It was fitting that it happened here, and how Marco Rose himself must have felt the inevitable creep of irony as the afternoon went on, and as the end result trundled into view in Mönchengladbach. He had plenty of time to acquaint himself with the possibility during a second half in which RB Leipzig rarely looked like scoring. If the game was still going on now, their vaunted collection of attacking players might still be looking for the breakthrough.
There had been a handful of other occasions during the season when Rose must have suspected he would become what he is now: the ex-coach of RB Leipzig. “We believed in our cooperation with Marco and his team for a very long time,” the club’s managing director for sport, Marcel Schäfer said. “We tried everything until the very end to turn things around together.”
The rest of the club’s official statement on Sunday morning, while not gushing, was more nuanced and grateful than these communiques often tend to be. It acknowledged the difficult situation in which Rose inherited the team from Domenico Tedesco in September 2022, before going on to become a Champions League qualifier (twice) and a trophy winner (twice).
Yet Rose has always known the deal, and not just because this is his home town club. He came through the ranks at Red Bull Salzburg to eventually manage the first team, paving his eventual way to the Bundesliga. He has always been realistic that inertia would equal the end. The only surprise, perhaps, is that it hasn’t come sooner.
Those words in the statement remind us why. Leipzig really didn’t want to do this; not before the end of the season, at least. But this Saturday afternoon at Borussia Mönchengladbach was the straw that broke the camel’s back, even with the Champions League places still in reach (Leipzig are only three points off the top four after Mainz lost at Borussia Dortmund in Sunday’s late game). There is still plenty to strive for in the campaign’s closing weeks, with a DFB-Pokal semi-final at Stuttgart on Wednesday before knuckling down to try to crack the top four.
Yet rarely in recent games have Rose’s team suggested they can take the (red) bull by the horns. Saturday’s loss was a fifth successive away match in all competitions without scoring, despite having Loïs Openda, Xavi Simons, Benjamin Sesko, Yussuf Poulsen and Christoph Baumgartner on the pitch at various points. Gladbach’s teenage goalkeeper, Tiago Pereira Cardoso, will have few more comfortable second halves. Alessane Pléa’s goal early in that second period gave the hosts a richly deserved win – the 1-0 scoreline failing to describe just how comprehensive it really was – and crucially took them above the visitors into fifth place overnight.
And, of course, the fans at Borussia-Park delighted in their former coach’s struggles. Rose’s departure for Dortmund in 2021 had been announced months ahead of time in February, and the stench of perceived betrayal hung over the season’s difficult final months, eliciting a string of defeats, a drop out of the European places – having played in the last 16 of the Champions League – and a Pokal exit to his future team. In constant transition on the back of a steady exit of star players – Marcus Thuram, Yann Sommer, Jonas Hofmann and Manu Koné to name but a handful – Gladbach have not troubled the upper reaches of the Bundesliga since.
Until now, perhaps. Many middling teams have taken advantage of the usual suspects’ disarray to shoot their own improbably presented shot at the top four, but few expected it to be Gladbach. Their coach Gerardo Seoane has, like Rose, survived some potentially sackable moments simply because there has been no obviously preferable alternative. They lacked their current star turn here, Germany forward Tim Kleindienst, who was suspended, but were still vastly superior to a team with all the gear and no idea on the day.
Rose had seen off the threats posed by a 5-1 home hammering by Wolfsburg in winter, and a shambolic Champions League group stage campaign which yielded seven defeats from eight games. Saturday’s toothless display, suggesting little energy to sufficiently turn around the campaign, sealed it and Leipzig are lucky that this season is still salvageable. Their 42 points after 27 games is their lowest total at this stage since promotion in 2016. Leipzig coaches have certainly been fired for less.
Zsolt Löw, the former assistant to Thomas Tuchel at Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich, steps in until the season’s end. He is essentially fulfilling the role that many suggested Jürgen Klopp himself might, dropping down from his Red Bull leadership role on a virtual secondment to make sure the base objective of the season is achieved. Löw has specific relevant experience besides having worked with Klopp in an overarching role in recent months, having been assistant to Ralph Hasenhüttl when the now-Wolfsburg coach was guiding Leipzig through its first seasons in the top division. An eventual appointment of Klopp, the mere suggestion of which is already agitating various analysts of German football, does not appear to be the priority yet.
Yet Leipzig already made a decision on a slight but significant change of direction when they invested so heavily in Openda and the permanent signing of Xavi Simons. Would a superstar coach be their next step on that road, while simultaneously rewinding to their position of the disruptors of traditional Bundesliga sensibilities? If this season’s fractious race for the Champions League spots has underlined anything it is that strategy will always get past crude resource. Leipzig have been warned.
Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 Bochum, Bayern Munich 3-2 St Pauli, Borussia Dortmund 3-1 Mainz, Borussia Mönchengladbach 1-0 RB Leipzig, Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0 Stuttgart, Freiburg 1-2 Union Berlin, Hoffenheim 1-1 Augsburg, Holstein Kiel 0-3 Werder Bremen, Wolfsburg 0-1 Heidenheim
Talking points
• With that lesson in mind, it was a minor surprise to see Dortmund keep their domestic season just about alive by beating Mainz 3-1, by deserving to do so and by looking like a real Niko Kovac team, practical and robust, maybe for the first time in the Bundesliga. Speaking of practical, a note of interest was seeing centre-back Nico Schlotterbeck taking inswinging corners from the right and providing two assists. In keeping with BVB’s season so far, Schlotterbeck also received a late booking that sees him banned for the next game, a crucial trip to Freiburg.
• Defensive problems are almost a Bayern monopoly at the moment. After Dayot Upamecano and, more seriously, Alphonso Davies went down – with Jan-Christian Dreesen and Christoph Freund barely containing their anger with the Canadian FA – Hiroki Ito broke his foot again in the 3-2 win over St Pauli, ruling him out for the season. “There are no excuses,” said Harry Kane after his goal took him to a century of goal involvements at Bayern (77 goals, 23 assists). “We can’t change it. We have to be ready.” A six-point lead at the top might be enough in the league but a threadbare defence doesn’t bode well against Inter in the Champions League quarter-finals.
• On Friday night Leverkusen had temporarily closed the gap to three with a hard-fought 3-1 win over Bochum to begin the weekend, suggesting there is still juice left in the race. “It’s a good sign that our team is upset in the changing room,” said visiting coach Dieter Hecking, who on Thursday extended his deal with the club for two further seasons, valid only if the club stay up. They are much improved but dropped back into the bottom two after Heidenheim’s surprise win at Wolfsburg.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bayern Munich | 27 | 52 | 65 |
| 2 | Bayer Leverkusen | 27 | 28 | 59 |
| 3 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 27 | 15 | 48 |
| 4 | Mainz | 27 | 14 | 45 |
| 5 | Borussia M'gladbach | 27 | 4 | 43 |
| 6 | RB Leipzig | 27 | 7 | 42 |
| 7 | Freiburg | 27 | -3 | 42 |
| 8 | Augsburg | 27 | -6 | 39 |
| 9 | Wolfsburg | 27 | 8 | 38 |
| 10 | Borussia Dortmund | 27 | 6 | 38 |
| 11 | Stuttgart | 27 | 3 | 37 |
| 12 | Werder Bremen | 27 | -10 | 36 |
| 13 | Union Berlin | 27 | -15 | 30 |
| 14 | Hoffenheim | 27 | -16 | 27 |
| 15 | St Pauli | 27 | -11 | 25 |
| 16 | Heidenheim | 27 | -20 | 22 |
| 17 | VfL Bochum | 27 | -27 | 20 |
| 18 | Holstein Kiel | 27 | -29 | 17 |
