. When one takes into account that Leipzig were awarded (and missed) a penalty, an additional 0.75 xG can be shaved off the RasenBallSport total. Schäfer made clear that he wasn’t happy with either the team’s cohesion or defending in his post-match interview with Sky Germany.
“Wild is a good way to describe this game,” Schäfer told Sky. “When you allow so many shots on goal [22, to be precise, from Wolfsburg], one has to say that that defensively, you’re not playing as cohesively and consistently as one would like. I’m not so happy with the second half because we didn’t manage to maintain control and bring calm to our game.
“We have to be honest with ourselves,” Schäfer continued. “We were lucky in one or two situations and can thank Pete [Peter Gulacsi for some big saves]. Despite the victory, the performance and the manner in which it was achieved was not quite what we would have liked. There are a few things we did well, but there are just as many things we need to work on and improve as quickly as possible.
“We gave up too much space and allowed too many chances,” Schäfer concluded. “If [Michael] Olise, [Luis] Diaz, or Harry Kane had been on the pitch…well then…That explains the match in Munich.“
