A good dose of respect mixes with the thought of Saturday evening in the words of Max Eberl.
The Borussia Park in Mönchengladbach will be filled with emotions around the BVB guest appearance (6.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and Sky) that has not existed in a Bundesliga stadium for a long time.
Anger, rejection and maybe even hatred will meet Marco Rose after the Dortmund coach moved from one Borussia to the other in the summer.
"It is the first game that is more explosive," says Eberl, who does not know exactly what the particularly stubborn faction of Mönchengladbach supporters is planning. "I understand the fans who probably want to show their displeasure, there is freedom of expression, you can do that," he says, statements from the "bottom drawer" category "cannot be completely prevented". Only when it “goes in the direction of a personal threat, then limits would be exceeded”.
This means that the dark side of football will return to everyday life in the Bundesliga on Saturday, although the ultras will continue to adhere to the fact that they will only appear as fixed groups again after all the special rules introduced in the pandemic have been abolished.
But the anger at Rose is still strong, as Thomas Ludwig, the chairman of the FPMG Supporters Club, says in an interview on the fan project's homepage: “Time heals all wounds, but the sting of disappointment will definitely be there for a long time deeply with us. ”Nevertheless, he would like the Rose critics to have“ creative effusions ”and“ no calls for violence or other excesses in the wrong direction ”.
State of lack of energy
It's a fine line because the tone is rough. “No mercenary is over the club - get out with the characterless pig right away!” Was written on a banner that hung on the training grounds in February after Rose's plans to switch. Since then, the anger hardly seems to have subsided, which is not least due to the fact that even three months after the arrival of the new coach Adi Hütter, there is no feeling of renewal. On the contrary, the difficulty from the last Rose months has remained - not least in the performance of the team, which is third from the bottom of the table with four points.
"What we playfully show has too little dynamism," says Hütter, who at least finds the actions with the ball "sometimes very neat". What is missing is the “quick switchover, the aggressiveness to the front. That is what we absolutely have to improve. ”In the first year with Rose, when the club reached the Champions League and played rousing games against Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Shakhtar Donetsk in autumn 2020, moments of change and willpower were still important in the duels the strengths of the team, which has hardly changed in terms of personnel.
But during the leaden time with Rose, the unfaithful, the club got into a state of lack of energy from which it has not been able to free itself even after Hütter's arrival. Eberl is now criticizing the players who may not defend themselves decisively enough against this dynamic.
At the end of last year it was like “Marco Rose was the alibi,” says the sports director. Then “it was the transfer period” in which “the boys could not completely break free” because there was speculation about a dozen allegedly courted Gladbach players. Some didn't know how their own careers would go on, it was stressful. Up to a certain point, Eberl even understands the professionals, and the uncertainty about the future face of the team annoyed him himself. “A person is not free from issues that are around him, these are not machines, these are people,” he says. But now the time of alibis is over.
When asked about the reasons for the weak start to the season, Hütter also mentions a few other aspects: Because many of the EM participants still had long holidays, the summer preparations were unsatisfactory, and key players such as Ginter, Pléa, Stindl, Bensebaini, Embolo, Lainer, Thuram and Hofmann injured.
And especially Lainer, Thuram, Bensebaini and Embolo play a special role in generating the dynamism that the trainer lacks.
Bensebaini and Embolo may return against BVB as well as the most prominent access Manu Koné.
Above all, however, the people of Gladbach are faced with the question of whether they can use the energies that will arise with Rose's return in the stadium for a good personal performance or whether they can be distracted again.
It is known that many players have little to do with the resentment of their followers.
"I think Marco Rose doesn't deserve any whistles," said Jonas Hofmann in an interview with the Bild newspaper.
The coach is "a great person, made club history with Gladbach and made it to the knockout round of the Champions League for the first time".
Eberl, who is looking forward to seeing Rose again, thinks similarly.
The mutual sympathy of the two has remained despite the separation.
But there are also critical banners and angry chants to be expected, which means that many Gladbachers in Borussia-Park will be out and about with sometimes contradicting feelings.