Borussia Dortmund will face Union Berlin away in the sixth round of the Bundesliga on October 17. Head coach Kovač attended the pre-match press conference on Friday to provide an update on the team's personnel and discuss topics including two consecutive winless matches and the effectiveness of squad rotation.
Update on Borussia Dortmund Personnel
Everyone looks good. Schlotterbeck is back in the squad, so we now have a full roster to choose from. Of course, Konstantelias, Lherma, and Emre Can are still out, but everyone else is healthy.
First of all, congratulations to Niko on your birthday—a belated one. The management announced a small surprise after the Bodø/Glimt match. What was it?
You're talking about my birthday—yes, in short, there was cake, there was a birthday song, and nothing more was needed, because the result certainly wouldn't have me walking out of the players' tunnel with joy. On the contrary, the atmosphere was quite subdued. Fifty-five years old sounds good—it's a good number—but there were no alcoholic beverages.
Now you only have two days to prepare for the next match. How will your team handle that? And what's the atmosphere like? Will you raise your voice during the analysis?
Yes, on the night the game ended, I said a few brief words to the players, but it was very objective, just as I'm talking to you journalists now. That performance was not what we are accustomed to. Specifically, we can't play that way, especially in the first 60 minutes, as I've said many times before. The most crucial factor in football is attitude. Yes, the opponent was tougher, faster, more challenging, more aggressive, and more intense than us. If you don't have that spirit, it's hard to achieve anything in the Champions League.
This serves as a call to prepare for tomorrow's game, because in Berlin tomorrow, we can expect equally intense football, fierce competition, and significant challenges.
This is a match we must face and hopefully win. That was just a brief recap to move forward and prepare for tomorrow's game in advance. We'll discuss it briefly after the press conference to prepare for this match.
Your team is known for its high intensity and full commitment. If that wasn't evident against Bodø/Glimt in Norway, is it because one or two players lacked motivation and didn't take the opponent seriously enough?
I can't read the players' minds, but it's true—we experienced a similar situation last season. Bodø/Glimt is a very active and passionate team, and we saw that. My team needs to run and exert a lot of energy, but we need to run more without the ball than with it. That's what we want to change—we need to create more space and put more pressure on our opponents. We failed to do that. Most importantly, we need to show aggression.
When you're on the field just jogging, not getting physical, you're not truly competing. It's only in physical confrontations that you fight your opponent. If you're 2 meters away from the ball and always a step slow, it's hard to win a real duel. We need to improve that. We saw it, and we'll make the players aware of it for tomorrow's match.
Intensity and aggression were lacking, but there were also fundamental problems. There were very few attacking chances, especially in the first 60 minutes. You were supposed to create space through possession, but couldn't execute effectively. Why didn't it work?
Because one thing leads to another. If the opponent plays with more intensity than us—if they're fiercer in confrontations—everything is interconnected, and that's the problem. Of course, our play didn't improve much afterward, but that was certainly because the opponent was more active and more aggressive. After 60 minutes, I felt the situation improved on the field, which is exactly what we expected: that we could play better. But ultimately, it still wasn't enough for the full 90 minutes.
You have three consecutive away matches. It must be a huge comfort to have fans cheering you on, especially when you're far from Germany.
Yes, a big thank you to the fans who traveled to Norway. It was a small stadium, and I remember about 400 people traveled with the team. The atmosphere was truly fantastic. They brought all their support materials on the plane and displayed them there, which was really impressive.
The support lasted all 90 minutes and will certainly continue tomorrow in Berlin and also in Baku. Our fans face a lot of pressure, but it shows their love and loyalty for Borussia Dortmund, and we truly need them. Everyone knows how important fans are, especially for us. For that reason, I hope they support us tomorrow as they did in Norway, and I also hope they'll support us in Baku—we want to see more fans traveling with the team.
Fans are a vital part of the club and crucial for our team. Playing with fans is definitely much easier than playing without them.
Even though it was just one game, one loss, and many matches remain in the season, to what extent can a single game tell you which players are trustworthy, who didn't seize their chances, and how this will affect the coming weeks? Is this team better than last year?
Last year, this team was very, very good. This year, this team is also very, very good. We all have ambition, ability, and a desire to be part of it. Everyone has had opportunities to play and will have opportunities again in the future. I don't want to overstate the first 60 minutes. Of course, I'm disappointed and somewhat dissatisfied with the result, but we won't use those 60 minutes as an excuse to question everything. On the contrary, we've done many things very well so far.
Yes, we've played nine games, and you can't be completely satisfied with overall performance. We do fall, but when you fall, you have to get back up. We've done that many times in the year and a half I've been here. We fall, but we get back up, and we stand more firmly. It's a process. We have young players who are now getting more playing time, but you also have to accept that things don't always go smoothly.
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It's hard to predict Dortmund