Mats Hummels angered by Borussia Dortmund’s ‘unforgivable’ defensive errors in defeat to Union Berlin

Borussia Dortmund suffered a 2-1 defeat to Union Berlin on Friday, and Mats Hummels was not happy with the defensive efforts of the team, especially during set-pieces.

Borussia Dortmund endured more set-piece troubles on Friday as they conceded two goals from corners, allowing Union Berlin to earn a famous 2-1 win. And defender Mats Hummels was critical of the Black and Yellows’ defending from set-pieces, criticising his team-mates for losing track of the two Union Berlin goal-scorers.

Hummels was visibly frustrated after the defeat and he was caught smashing the advertising board just before his post-match interview.

"“When you give away a game on set pieces again, it also says something about how badly you want to win.” Hummels said. This is a disaster. We can’t make it this easy for the opponent.”"

While Hummels refused to put blame on any specific players for the poor defending, he did give a detailed analysis of his thoughts on the two Union Berlin goals. It was Gio Reyna who lost sight of Taiwo Awoniyi, allowing him with ample space to head home past Roman Bürki. Then before the second goal, both Emre Can and Manuel Akanji turned their attentions to Robin Knoche, leaving Marvin Friedrich with a free header from 12 yards out. The centre-back made no mistake, scoring his fourth goal of the season to consign the Black and Yellows to a shock defeat.

"“Sometimes these flicked-on corners cannot be defended at the near post, and then you have to track your man on the second post,” Hummels said in his analysis of the first goal.“We had a clear man-marking system in place and yet their strongest aerial threat was left wide open with ten metres of space. For me, it is inconceivable how that can happen. We’re doing the damage to ourselves.”"

Borussia Dortmund’s set-piece woes against Union Berlin came just three weeks after their 2-1 defeat to FC Köln, where they also conceded two goals from corners. Head coach Edin Terzic was also far from pleased with his side’s defending against Union Berlin. He said that they had plans in place to deal with Union Berlin’s threat from corners. But his team simply wasn’t able to execute them.

"“We lost the game because of the set-pieces, but obviously lots of other things weren’t good either. The corners were then obviously taken well and they capitalised with their physicality, but we pointed this out again at lunchtime today. We had big plans but put them into practice far too rarely.”"

The defeat leaves Borussia Dortmund in fourth place in the Bundesliga standings going into the winter break.