Interim coach Andre Schubert has won his first three Bundesliga games at the Borussia Mönchengladbach helm. - © © gettyimages / Lars Baron
Interim coach Andre Schubert has won his first three Bundesliga games at the Borussia Mönchengladbach helm. - © © gettyimages / Lars Baron

Schubert: 'The boys have done brilliantly'

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Mönchengladbach - After Borussia Mönchengladbach’s terrible start to the season, interim head coach Andre Schubert has put the Foals back on track with three successive Bundesliga victories since taking charge.

In part two of an exclusive interview with bundesliga.com, the 44-year-old tactician discusses Josip Drmic, Ibrahima Traore and his side's recent impressive performances...

- © gettyimages / Lars Baron

bundesliga.com: To a man, the squad are now producing the performances which brought so much success during the second half of 2014/15. Only Josip Drmic hasn't quite hit the heights he is capable of since you took over…

Andre Schubert: I have only been coaching the side for 13 days [at the time of interview]. In that time, I have only been able to choose 11 players for each game. We wanted to make a virtue of stability and restore the players' confidence. To that end, we opted to go with the same pair of players on either flank:  Fabian Johnson and Oscar Wendt on the left and Julian Korb and Patrick Herrmann on the right. Further up, we have been using Raffael and Lars Stindl, who have clicked right from the start of the season.

bundesliga.com: But how do you let a player like Drmic know that he won't be involved from the start?

- © gettyimages / Martin Rose

'We are again facing deeper defences'

- © gettyimages / Lars Baron

bundesliga.com: Traore was probably the man of the match, in fact…

Schubert: Yes, he responded really well. Obviously, those who don't play are disappointed, but they also understand that you can't change everything in eight or nine days and that this is hardly the time for experimentation. I'd still say to Josip that hunting the ball up top, finding a way through packed back lines and creating chances from these situations are his strengths.

bundesliga.com: But that hasn't been Gladbach's style of late…

'I suffered alongside the team'

bundesliga.com: Are you worried that the international break will have knocked your side out of its newly-found rhythm?

bundesliga.com: Indeed, your side ran more than the opposition in each of the four games…

Schubert: Yes, absolutely. Against Augsburg, we wanted to show the fans a full-throttle style, in Stuttgart we were forced into the hard work by the opposition, and against City we had to run more than the opposition so as to have superior numbers in defence and nullify their individual quality. Then, against Wolfsburg, we had to defend well again: when Julian Draxler leaves Schalke and Max Kruse leaves the third-placed side Gladbach to join Wolfsburg, there's a reason for it. Despite being a top team, they never really troubled us, because we hardly allowed them a chance. The boys have done brilliantly at putting into practice what we talked about.