Taking up their responsibility, captain Vanaken and coach Deila addressed the press after the 2-1 defeat at the hands of STVV.
Hans Vanaken: "Handed it away once again"
Visiting Sint Truiden on the final game of the regular season, Club Brugge once again suffered a defeat. A frustrated Hans Vanaken offered his two cents.
“History repeats, as once again we have ourselves to blame," Club's skipper started out. "I reckon we had a fine start, with lots of forward pressure and good recovery, allowing us to have the better of the game. We took a deserved lead, but then failed to build on that. Whether we should have been awarded a spot kick? I was jabbed in the back with both hands, so to me it was a clear foul. Much to everyone's surprise a penalty kick was not awarded. I guess we'll find out why tomorrow?”
Still, Club's captain was fair enough to also pinpoint the team's own flaws. "Scoring 0-2 from the spot would have been a different game. The fact remains, however, that we handed them control after that, failing to maintain that high pressure and keeping possession. We gave it away once again. After that equaliser we had a couple of fine chances through Casper Nielsen, but in the end it was too little to earn that victory. That 2-1 could also have been avoided. Koita had too much time, even if he put it in neatly.”
Quo vadis, Club? “Ten fun, but tough Play-Off games await, against teams with a lot of quality. We will probably be put under pressure a bit more in some of those games, so it will be important to play our own game as much as we can, with lots of high pressure, and keeping hold of the all more and better. We now have two weeks to try and analyse things, and to set things right where we can”, Club's captain concluded. (MV)
Ronny Deila: "Not a good performance, particularly in the second half"
"We were off to a good start, with an excellent first thirty minutes. The better team, creating chances, and scoring that opener. We had our chances to score even more, and there was that penalty situation that could have had a direct influence on the game. After that, they found their way back into the game. We played more downfield, and were unable to keep hold of the ball like we did in the opening thirty minutes. Our second half was just poor. We tried playing more upfield with more pressure, but our team just lacked that bit of freshness. When you stop creating things in possession, it's going to get tough. Each time we reclaimed possession, we lost the ball, e.g. in case of a throw-in. They really master the turnaround, and they had us chasing the ball. I don't know why this happened, maybe we were too much at ease after that early lead. Furthermore, maybe the challenging weeks (both physically and mentally) play their part in this final hurdle towards a short break. Of course we would have preferred heading in that break with a win, but after those fine first thirty minutes, it was like we started moving at a slower pace. We couldn't put enough pressure, and stopped passing it around, and they started taking over more and more. And in the end they had those two scoring opportunities. We also had our fair share, but couldn't cash them in. On the other side of the pitch, we gave too much away compared to the start of the game", a disheartened Club coach finished his talk. (TM)