Bornauw, Wimmer, Xhaka, Tah, and Xabi all self-critical after seven-goal affair

Frustration was rampant in both the Leverkusen and Wolfsburg camps on Sunday afternoon after what was - from the perspective of the fans - an immensely entertaining football match. Naturally - from the perspective of the players on the pitch - a seven-goal affair doesn't exactly render the week's defensive preparation highly successful. 

“If you score three goals away from home, you have to take at least one point home with you," Bornauw noted in his post-match interview with German broadcaster DAZN, "It's total shit to concede three goals [off set pieces]. Leverkusen are good, but that shouldn't be happening. It's going to be a long bus ride [back]."

"It hurts to score three goals away from home against Leverkusen and still not make it," Wimmer added, "You can see throughout the [current] season that we have a good mentality throughout the team. We are close, but unfortunately close is not good enough. We have to do better." 

Leverkusen midfield talisman Granit Xhaka wasn't exactly pleased either. The Swiss veteran referenced the home loss against Leipzig when conducting his own post-match interview. Xhaka labeled the latest result a "wake-up-call"; a phrase echoed by his teammate Jonathan Tah in the mixed zone and head coach Xabi Alonso at the post match presser. 

"We may have won and that's what counts in the end, but we definitely can't be satisfied with the game," Xhaka noted, "“We conceded three goals against Leipzig and three goals again today. We score four goals, but we can't do that every weekend. That's not enough, we have to know that.”

"We can't defend so naively at home," Xhaka continued, "We're not solid enough on our track-backs. We're not tenacious and we leave too much space for our opponents. We make simple mistakes. We're not compact enough both on and off the ball. Accordingly, there's space." 

"Those were very easy goals,” Xhaka carried on, "and that shouldn't happen at this level. We say that we are a top team, but a top team doesn't concede three goals in 45 minutes. Not conceding [only 24 goals last year] was our strength last season. Now we have nine after five match days. That's not on. We can't keep conceding so many goals.”

"All of [Xhaka's criticisms] are correct," Werkself trainer Xabi Alonso added at the post-match-presser, "totally correct. We don't want that. We must improve on that. It's a clear goal to improve upon our defensive stability. This is was a positive 'wake up call'."

"My players have the responsibility to state what they didn't do well," Xabi continued, "It's something they need to do, and it's not destructive. It's not just about the players either. I know what I personally didn't do well."