Thursday, November 4th, 2021
RB threatens to gamble everything away
Fear is in Leipzig
By David Needy, Leipzig
What déjà vu. Against PSG, RB Leipzig leaves the best chances and is eliminated from the Champions League. The Saxons are still looking for their new identity – but now threaten to break up.
Oh là là, Leipzig, quel déjà-vu. In multiple ways. As in the first leg, RB Leipzig must win against Paris Saint-Germain. If only to preserve the mini-chance to be able to overwinter in the Champions League. But just like on the Seine, the Saxons trip themselves up at 2: 2 (1: 2) at home. The premier league is sealed. Again, RB misses the best opportunities. The jams run like a pesky red thread through the first season of the new coach Jesse Marsch.
The dream is over. Everything was actually made for a festive European Cup evening in Leipzig. The first since the beginning of the corona pandemic. The arena was almost completely filled thanks to the 2G rule, 39,794 spectators wanted to see the star ensemble from the French capital against the Red Bulls – although many regretted the loss of Lionel Messi. RB was loudly whipped up by its own curve. The strong-voiced lawn ballists club celebrated its organized return to the stadium after a year and a half break.
But it happened, as it had to happen for Leipzig in this first season after the departure of the start coach Julian Nagelsmann: Once again a talented RB team failed by themselves. “We should have won this game,” complained coach Marsch after the game . “It’s a bit of a shame that we didn’t use our advantages and opportunities.” According to the American, you have “made life difficult for yourself in many situations.” “With a 2-0 lead it would have been very difficult for Paris.” A lot of the subjunctive. A lot of nuisance. As is so often the case this season.
“That hurts”
Nobody in the stadium wanted to believe it. Instead of 2-0 after eleven minutes, it was 1: 2 from the Saxons’ point of view at the end of the first half. Everything had started so furiously, with a double chance in the first few seconds of the game. But with that the typical Leipzig jam began again. Although Christopher Nkunku scored the early lead in the eighth minute, Leipzig missed it several times afterwards. Adding hits “It hurts that you don’t reward yourself a little more,” said Konrad Laimer afterwards. André Silva missed the best chance from the penalty spot (12th).
At that point, PSG looked nervous. The march team played almost unleashed and dominated the game – only to break up a little later and invite the Parisians to score goals with insufficient defensive work and too little pressure. First Neymar was given way too much space near the sixteenth to play a fine pass to Kylian Mbappé, whose cross Gini Wijnaldum converted to 1-1 (21st). Then the Dutchman was allowed to head in for a double 18 minutes later, because the RB offside trap did not work and Marquinhos was not prevented from heading after a corner.
This wild change from power play to sloppy mistakes to subsequent uncertainty runs through the season. And as in the first leg, the Parisians struck efficiently, while Leipzig is (almost) empty-handed despite another courageous appearance. “Sometimes you don’t really know what it is,” Laimer mused. “The last punch is missing in one or the other situation, the last spark to be more mature and to play carefully to the end.” You can’t deny the diverse explosiveness of leaving the premier class.
On the one hand there is André Silva, who cost 23 million euros, was allowed to play from the start this time, but again hardly received any balls in the sixteenth. The march system is not made for the Portuguese. He is a forward striker, lives from crosses and combinations from outside, but has so far been too seldom in the penalty area at Leipzig. The coach lets his team act more vertically and more against the ball than was the case under Nagelsmann, wants to see energetic pressing, fast switching play and a short passing game drawn through the center. That worked well against PSG in some cases. But the king transfer Silva seems lost. Emblematic of his search for the right role was that it was he who hit the flank from outside to make it 1-0.
What happens to march
The next explosive topic: Trainer Marsch himself. What will happen to the American if RB shouldn’t winter in Europe? For the club with high ambitions, after all self-proclaimed Bayern hunter number one last year, such a miserable performance would not be enough. Mainly because they are only eighth in the Bundesliga table with just 15 points – ten points behind Bayern and nine on Dortmund.
Those responsible should register that even after several months the team is struggling with the march philosophy. Against PSG it looked like the team didn’t quite know what to do after the aggressive pressing that couldn’t be held for over 90 minutes. Allegedly, some players are supposed to reclaim elements of Nagelsmann’s ball possession football internally. It will be “incredibly difficult” for Marsch, “if he continues with this philosophy,” commented Sky expert Dietmar Hamann at the weekend. Then the coach and his team will “have a huge problem”.
If Marsch were fired in the middle of the season, Leipzig could get an even bigger problem and be thrown an enormous amount backwards. A wasted season threatens, you would have to build up a lot under a new coach. Further renewal (with or without a march) seems to be well planned. A new sports director should be here, but it will probably not be Michael Edwards from Liverpool FC, as RB managing director Oliver Mintzlaff said before the game.
The explosive weeks are still to come
Finally, the following should provide fuel in the coming months: If the young Leipzig stars recognize that the team is going downhill and that qualifying for the premier class is in danger, they will look for bigger clubs. Dani Olmo is already heavily courted by the clammy FC Barcelona. But also Nkunku and Angeliño are in the focus of European top clubs.
In the long term, this could even result in the philosophy of training young top talent collapsing if they no longer see Leipzig as a springboard. A jewel like striker Karim Adeyemi from RB Salzburg will probably want to switch to those interested from Munich, Dortmund or Liverpool. However: Leipzig has a brewing empire behind it and the opportunity to recruit and train talented people from global cooperation and farm teams – and thus threatens to fall comparatively softly.
The only positive thing of the evening for the Leipzig in the duel Red Bull against the Qatar billions: The team fought back against the sheikh club PSG, scored the late equalizer with Dominik Szoboszlai’s penalty (90th) and can still win the duel with Bruges Europa League fight. Final whistle. Applause, the fans paid homage to the team’s fighting spirit, which was mostly right. As in the first leg. Another déjà vu. The only difference is that the people of Leipzig cannot buy anything from it. The explosive weeks, they are just yet to come.