Gladbach falls silent in the crisis, the dressing room falls apart

With their heads bowed, Gladbach's professionals crept through the players' tunnel towards the dressing room after the 2-1 defeat against Hoffenheim, and no one exchanged a word. No visible outbursts of anger, no swearing, no audible door slamming. Borussia falls silent in the crisis.

After the sixth defeat in a row, those responsible have long since recognized that the team's defenseless, leaderless and downright lifeless mentality is one of the biggest problems behind the disastrous start with zero points and 8:20 goals.

The team is currently breaking up more and more into small groups - this not only affects the Japanese, who have poorer language skills and have already been provided with an interpreter. In addition, some experienced top performers are said to have doubts about the footballing qualities of their teammates.

Those in charge don't want to beat up players

Sports boss Rouven Schröder and new coach Alexander Blessin are currently working on rekindling self-confidence, energy and team spirit. Internally decided strategy: The players should not be beaten, instead those responsible repeatedly express their trust in them. The day after the Hoffenheim game, the two people in charge held numerous individual discussions, including critical analysis. Blessin told the team in the players' circle after the final whistle: "The weak stay down, the strong will get up."

But it is questionable whether Borussia has enough “strong guys”. Because the causes of the broken dressing room and what Blessin called “scaredy football” lie in the squad composition. Schröder and the management gave up almost the entire axis due to financial constraints: Rocco Reitz (Leipzig) and Nico Elvedi (Leeds) were sold, Haris Tabakovic (Salzburg) and Yannik Engelhardt (Freiburg) were not retained after being on loan. A personnel loss that the team has not yet been able to cope with.

The club has become too dependent on captain Tim Kleindienst, who was almost completely out last season (knee surgery) and is currently out again (torn muscle fiber), both in terms of sport and hierarchy. Especially since the striker further divided the dressing room by publicly criticizing his teammates (“Watch less TikTok”) several times.

Another problem is the flood of injuries: potential leaders like Jens Castrop, Jan Leszczynski, Enzo Leopold and Nicolas Kühn are sometimes even out for the long term.

If Gladbach loses against Stuttgart for the seventh game in a row, the historically worst league start of all teams and of all time would be perfect. After the dismissal of Eugen Polanski, should Schröder and the sporting leadership now also fear for their future? According to “Sport Bild” information, expulsion is ruled out by both the management and the presidium – especially since this would also make the committees even more vulnerable.