Keller, Baumgart, and Kessler rage after poor Köln performance: “They must fight back.”

FC Köln head-coach Steffen Baumgart, personnel licensing director Thomas Kessler, and sporting director Christian Keller made no effort to disguise their furor after their team allowed Leipzig to run roughshod over them at the Red Bull Arena on Saturday evening. 

Six days after securing their first win of the season against Rhine rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach, 1. FC Köln were back to resembling the bottom-of-the-barrel Bundesliga side await Leipzig on Saturday evening. Steffen Baumgart’s Geißböcke conceded four first-half goals en route to an eventual 0-6 defeat against Marco Rose’s German Red Bulls. The night ended up being one during which Baumgart threw his trademark flat cap onto the pitch in frustration very early.

“We must state things unequivocally,” Köln licensing had Thomas Kessler noted in his post-match interview with Germany’s Sky broadcast team, “To lose in this way. They did things one can’t afford to do. They’re not fit to play in the Bundesliga.”

For Baumgart, the main problem was the manner in which his team switched off and allowed Leipzig to score three goals in the final five minutes of the first-half. Baumgart noted that he didn’t care for the way his players held their heads low and stopped fighting.

“That’s not to be tolerated,” Baumgart said, “Regardless of the result. I don’t understand that and I don’t accept it. What happened has to be worked on. How, unfortunately, I can’t say yet.”

Köln sporting director Christian Keller, like his trainer, made a point of criticizing the body language of the players in his post-match comments. The club administrator demanded a better attitude from those representing the Domstadt.

“Will and focus was neither visible nor noticeable,” Keller raged, “They didn’t carry the positives from [last week’s] derby [win] onto the pitch. They must fight back with courage, conviction, and attentiveness. All of this takes place in the head.”

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