Unimaginative against walls: Leipzig's unsolvable puzzle

RB Leipzig have been puzzling over the same thing for years. How to play a team with strong running and deep defenses in such a way that it is enough to win in the end - even coach Marco Rose has not yet solved this. And after games like the 0-0 draw against Union Berlin, he says: "Overall, we weren't compelling enough today to earn the win."

This or something similar was said after the 0-0 draw against VfL Bochum last season. Leipzig even missed two penalties back then. On Saturday, there was only one in the sold-out arena, but Lois Openda missed it with a good quarter of an hour to go, as if they were leading by five goals.

Dependent on stars

The agonizing zero against Union was not exactly conducive to the delicate euphoria that arose around the club after the win in Leverkusen. Leipzig had almost 70 percent possession, recorded 745 passes with a success rate of almost 90 percent. "We were dominant, but didn't find enough spaces where it would actually be interesting and dangerous," analyzed Rose. In short: Leipzig simply had no chances.

Once again, the dependence on individual class became apparent. Benjamin Sesko was completely ineffective, Openda missed his third penalty in a row and Xavi Simons put in one of his weakest performances in a Leipzig shirt. The Dutchman played an unusually high number of misplaced passes and often made the wrong decision. It gave the impression that he lacked a teammate behind the strikers. Rose had dispensed with this in favor of another defender.

The coach's presence was missing

If the stars have a mediocre day, the playing idea is not developed enough to compensate for this. Other teams like Leverkusen are much further ahead in this respect. Even when several key players were missing last season, the streak didn't break.

What Leipzig were also missing was obviously their coach. Rose had to serve his yellow card suspension from the Leverkusen game in the stands. Alexander Zickler, who had already done this successfully for a good hour at Bayer, was in the coaching zone. And yet goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi said to Rose: "With his charisma, he could have given us a little push at the end."

Rose preferred to be on the sidelines

Rose himself was not exactly impressed by his change of perspective. He missed the closeness. "I sit up there and have the same mode as down on the sidelines. I'm excited, I'm there and I want to get involved," said the 48-year-old. As a fan, he loves watching the games from above. As a coach, "I prefer to be down with the team."

Openda's miss from eleven meters would have been possible even with Rose on the sidelines. "I'm a coach who generally doesn't set guidelines because it should be regulated within the team," said the coach. The team decided on Openda together. "They might decide differently next time."