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Eintracht Frankfurt trainer Albert Riera – following the team’s latest disappointing Bundesliga result – didn’t take the bait when it came to another question about Mario Götze, yet still unleashed a hyper charged rant on “anger, love, and anxiety” at his post-match press conference. Eintracht ended up blowing a two goal lead against relegation-threatened Köln on Sunday.
After Riera got defensive with a reporter over Götze’s dropping in the last Bundesliga match before the international break, Eintracht signed the German World Cup legend to a contract extension. Götze did return to the squad and featured as a substitute off the bench.
Riera demonstrated that he learned not to discuss individual players, giving rather formulaic answers about not only Götze but also Eintracht attackers Can Uzun and Jonathan Burkardt.
When it came time to answer for the fact that Eintracht have still only won three of their eight Bundesliga matches under his watch, however, Riera repeatedly blamed the previous coaching regime helmed by Dino Toppmöller. Riera kept stressing that he needed to shake the losing mentality out of his players.
Albert Riera’s epic rant on “solving the problem”
“It’s easy to analyze to the game,” Riera noted in his opening statement. “I label [Köln] a goalkeeping team because they were playing long balls out via the goalkeeper. We stopped winning duals and they scored goals because of that. We scored two goals and then we conceded two goals.”
After this innocuous enough opening statement, Riera spoke for nearly five minutes when fielding his first question. Riera continued to reiterate the talking point of “seven months of baggage” during every subsequent question. Riera sought to make clear that he had inherited an absolute mess from Toppmöller.
“I I were to be angry with them, what will I gain?,” Riera answered when a reporter asked if he was angry or disappointed with the team. “They need my love, options, and feedback on how to do better. Tomorrow, the first thing I’ll give them is love and support. The last game that we lost [before the international break] against Mainz made me happy because I know why we lost.
“If we know we can solve the situation,” Riera continued. “In life, if you can’t identify the problem, you have a [bigger] problem because you have to solve the problem and you don’t know how to do it. Here, I know what the problem is and I know how we can do better. I know what, how, and with whom. I can’t guarantee a timeframe for fixing the problem.
“We’re carrying the baggage of seven months of disappointment,” Riera went on. “And now in two or three months we have to solve the problem of disappointment and anxiety. I told my players that they are playing with anxiety. They’re playing too fast and in a hurry. When we leading 2-0, we needed to be defending the ball. Instead, we kept losing the ball because we were playing in too much of a hurry.
“When we play too quickly accidents happen,” Riera continued. “We need to understand when to play fast, when to accelerate, and when to pause. We were the worst team in Europe when it came conceding goals when I came in February. Not in the Bundesliga, in all of Europe. I can prove it. We were coming from a place of frustration and disappointment. We need to forget about the past and be positive.
“This is my job,” Riera concluded. “Negativity? No. Not with my players. We need to win the next three points. That’s how I’m going to prepare this team and these players. I can see that they are playing with this [fear] inside. This is a massive club with high expectations that was playing Champions League. I love this club, but we must solve the disappointments of the last seven months.
Riera sidesteps Mario Götze question
“Football is about today,” Riera answered when a reporter asked him about the Mario Götze matter. “Every match is different. I put different players on the tactics board based on my demands. My demands are that players do their job on and off the ball. Mario didn’t play one day, but will play another day. Some players didn’t play today because they didn’t fit or didn’t meet those demands.“
