Youri Mulder: We didn't do any of what normally defines us

Miron Muslic:

Congratulations to Mainz 05 on a deserved victory. During training this week, we prepared ourselves for a game that would require plenty of tackles and a strong mentality. If you fail to win any of your challenges for about 65 minutes, then things become incredibly difficult. The match got off to a poor start for us just 60 seconds in, after Sheraldo Becker went through on goal twice. That saps your confidence a bit.

We then needed to find a way back into the game by relying on our principles: namely, being aggressive, winning our duels and putting up a fight. We only managed to start doing that from the 65th minute onwards, which was too late. By then, Mainz could have added to their lead already. Loris Karius kept us in the game with several strong saves. We were able to get stuck into the tackles more in the final 20 to 25 minutes. We now need to learn, learn, learn. That’s normal for a promoted side in the Bundesliga.

Urs Fischer:

It was a great win and great first half. I think we didn’t just get stuck into our tackles, but we also put in one of our best halves of football when we had the ball. The only thing missing were the goals. At half-time, we spoke about how Schalke would look to show a reaction. From then on, it became a real fight. I have to say that my team did a great job of defending their goal.

Youri Mulder:

We didn’t do any of what normally defines us. Aggressiveness, intensity, bravery – all that was lacking. Our performance in the first half in particular wasn’t up to our usual standards. We just weren’t alert enough and lacked conviction in our play, in addition to being too timid at times. We could have been 2-0 down after the first minute. Loris put in another fantastic performance and kept us from suffering a heavier defeat.

Around the hour-mark, we had a better grasp of the game, but it wasn’t enough. We have to analyse it and do better in our upcoming games. At the moment, we’re still finding our feet and have are several players who haven’t featured in the Bundesliga before. However, we’ve also put in several good performances already this season. We took a point off Bayern München and won in Berlin, which is what we need to build on.

Kenan Karaman:

It was our worst game so far this season. Mainz were far better than us in every area in the first 60 minutes and deservedly won in the end. We didn’t get stuck into our tackles, misplayed too many passes and often didn’t make the right decisions when we found ourselves under pressure. We also didn’t win the second balls. On top of that, we weren’t able to play with our usual aggressiveness and intensity. The final 25 minutes saw us try to attack more, but we just weren’t clinical enough. We know the role that we’re in, as a promoted side. No one is expecting us to score three or four goals. But, we have to manage to do the basics on the pitch. We will have to show a different side to ourselves in Cologne next weekend.

Timo Becker:

From the start, we just weren’t in the game. Whenever we had the ball, we quickly lost it again. We can consider ourselves fortunate that it was only 1-0 to Mainz at halftime. We have Loris to thank, as he really kept us in the game. We improved after the break, but were missing a bit of luck. The defeat rests on our shoulders as a team – it wasn’t just the defence or the attack that was to blame. We’re a team and need to continue to all work hard.