Domenico Tedesco: We are lacking that cutting edge

Domenico Tedesco:

Well done to Dortmund. We started the game well enough and had some control – but then we were suddenly behind. We should have defended both of their goals much better. We had more possession in the first half and had a decent pass completion rate. Our biggest problem at the moment is our lack of cutting edge. We need to be more dangerous, our crosses aren’t good enough as they just aren’t finding anybody in the box. I think we should have made more of our play in the first half. We lost our only centre forward in the 33rd minute and brought on Hamza Mendyl to inject some pace into our game. Yehven Konoplyanka is a winger who would rather play there, but we desperately needed two centre forwards today. Hamza is our quickest player and it was important to have someone up front who is direct.

We fought back well in the second half and got our well-deserved equaliser, before having ten good minutes afterwards. Again, their second goal was too easy. We set ourselves higher standards usually at the back. Afterwards, we struggled to get back in the game and didn’t keep hold of the ball well enough. Both their goals came at bad times for us. We now need to learn from our mistakes and learn to win games for ourselves again.

Lucien Favre:

We fought back well in the second half and got our well-deserved equaliser, before having ten good minutes afterwards. Again, their second goal was too easy. We set ourselves higher standards usually at the back. Afterwards, we struggled to get back in the game and didn’t keep hold of the ball well enough. Both their goals came at bad times for us. We now need to learn from our mistakes and learn to win games for ourselves again.

Daniel Caligiuri:

After we equalised, I believed that we could get another and turn the game around. We showed the right mentality, even after conceding early in the first half. We already knew that Dortmund are strong on the counter. Their winning goal was so frustrating, especially as they won the ball from one of our tackles. Those kinds of things can just happen. Our current position in the table is obviously disappointing. We have to try and get as many points as possible before Christmas. I think we will get ourselves out of the bottom third of the table together.

Ralf Fährmann:

The derby had a lot to offer. I’m disappointed that they scored one more goal than us. The rest of the team are equally saddened by the result. It’s quite hard to be missing so many strikers. That’s no excuse, but we are missing several important offensive players. I think that we did well with we had available to us today. I’m certain that we come out of this phase a lot stronger.