A three-week break was exactly what Borussia Mönchengladbach needed after a chastening start to the Bundesliga campaign and perhaps what their new coach, Alexander Blessin, would have ordered. His first match, a derby against arch-rivals Köln, to train focus? The terms and conditions were not something to simplify the task and Blessin begins his reign exactly where his predecessors Eugen Polanski and (temporarily) Jan-Moritz Lichte were, licking their wounds at the start of a long week.
And there are few weeks longer than the one after a derby loss. Blessin only got to meet a host of key players in the days before the trip to Köln, while several others were unavailable, with Franck Honorat joined on the injury list by striker Tim Kleindienst and defender Ko Itakura. There is little time to recover and reflect as Blessin tries to get his defenders, in particular, to absorb the “frontal instruction” of his defensive principles, which kept his low-budget St Pauli competitive.
Yet pointing to an Isak Johannesson wonder-strike and Saïd El Mala’s winner as the difference would be to ignore the small print. This could have been worse for Gladbach and perhaps if Effzeh had the extra firepower that their injured forwards Ragnar Ache and Thijs Dallinga would have provided, it would have been. Köln will not be entertaining any of their nemesis’ hard luck stories.
The absentee list for the home side extended to their goat mascot Hennes IX, quarantined in the city zoo due to an outbreak of avian flu. With key midfielder Ellyes Skhiri carried off on a stretcher in the first half, it doesn’t look like getting much easier for them, either. What Köln had, though, was a hero fit for the occasion.
The Germany international El Mala is a throwback to less polished times; a wild, untamed talent that excited, infuriated and eventually decided the game here, as he often does. His status has changed since a summer move to Borussia Dortmund fell through, as he became the first wearer of the club’s No 10 shirt since Lukas Podolski and penned a contract extension. As a teenager he scored 13 times in 20 league starts last season.
Now a full Germany international, he is embracing putting the team on his back. For Gladbach the sorrow is not just in the loss but in recognising they don’t have an El Mala. They have lost plenty in recent years, most notably Marcus Thuram, Jonas Hofmann and Rocco Reitz.
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