Rose on the Leipzig crisis: "Should be alarmed"

RB Leipzig coach Marco Rose sees RB Leipzig facing a landmark match against Union Berlin in light of the crisis. "We should be alarmed about the results. We also have the performance in Stuttgart in the back of our minds, which we don't want to show like that again," said the 47-year-old on Tuesday. "After three defeats, it's more special than usual. But we know how it came about and we have enough approaches." Leipzig welcome the relegation-threatened Berliners on Sunday (17:30/DAZN).

One approach could be a change of goalkeeper, which Rose explicitly did not rule out. Although he absolved regular keeper Janis Blaswich of any blame for all the goals conceded in the recent 5-2 defeat in Stuttgart, "the fact is that we have really good competition." However, Blaswich has shown some uncertainties in recent weeks. Peter Gulacsi, who was captain and number one until his knee injury in October 2022, could return in goal on Sunday.

Rose held a conspicuous number of talks in Tuesday's training session. The coach first took Kevin Kampl and Xaver Schlager, then Willi Orban and finally Lois Openda to his side. "We've lost three games in a row, we're not used to that," said Rose. He therefore did not want to sugarcoat things. "Especially because the Stuttgart game was the worst since I've been here. We have to put our finger in the wound, with everything that goes with it."

The management was also represented by Mario Gomez in Leipzig on Tuesday. "Basically, it's good for the lads to see that someone is there who is ultimately part of the management team and sees how we're doing," commented Rose.

The coach predicted that the players would probably not be "a thousand percent confident" from the start of the Union game. They might make mistakes. Rose left it open as to whether captain Willi Orban will return to the starting eleven after recovering from injury. However, he ruled out playing more than 90 minutes.