Cast aside by Germany, Timo Werner is taking the high road with Leipzig
The forward – so often a target of hostility from opposing fans – wasn’t the lightning rod, even if he applied the full stop
When you picture breaking a drought and scoring a first Bundesliga goal for more than five months, you almost certainly don’t picture this. Barren runs are rarely broken by moments of supreme confidence and swagger and if Timo Werner required the proverbial one that trickled in after hitting him on the backside, he didn’t get it.
Found by a typically surgical Xavi Simons pass, he skated around Moritz Nicolas, but the goalkeeper’s half-hand on the ball would have been enough to put many an attacker off. Not Werner. He composed himself in the blink of an eye and smashed into the net from an unforgiving angle.
That, as the only goal of the game, was enough for Leipzig to take victory at Borussia Mönchengladbach, not always a happy hunting ground for Marco Rose’s team. After 736 goalless minutes stretching back into spring, Werner must have longed for this moment, but there was no explosion of joy, anger or … anything. There was just a little patting down of the right hand to indicate calm and, with the 27-year-old opting out of media interviews for the moment, no further explanation. “I think he’s extremely happy inside,” suggested teammate Kevin Kampl.
Werner’s demeanour suggested that this was just a moment, not a denouement. Having been cast aside – for now at least – by the national team with Euro 2024 on the horizon and his status at Leipzig challenged, he is taking the high road. After starting a fifth successive game on the bench, there was perhaps no other way. “It’s not an easy situation for him,” said Rose after Saturday’s game, “but it’s important that he accepts it.” Words which, chosen carefully, suggest Werner is right to be circumspect. He is still in the foothills of the mountain.
Brought back from Chelsea last year to eventually (re)take over from Christopher Nkunku – who has coincidentally moved in the opposite direction – the club’s record goalscorer has not quite shone as before. Partly because of the dented confidence he brought back from Stamford Bridge, but partly because Leipzig have changed. This summer’s unplanned rebuild has worked against him too. Leipzig have been run this season by Simons and the burgeoning talent of Loïs Openda. If Dani Olmo wasn’t currently out injured, he would be in the creative mix too. Benjamin Šeško is chipping in with goals too, and Christoph Baumgartner will be up to speed soon.
It doesn’t leave much room for Werner but they needed him here, and he delivered. Yet for once the forward – so often the target of hostility from opposing fans since leaving hometown club Stuttgart for Leipzig in 2016 – wasn’t the lightning rod, even if he was the one to apply a full stop to the discussion.
Max Eberl, the club’s sporting director, was returning to Gladbach for the first time since leaving last year after almost 23 years of continuous service as player and director. Eberl, who turned 50 last week, described “nerves” at going back to Borussia-Park, though he emphasised those “dissipated relatively quickly because I received a lot of positive feedback. A lot of people thanked me and were happy to see me again.” Yet the club itself, which he left for health reasons, was never the issue. The fans’ reaction to his departure, and particularly to his subsequent arrival at Leipzig (the home ultras were silent for the first 20 minutes here in an anti-Red Bull protest) was always what made things awkward for Eberl. He was heckled when he took his seat and a particularly distasteful banner, depicting him as a pig with a sick note in his hand, was unfurled in the Nord Kurve.
Eberl shouldn’t have had to go through that. But he, and Leipzig, showed they are heading into a new era, one in which they can be tough as well as stylish. For now Werner has come to represent that, even if it a role he doesn’t want to be stuck with for long.
