Blessin in disguise? Gladbach must scale mountain after derby defeat by Köln

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? Even better. Detail, though, was key. 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. There is no respite.

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. “I’ve never been so fired up for a game,” he said after his winner, cutting inside from the left to put a right-footed shot into the far corner past Moritz Nicolas, his trademark move.

“I’ve had a bit of a rough patch these past few weeks,” El Mala said after his first goal since the opening day. “What sets me apart is that I don’t give up and I keep going.” He has all the hallmarks of a genuine star; talent, swagger and now the over-arching sense of responsibility that is impossible to hide. 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. The poor running of the club is well documented but now Blessin must take them up from the foot of the mountain – an even steeper peak with Union winning at last, against Elversberg – without too many stars of note. He may not be the coach Gladbach fans dreamed of but in this era of reduced means, he is probably the right one for now.

Talking points

Freiburg continue at the top, and in fact extend their lead from where they were at the start of the weekend, despite playing a chunk of the second half with 10 men against Schalke. Kaisuke Goto’s 85th-minute header was the result of two substitutes combining, the legendary Vincenzo Grifo teeing him up with a perfect cross. “It doesn’t feel particularly special because it’s the start of the season,” a circumspect Matthias Ginter told Dazn, which says a lot about Freiburg’s increased ambition under Julian Schuster.

If Schalke were wringing their hands over their loss, Dortmund were just as frustrated at their Friday fumble against traditional rivals Werder Bremen; having led 2-0 in the 88th minute, BVB ended up losing their 100% record after a stoppage-time equaliser from their former striker Niclas Füllkrug, his fourth successive game scoring (he celebrated but told Sky, not unreasonably: “I scored for us, not against them”). We have seen Dortmund slips like this before, notably against the same opposition in a 3-2 defeat four years ago, but less so under Niko Kovac. “We have to blame ourselves,” he said, though he saved most of his press conference ire for the referee, Bastian Dankert, who disallowed a potential opening goal by Ethan Nwaneri.

Bayern also let points go, though they had to come back from a goal down twice on the short trip to Augsburg – notably after conceding the Bundesliga’s fastest-ever goal, scored after 8.4sec by Robin Fellhauer, who charged down a Manuel Neuer clearance before slotting in. At 40, it is not the sort of historical landmark the goalkeeper wants or deserves but it has reignited the question of how Vincent Kompany will manage the transition to Jonas Urbig becoming No 1. It feels especially germane after Neuer’s miserable World Cup comeback and Urbig having recently been given a Germany debut by Jürgen Klopp. At the other end Harry Kane assisted both goals for Ismaël Saibari and Nathaniel Brown, though Bayern had enough chances to win two games, let alone one.

As it stands, remarkably, Christopher Nkunku has more Bundesliga goals than Kane after his hat-trick in RB Leipzig’s 6-0 demolition of Eintracht Frankfurt. Leipzig were two up within five minutes and Nkunku had his hat-trick before half-time, with Frankfurt’s longstanding defensive problems continuing even after the return of Adi Hütter – who didn’t hold back in his criticism of captain Robin Koch’s performance after taking him off at the break. “I don’t want to sugarcoat anything,” Koch said. “It was a disastrous performance.”

Bayer Leverkusen managed a first away win of the season at Mainz but, despite playing excellently in patches, didn’t make it easy for themselves, letting a two-goal lead go and then, after going 4-2 up, conceding a late goal to Benedict Hollerbach to give themselves a few more palpitations (it did at least mean that Moussa Diaby’s first goal back at the club turned out to be the winner). Patrik Schick, meanwhile, equalled club greats Stefan Kießling and Dimitar Berbatov by scoring in the first five games of a Bundesliga season.

Leverkusen’s fellow Europa League contenders – perhaps participants is a better description – Hoffenheim continued their rough start, letting a 2-1 lead slip to Hamburg in the closing stages, defeated by Miro Muheim’s rocket of a finish in the fourth minute of stoppage time after Bernardo’s red card. Having lost four out of five in the league and lost at OFI Crete in the Europa League, Christian Ilzer and company now face Besiktas on Thursday before a suddenly-very-important trip to Gladbach.