Champions Bayer Leverkusen did not want to use the phrase arrogance when confronted with their latest Bundesliga setback in the form of a 2-2 draw with lowly Holstein Kiel.
Leverkusen squandered a 2-0 lead for the third time in six league matches on Saturday, two of their three season victories have come in stoppage time, and they have already conceded 12 goals in the period.
"I wouldn't say arrogance but a little bit of complacency," coach Xabi Alonso said of the game which was his 100th in charge two years on the day after his arrival.
Goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky said: "This lightness and ease radiated something other than seriousness - and that has to end."
Daily Süddeutsche Zeitung meanwhile said on Sunday: "Was the way the game went idiocy? Arrogance? No, it was football in all of its inscrutability."
Soft control not enough
Leverkusen were two up within eight minutes from Victor Boniface and Jonas Hofmann, and utterly dominant.
But they failed to continue scoring, Boniface had a third disallowed for offside, and Kiel were back in the game from Max Gschwill on the stroke of half-time before Fiete Arp gave the visitors a very unexpected draw.
"We only had soft control with no aggressiveness. We had a chance to kill the match. The first Kiel goal was then a signal. The second half was a result of the dropped intensity," Alonso said.
"We didn't play intelligent after the quick lead. You have to continue with the same determination. We have to learn from it."
Hradecky also said that "we left the patient [Kiel] alive" in the first half and added that 12 shipped goals in six matches was "crazy" and must stop.
Another tough game after Champions League
Alonso suggested that "we didn't have the mentality after the Champions League" as Leverkusen struggled again after mid-week European action.
Last month they edged Wolfsburg 4-3 late on after winning 4-0 at Feyennoord, and the Kiel game was preceded by a 1-0 success over AC Milan.
The Milan win, as well as the 1-1 Bundesliga draw at leaders Bayern Munich a week ago, showed that work on defensive aspects after the Wolfsburg match paid off, at least for two matches.
"It doesn't matter if we're playing against AC Milan, Bayern or Kiel, we have to play the same way if we want to win. We should have won here today regardless of the performance," Hradecky said.
Little time due to international break
Alonso will now have little time to work more on defence and stability because many players are leaving for their national teams in the international break, and they then face in-form Eintracht Frankfurt in a fortnight.
Other teams will also have taken notice that Leverkusen have already dropped seven points after leading this season while they didn't drop any in the past term en route to their historic unbeaten title.
"We have to learn from it. Yes, we don't have much time. But we have to keep learning." Alonso said.
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