Maaßen: “We will work hard during this long break”
The reaction to the 1-0 loss against VfL Bochum
First Team
12.11.2022, 19:27
FC Augsburg finished their calendar year with a disappointing 1-0 Bundesliga loss to VfL Bochum. “We were too erratic in our play and made too many simple mistakes,” said the Augsburg head coach Enrico Maaßen after the game. Here is the reaction to the last home game of 2022.
Rafał Gikiewicz: “It definitely doesn’t feel good to go into such a long winter break on a defeat. We haven’t managed to get our game spot on and get the points we’ve deserved in five, six weeks now. We also started well today, but we were on the back foot with two early injuries. Then we went behind 1-0 and also couldn’t convert a penalty – all of those things just came together. It’s a very disappointing feeling, but we’ve simply just got to have more points. I’m also sorry for the fans, who supported us loud and proud once again today.”
Robert Gumny: “It was a tough game, so of course it was very disappointing for us. We’ve got to found our strength once again during this winter break and once again play better football. We did come close to getting level, but ultimately didn’t manage it in the end.”
Reece Oxford: “We are very disappointed because the three points would have been very important today. We didn’t play as we imagined we would, and Bochum fought hard from the off. I also don’t know what exactly is up, as we really do have a lot of quality in this team. We’ve got to succeed in playing good football again.”
Florian Niederlechner: “It was not a good game from us at all and in the end, we couldn’t get the ball over the line at all. We completely lacked power on the first half. But it wasn’t all bad, just as it wasn’t all rosy a few weeks ago. During the winter break we can gather ourselves again, and some injured players should be coming back. For now we are at a low, but we know we can work hard and get ourselves out of this once more.”
Enrico Maaßen: “We had naturally planned this final game of the year to go differently – and having taken a point in Berlin we had the chance to get something from both of our last two games of the year. We started the game well and had two or three good chances in the first quarter of an hour. Both of the substitutions forced by injury disrupted our rhythm. We lost that edge and weren’t able to recreate the presence we had on the pitch before. The first half was definitely controlled by the opponent, but in the second half it was tighter and it was an unlucky goal to go 1-0 down. Then we immediately had the chance to get back into it when we got the penalty. Towards the end, we took a lot of shots; the ball just didn’t want to go in, not for a lack of trying. We were too erratic in our play and made too many simple mistakes, which is something we’ve done better in recent weeks. That’s why we lost the game, which is annoying – but we’ve got to look forward now and work hard during this long break.”
Thomas Letsch: “It ended up becoming the very game we had expected – an intensive match with lots of second balls and plenty of duels. We were suffering in the first 10 minutes – Augsburg were hardier and more incisive. After that, we began to get better control over the opponent, we were more present on the field and created chances. In the first half we were clearly the better side and should have actually gone into the lead. In the second half, we of course had a little bit of luck as they missed their penalty. But what we definitely did is fight hard in the final 15 minutes, as it got very chaotic on the pitch, dealing with everything that was thrown at them. Thanks be to God that we finally rewarded ourselves away from home, and took with us a deserved victory.”
