“Only having a few good minutes isn’t enough”
Disappointment was written all over the faces of the Hertha players after the final whistle blew on their 2-1 defeat away to Fürth. It is a tough loss to take, as despite Linus Gechter’s first goal in the Bundesliga and an abundance of attempts on goal, no points were to be taken from Sportpark Ronhof. “Only having a few good minutes isn’t enough for the Bundesliga. We were asleep in the first half, but came out well after half time and even that wasn’t enough,” said a remorseful Maximilian Mittelstädt, summing up the game from a Hertha point of view. herthabsc.com has all the reaction from Fürth here.
Alexander Schwolow: We had the worst possible start with conceding after about 20 seconds. I can’t begin to explain how they scored from that position. Our first-half performance was nothing close to what we expect. We improved in the second half, but then conceded a penalty and it was 2-0. We felt like we could still get something out of the game when we scored to make it 2-1, and we had to score the equaliser after that – it would have been deserved on balance. All things considered though, it was a poor performance from us. We need to show that we’ve put the mistakes to bed and that we believe in ourselves. In the closing stages we showed that we actually can do that – we need to use that and keep delivering consistent performances over the full 90 minutes.
[>]We need to analyse a lot so that we never put in a performance like the one we did in the first half.[<]
Vladimír Darida: It’s difficult to find the right words. We need to analyse a lot so that we never put in a performance like the one we did in the first half. We can’t let that happen, that lack of fight. We made things difficult for ourselves by conceding in the first minute, but we still had 89 minutes to get something out of the game and should have shown more than we did in the rest of the game. We pushed ourselves in training and worked hard, but we didn’t carry it over to the pitch – we need to do that better. The fans are annoyed and I understand why; we are too. We need to wake up to where we are in the league and work to climb back up!
Maximilian Mittelstädt: We wanted to win our tackles, score goals and of course take something back to Berlin with us, but only having a few good minutes isn’t enough for the Bundesliga. We were asleep in the first half, and had already conceded the first goal after 30 seconds. We didn’t fight against them; Fürth had the upper hand there too. We came out well after half time but that just wasn’t enough – it’s so frustrating. I saw the penalty the referee gave against me differently – for me, it was a natural position for my hand to be in, but rules are rules. It’s so stupid that we’ve put ourselves into this tough situation once again, but last season we proved that we can fight on. The team has enough quality and I’m sure that we’ll fight our way out of this situation together.