Gomez slams 'naive, youth team' Wolfsburg

Berlin (AFP) – Germany striker Mario Gomez has slammed “naive” Wolfsburg for playing “like a youth team” as their 2-1 home defeat to Augsburg dragged them back towards the Bundesliga’s relegation places.

Inside 12 months, Wolfsburg have gone from beating Cristiano Ronaldo’s Real Madrid 2-0 in the Champions League quarter-finals, eventually losing after defeat in Spain, to their current ranking of 14th in Germany’s top flight — four points from the drop zone.

Rising star Julian Draxler quit for Paris Saint-Germain, both coach Dieter Hecking and sports director Klaus Allofs have been sacked, while Germany winger Andre Schuerrle left for Borussia Dortmund.

Despite taking an early lead through Gomez on Saturday, Wolfsburg crashed to their sixth defeat in ten home games as Augsburg fought back with goals from Halil Altintop and Dominik Kohr.

Wolfsburg, the 2015 German Cup winners, have won just five of their 18 league games this season and their latest display infuriated Gomez.

“We were sedate, arrogant and naive,” fumed Gomez, who joined from Fiorentina at the start of the season.

Having won their previous three league games, Wolfsburg thought they “just had to wag their arses a bit to win a Bundesliga game,” said Gomez.

“We played like a youth team and you don’t win games like that.”

After Gomez’s header, his sixth league goal of the season, gave them a fourth-minute lead, Wolfsburg were punished for a lacklustre display.

Cologne, who battered bottom side Darmstadt 6-1 on Saturday, are their next opponents.

There were loud whistles from Wolfsburg’s fans towards the end of the game and coach Valerien Ismael admitted: “We feel like we beat ourselves.”

“As a team we need to understand what we can do and what our identity is,” added Gomez.

“We had a super mentality in our last three games — which we didn’t have today.”