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RB Leipzig will desperately want to beat Aston Villa on Tuesday night after wasting all five of their Champions League games this season.
Only BSC Young Boys and Slovan Bratislava have also failed to score a single point in the league and would probably want to win the remaining 3 games to qualify for the knockout play-offs. Like Villa, Leipzig have won their last two games after a long winless run.
Theirs stretched over six matches in all competitions and even before the 5-1 home defeat to Wolfsburg on November 30, pressure was mounting on manager Marco Rose. But club captain Willi Orban remained adamant that the former Borussia Dortmund coach is the right man for the job.
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“I can’t think of a better coach for us at the moment,” he told DAZN after Leipzig’s most recent Champions League defeat against Inter. “We have a lot of young players, but they also need to take the next step and become more emotionally mature.
“This is the first crisis we have had with the coach. You have to give him confidence. Now it’s our turn, guys. It’s not easy, but we will have to come out stronger.
Rose said: “Sometimes, even in the last few weeks, we seem to be a little bit lacking in many areas. I think we were smarter today. But at the moment it’s not enough to achieve anything worthwhile,” he said. adding that he didn’t need to “dilute anything. “
“We know why the limited things happened. But we are here to keep our promises, to make our way. Let’s stick together and get through this. I’m very committed to that.
Leipzig returned to winning ways against Frankfurt in the German Cup last Wednesday and winger Antonio Nusa claimed afterwards that there was no added pressure on him and his teammates to impress despite their lack of results across November.
“I don’t think we’re in crisis,” Nusa said. We may not have gotten the results, but we believed in ourselves. Today we played with a lot of freedom and calmness. It was a victory for everyone, for the coach, for the fans. I hope we can kick. Today we control”. give the best of ourselves and not be distracted by pressure.
Leipzig then backed up their win in the cup by defeating Holstein Keil on Saturday, which was their first league victory since October.
“We failed to realize our full potential in November, neither as a team nor as individual players,” Orban said after the victory. “There was a lot of discussion and we concentrated on ourselves. Now we will have to do it temporarily because Aston Villa is already waiting for us on Tuesday. “
Rose added: “We have been playing for several weeks with a small team. Today’s match in Kiel was tough. Regarding the quality of the functionality today, there is certainly room for improvement, but we managed to overcome the challenge successfully. It is not It’s all about putting pressure on your opponents, but rarely do you just have to wait for opportunities to attack them on the counterattack.
“It was difficult for us to get on the field in the early stages of the game, but as time went by they gave us more. In the end, we defended well and took advantage of our opportunities. “