“Broken dressing room” to blame? Borussia Mönchengladbach face an all-time unwanted record and the worst-case scenario
No points from six games, 8 goals scored and 20 conceded: Borussia Mönchengladbach face the prospect of a nightmare season that could end in relegation. There is reportedly unrest within the team.
According to Sport Bild, the team may not be "at loggerheads", but there is talk of a "broken dressing room". Sporting disappointments have left the squad barely gathering as a group. Players are focusing on themselves instead, and cliques are forming.
"The team are falling apart," writes Sport Bild. The report identifies the Japanese players as one such group: the injured Ko Itakura, Daiki Hashioka, Zento Uno and Shuto Machino. Language has already left them less well connected with their team-mates. Meanwhile, "some experienced key players" are said to doubt whether their team-mates are good enough for the Bundesliga.
Captain Tim Kleindienst caused a stir in early September after the 4-3 defeat by SV Elversberg when he sharply criticised Gladbach's younger players.
Did Tim Kleindienst contribute to the split in Gladbach's dressing room?
"We need to raise our focus pretty quickly so that it lasts for 90 minutes, and I don't know what the reason is — watch less TikTok or whatever, I don't really care what they do," he said on ZDF, before becoming more heated on DAZN : "You're 3-1 up here, have everything under control, and I have no idea what happens then. Whether there was a power cut somewhere, or what was going on in some people's heads."
Asked whether conceding so many goals was also connected to having so many young players in the starting XI, Kleindienst said: "It's normal for them to make mistakes, too. But after the second, third, fourth, it should stop at some point. And you have to learn a bit during a match. That just didn't happen."
That public dressing-down did split the team, Sport Bild now reports. The 31-year-old striker cannot help Gladbach on the pitch in their hour of need, either. He missed virtually the entire previous season with a serious knee injury, then suffered a torn muscle fibre last week and is out until further notice. He was also sent off for a second bookable offence in the dismal 5-0 defeat by SC Freiburg on matchday 3.
How many injured players do Borussia Mönchengladbach currently have?
Over the summer, Borussia lost virtually the entire leadership core of the previous season in Rocco Reitz, Nico Elvedi, Haris Tabakovic and Yannik Engelhardt, partly because of financial constraints. That has left a leadership vacuum in the Lower Rhine region, Sport Bild reports.
Vice-captains Kevin Diks (30) and Philipp Sander (28), along with goalkeeper Moritz Nicolas (29), have tried to fill the gap. They reportedly attempted to rouse the team at half-time last Sunday during the 2-1 defeat by Hoffenheim, but left without a word after the match.
With potential leaders and players brought in to improve the squad sidelined, some of them long-term, Borussia have yet to offset the summer departures of so many established players. Jens Castrop, for example, suffered a serious shoulder injury in the summer and only recently returned to training in part. His return is eagerly awaited, although he could miss another five games in January if he takes part in the Asian Cup with South Korea.
New signing Enzo Leopold is not yet close to a return. The central midfielder tore his cruciate ligament in the first cup round. Nicolas Kühn has also made only one appearance for Borussia so far. The high-profile loanee from Como suffered a muscle bundle tear on his debut against Elversberg in early September and has been out since. The same injury is also troubling Itakura. First-choice defender Jan Leszczynski is said to have suffered a meniscus tear and is expected to be out for months. Franck Honorat and Isaac Lidberg are also struggling with muscle injuries.
Next Friday, Borussia face the prospect of the worst start to a season in Bundesliga history amid a lengthy injury list. No club has previously suffered seven defeats at the start of a season. Even a defeat by VfB Stuttgart is not expected to have consequences yet. The dismissal of the sporting leadership, including Rouwen Schröder, is ruled out for now, according to Sport Bild.
