Kohr: “We need to analyse, reset and show a different side to ourselves”

After the heavy 4-0 defeat away at SV Werder Bremen on Saturday afternoon, Mainz’s players are all in agreement that the performance wasn’t good enough in almost every aspect. The team wants to use the upcoming international break to come together and ‘reset’, as Dominik Kohr put it after his 250th Bundesliga game, before then doing a lot better against VfB Stuttgart in two weeks’ time.

Sporting director Martin Schmidt: “It was a well-deserved win for Bremen, and it could’ve been by an even greater margin. We didn’t compete well enough in our individual duels from the very beginning and gave the opposition lots of great opportunities to counter when we lost the ball, which they made the most of. We started strongly after the break - we were a little more on it and more aggressive. However, we then went 2-0 down during this phase of the game. There is nothing to take away from today.”

Kohr, Onisiwo and Zentner on the Bremen game

Dominik Kohr: “We didn’t show anything at all today. We were fast asleep from the first minute. This isn’t the start to the season that we had hoped for; our plan hasn’t come off. The most important thing is to be alert – that wasn’t the case today. The international break is coming at just the right time for us since we can analyse everything once again, reset and then show a different side to ourselves.”

Karim Onisiwo: “When you get thrashed 4-0 and, as was the case in Berlin, concede a goal in the first minute, it’s naturally a bitter feeling. That continued throughout the whole game. We didn’t win any second balls and allowed the opposition six or seven counterattacks in each half, during which they were able to attack us without being challenged. They simply carried more of a threat. We proudly claim that we have a strong mentality, have an intense style and cover lots of ground on the pitch, but we aren’t currently showing that come matchday. We need to change that as soon as possible and quickly find a solution so that we start picking up points again. 

Robin Zentner: “It’s really painful right now. We’re all really down. We have to shake off the loss, train well and go onto the pitch with a differently mentality in two weeks’ time. There was no space for us in front of the backline and we didn’t manage to break up Bremen’s counterattacks in the right moments, in contrast to our opponents. That’s why, especially in the first half, we allowed too many Bremen counterattacks.”