Borussia Mönchengladbach fires coach Eugen Polanski after a historically poor start to the season

Back to the present, Saturday, September 12, 2026: After a 5-0 defeat at SC Freiburg, Gladbach is currently bottom of the table on matchday three with zero points and 3:12 goals. It is the worst start to the season in the club's history. Although people were still of the opinion that Eugen Polanski was still the right coach after the previous (very, very mixed) season, the doubts are huge after just three match days of the new season. In the end they were too big: On Sunday morning the club confirmed the separation; the Rheinische Post had previously reported on the impending end. “The recent performances led to the decision,” said sports director Rouven Schröder in the club statement. Polanski also suffered Seoane's fate after the third match day.

Doesn't that sound familiar? Polanski had the team prepared all summer for a season at the start of which nothing worked. All the preparation for the cat!

In Hollywood they like to make a second infusion out of a dramatic story. The Gladbachers would have preferred to avoid this horror film sequel, but in fact the same mistake happened to them a second time within twelve months. A year ago, sports director Roland Virkus mistakenly trusted coach Seoane and had to correct this mistake immediately. That later cost him his job too. Now the same thing happened to Virkus' successor Rouven Schröder and coach Polanski. Gladbach's scary film actually gets a nasty sequel: The Horror from the Lower Rhine, Part 2 - horror in the table cellar again.

On the fourth matchday of last season, Polanski, as the former coach of Gladbach's fourth-class regional league team, took over the coaching position of the Borussia professionals from the sacked Seoane. With 38 points, Polanski led the team to twelfth place that season - not a good record. Nevertheless, the club decided to continue with Polanski. Instead, they parted ways with assistant coaches Oliver Neuville and Guido Streichsbier and brought in two new Polanski assistants, Jan-Moritz Lichte and Markus Gellhaus. Two new assistant coaches should make everything better. But this calculation didn't work out. Polanski's season-long record in 34 Bundesliga games: nine wins, ten draws, 15 defeats - 37 points.

The restructuring of the squad has not worked so far either. Gladbach signed ten new players in the summer, but five of them are currently injured and four hardly play a role. On Saturday in Freiburg, only two of the many newcomers were in the starting line-up: the returnee Ko Itakura in central defense and the arrival of second division club Karlsruher SC, David Herold, as left-back. The majority of the team consisted of players who had already struggled last season. Gladbach in its current constitution has even deteriorated due to the loss of players such as Nico Elvedi, Rocco Reitz, Haris Tabakovic and Yannik Engelhardt. Engelhardt, of all people, scored two goals for his new club SC Freiburg in the 5-0 win on Saturday - also a punchline of this scary film.

Gladbach's greatest hopes in this new season lay in the return of captain Tim Kleindienst, who was injured for a year. But something is wrong with the reintegration of the 31-year-old center forward. After the 3-0 defeat in Leipzig, Kleindienst complained that the team was playing “kindergarten football”. After the 3:4 home defeat against Elversberg, he complained that his teammates should watch less Tiktok in order to be able to focus better on playing football - and now, in the 5-0 defeat in Freiburg, he provoked a yellow-red dismissal in the 52nd minute with strangely risky duel behavior. He is suspended for next Saturday's important, groundbreaking home game against Mainz. The captain, who is actually supposed to harmonize and motivate, seems annoyed, nags at the team and doesn't prove to be much help in terms of football. His demeanor can be taken as a clear indication that something is wrong in this team.

Or is there something wrong with the entire Borussia VfL 1900 Mönchengladbach GmbH? Borussia has been gradually going downhill since coach Marco Rose said goodbye in 2021, sports director Max Eberl in 2022 and long-time managing director and finance director Stephan Schippers in 2024. Also in 2024, the long-time club boss Rolf Königs, then 82 years old, was complimented by the presidium and thus also by the board. Rainer Bonhof became president in 2024, and former North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister Hannelore Kraft became vice president. The new managing director since 2025 has been Stefan Stegemann, who came from a club sponsor. The chairman of the supervisory board has been the brewery owner Michael Hollman since 2022. All relevant positions in the club were filled within three years. But nothing has improved in terms of sport since then. Quite the opposite.

Borussia's goals for the season have always been: a single-digit place in the table. This goal was once introduced by sports director Eberl - and when he said goodbye, the club was happy to take it on because a single-digit place in the table combines security from the relegation battle and cautious ambitions towards the European Cup. Gladbach has not been a top Bundesliga club for a long time, but they don't want to be a candidate for relegation either. A single-digit place in the table is the best compromise.

However, Gladbach has not achieved this modest seasonal goal for five years: tenth in 2022 under coach Adi Hütter, tenth in 2023 under Daniel Farke, fourteenth in 2024 under Gerardo Seoane, tenth in 2025 under Seoane and twelfth in 2026 under Polanski. And now, at the beginning of a season that is likely to mean the next tough relegation battle, the next change of coach. Assistant coach Lichte will initially take over the coaching job on an interim basis.