Borussia Mönchengladbach have become the first club to change managers in this Bundesliga campaign, dismissing Eugen Polanski just three matches into the season following a humiliating 5-0 defeat at league leaders Freiburg. The timing echoes eerily last season, when Gladbach also cut ties with a coach, Gerardo Seoane, after an identical three-game stretch.
The defeat in Freiburg encapsulated Gladbach's struggles. Freiburg, unbeaten and playing with clear purpose, raced into a two-goal lead inside half an hour. Things worsened for the visitors when captain Tim Kleindienst was dismissed for a second yellow card that appeared entirely avoidable. Former Gladbach players added to the misery, with Yannik Engelhardt netting twice and Matthias Ginter contributing two assists as Freiburg cruised to a lopsided victory that flattered the losing side.
Polanski's connection to the club runs deep. He joined Gladbach's academy at age eight, made his senior debut in 2004, and spent three years coaching the under-23 side before being promoted to steady the first team roughly a year ago in the wake of Seoane's sacking. Announcing his departure on Sunday, he reflected on the emotional weight of the decision.
"Borussia Mönchengladbach was and always will be my club," Polanski said. "That's why it hurts so much that things have turned out like this. After successfully avoiding relegation, we made a number of changes for this season. We had high hopes, but we didn't manage to achieve them. I'm sorry about that. I sincerely hope that Borussia gets back on track very quickly."
Despite the sincerity of his words, few expected Polanski to succeed given the scale of the rebuilding job he inherited. The current squad bears little resemblance to the side that reached the Champions League last 16 under Marco Rose over five years ago, a team featuring the likes of Yann Sommer, Ginter, Denis Zakaria, Ramy Bensebaini, Jonas Hofmann and Marcus Thuram. The exits of Thuram and Bensebaini on free transfers have been cited as symptomatic of poor squad planning, with former sporting director Roland Virkus drawing much of the criticism, though many contractual complications predated his tenure. Attention has now shifted to his successor, Rouven Schröder, both for persisting with Polanski and for a summer recruitment drive that has yet to bear fruit.
Captain Kleindienst's public criticism of teammates after last week's stoppage-time collapse against Elversberg — in which Gladbach squandered a 3-1 lead — only added to the sense of a club in disarray, particularly after his red card compounded matters in Freiburg.
Elsewhere in the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich claimed a hard-fought 2-1 win at Elversberg thanks to Harry Kane's second-half winner, his first league goal of the campaign. Elversberg's Maurice Krattenmacher, a summer signing from Bayern, scored a stunning equaliser before the champions found a late breakthrough. Goalkeeper Nicolas Kristof praised his side's effort, saying: "We played bravely from the back. We can be proud of how we performed today."
Borussia Dortmund maintained their perfect start alongside Freiburg with a 3-0 win over Paderborn, Fábio Silva and Serhou Guirassy combining effectively before substitute Felix Nmecha added a spectacular late double. RB Leipzig thrashed Hamburg 5-0, with Christopher Nkunku scoring on his return. Bayer Leverkusen salvaged a point at Augsburg through Patrik Schick's late rabona finish, while Schalke ended a long top-flight winless run with victory at Union Berlin, and Werder Bremen's Niclas Füllkrug continued his scoring form in a draw at Cologne.
Based on reporting from The Guardian.