The audience reacted surprisingly coolly when Alassane Pléa left the field in the 82nd minute and could have been celebrated as a kind of hero of the afternoon. The 1: 0 of his Mönchengladbacher in the game against VfL Bochum he scored himself with a technically perfect header, to make it 2-0 he delivered a clever preparatory pass, and coach Adi Hütter was later to say: "Alassane was certainly a key player today, he was the one in our game who certainly did the offensive very, very good. ”The applause, however, was subtle. Perhaps the distrust of these strange attackers, who wear the jersey with the Borussia diamond, is now too great to shower them with too much love after such a “job win” (Hütter). Because somehow it's difficultTo trust these repeatedly prevented goal scorers permanently.
This could also be observed during this 2-1 victory against VfL Bochum, which was almost gambled away in the final phase. Four days earlier, Hütter had said that Breel Embolo was “of course an absolute grenade with its force and speed and power”. The Swiss attacker had scored two hits in the breathtaking 5-0 dismantling of FC Bayern Munich in the DFB Cup and had been involved in the other three goals with strong actions. If Embolo were able to play this well consistently, he would be in the top five attackers in the world. "We have a great quality, we have to confirm that," said Embolo after the game against Bayern. There was no confirmation. On this rainy Halloween Sunday at VfL Bochum's guest appearance, Embolo was pale and ineffective.
Injuries and dents in shape inhibit the storm
Just like Pléa, the 24-year-old Swiss is a striker who reliably has brilliant moments every season, but which then alternate with staid appearances just as reliably and often for no clear reason.
Hütter commented on the work against the ball: "We didn't manage to keep applying pressure, didn't have good counter-pressing after simply losing the ball and left too many rooms open compared to Wednesday." could have been better.
In the closing stages, Marcus Thuram came into play, another striker who is a suitable figure for this attack by the unpredictable. Similar to his compatriot Pléa, the Frenchman showed, especially in the 2019/2020 season and during the subsequent Champions League year, that he can be a great goalscorer. He then fell into a hole and was absent for two months this season due to a knee injury. The problem: No Gladbach striker - even Lars Stindl can be included in this series - comes through the years at Borussia without regular dents or injury phases. Hütter even seems to take that into account.
Alluding to the fireworks of football art last Wednesday, the coach said: "After such a highlight, it is not always easy" to play convincingly. Why actually? It is just as easy to speculate that a guy like Embolo could play freely after last week's euphoric surge. Perhaps Hütter's greatest challenge is to unleash the potential of this highly prone attack in Mönchengladbach and to work out a constant performance.
The best goalscorer this season so far has been midfielder Jonas Hofmann, last year no one in the Bundesliga scored more often than Stindl.
Last year in Frankfurt, Hütter showed through his work with André Silva that he can coach strikers to special performances.
Silva scored 28 times for Eintracht, the number of times that no striker has scored for Borussia since Jupp Heynckes in the 1972/1973 season.