"I have two things to say."
The head coach held up two fingers.
"First, we just had a very bad ga."
"But I want to say, no team can win every single ga. Nobody can."
"The crucial thing is that we figure out why we lost and how to avoid losing again."
Klopp’s words resonated with the players on the bus.
"Were our tactics the problem?"
Klopp didn’t wait for the players to answer, giving the answer himself. "I don’t think so!"
He was extrely confident.
"Is it a problem with our players’ ability?"
"I don’t think so either!" he answered, once again cutting in.
"So what was the problem?"
"A corner kick, a long-range shot, and a surprise attack."
"I stressed it over and over again before the ga: focus, focus, focus!"
"We weren’t good enough. We weren’t focused enough. And that’s what killed us!"
Klopp’s words made Subotic, who was sitting next to Wang Shuo, and Humls on the other side flush with sha.
Conceding three goals in twelve minutes was, frankly, absurd.
The crucial thing was that Wang Shuo had already saved the team once.
But they kept making mistakes.
"Trust , this isn’t a crisis. It’s a process!"
Klopp said with absolute conviction.
"We will absolutely get through this difficult process!"
Wang Shuo agreed with Klopp’s assessnt.
After a whole sumr, a few preseason friendlies, and the tests of the UEFA Europa League qualifiers and cup matches, the players already had a firm grasp of Klopp’s tactics.
The key was execution!
Hamburg were no pushovers.
Facing the "Northern King" on their ho turf, the high-intensity match exposed so of Dortmund’s problems.
In a way, this wasn’t a bad thing.
The key was to fix it!
"I need you all to give more ti!"
This was Klopp’s solution to the first problem.
Ti.
"Second, we have a difficult start to the season, and the schedule is packed."
"Before September, we have two rounds of UEFA Europa League qualifiers, one DFB-Pokal match, and four league matches."
"On top of that, there’s a friendly against Real Madrid."
Dortmund had even paid to have Real Madrid co over for this friendly.
It was to celebrate Dortmund’s centenary in advance.
The actual 100th anniversary is on December 19th, right before Christmas, but no one would have been willing to play the match then. So, Dortmund scheduled the commorative ga for the start of the season instead.
The tickets were already sold out, so the match had to go on.
And yet, the schedule was just so packed.
Of course, none of these matches could be rescheduled.
The UEFA Europa League qualifiers were a given, and the DFB-Pokal and Bundesliga schedules were already set in stone.
And the commorative match?
How could they not hold a 100th-anniversary match?
Especially when they had invited Real Madrid.
You couldn’t even bla Klopp for this.
The schedule was already in place when he took over the team.
"For us, this problem also has only one solution: ti!"
"This is going to be a difficult period. We’re facing a packed schedule right at the beginning of the season, and it’s also a crucial adaptation phase for the team."
"But I’ll say it again: this is a process, not a crisis!"
"I want you to believe that when this season is over, we’ll look back on this ti and realize that these seemingly terrible days brought us all closer together, made us more of a team."
"Hardship won’t defeat us. It will only unlock our potential and make us stronger!"
"And what makes happiest is that when we ran into trouble, I didn’t hear a single person in the locker room just now scolding or complaining."
"There was no dissent, because we are a single unit!"
"I believe that once we get through this period, we will be even stronger!"
Wang Shuo, sitting in his seat, began to clap vigorously as Klopp finished speaking.
It was his way of showing his support for Klopp.
Following Wang Shuo’s lead, more and more players around him began to applaud.
Soon, the entire bus was filled with applause, everyone endorsing Klopp’s words.
He was speaking the truth.
Humls, Subotic, and Weidenfeller had all made mistakes.
But no one blad them.
There hadn’t even been any complaints in the locker room after the ga.
No one at Dortmund liked to lose.
But when the team did lose, everyone was willing to stand with their teammates and shoulder the result together.
And every loss would only make Dortmund stronger.
This was the conviction Klopp wanted to instill in his team.
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