Rose faces thorny spell at Leipzig as Berlin blank follows European exit | Andy Brassell

Champions League return is far from secure for a side that was fortunate to escape Union match with a point. Sometimes it’s best to live in relative ignorance in order to keep your eyes on the prize. To focus, to shut out the outside noise, to not be distracted. Marco Rose doesn’t function like that. “I take full responsibility for that first half,” the RB Leipzig coach said bluntly after Saturday’s uninspiring goalless draw at Union Berlin. Part of that demeanour is nurture is much as it is nature. Rose was born in Leipzig, yes, but more crucially had six years in the Red Bull organisation at Salzburg, from taking charge of the under-16s to the first team, before building his Bundesliga career at Borussias Mönchengladbach and Dortmund. He knows what the drill is. Ambition is total and there are clear consequences for falling short.

This week has underlined exactly how short Leipzig are of where they want to be, and how desperate they are to get there. Finally sealing the permanent signing of Xavi Simons this week for a fee that could rise to €80m (£66m) underlined the aims but what might have escaped the notice in recent days, especially among the merry chaos of the last night of the Champions League group stage, is that Leipzig ended their miserable European campaign by going down by a single goal at Sturm Graz (“a disgrace” was how Bild described it), in one of the dead rubbers. It might not have meant anything to the final count but it meant something to Leipzig. Last year they were thoroughly examining Real Madrid in the first knockout round. This time, having lost all their games but one, they will be watching it at home on television.

So it is on fields like Köpenick rather than Chamartín that the immediate future will be shaped. That will be clear in the coming weeks; with the DfB Pokal already gone and the next three opponents “unpleasant” ones in the words of captain Willi Orban, in St Pauli, Augsburg and Heidenheim. The influential David Raum’s memorable recent line that he hoped to inspire his teammates to play “scumbag football” was aimed at disrupting the likes of Leverkusen and Bayern rather than going toe-to-toe with the earthier teams in the division.

Because results must come, with a return to the Champions League far from secure, but so must style and intent. Simons staying for a club record fee underlines the ambition, and how the parameters of the project have subtly but most definitely shifted, a move first clear with the signing of Loïs Openda in summer 2023. These are not signings made in the name of development, or with the aim of standing still. The extra time on the training field afforded to Leipzig in the coming weeks by that shambolic Champions League group stage – more time to plan than Bayern, Leverkusen of Dortmund will be able to count on, for example – means ironing out the creases in their game is an obligation rather than a preference.

In Berlin a front two of Benjamin Sesko and Openda were ably supported by Simons and Christoph Baumgartner but created little. Simons hit the outside of the post after a limpid first-half movement but there was little of mention in terms of clear-cut opportunities. Union had three times as many efforts on goal. It could have been worse even, with Peter Gulacsi fumbling a set-piece delivery in stoppage time in front of Union substitutes Theoson-Jordan Siebatcheu and Lucas Tousart, but just about getting away with it.

Rose is Leipzig’s longest serving top-flight coach having been appointed in September 2022, regathering himself after his chastening experience at Dortmund. So he is prepared, you suspect, for it to happen again at some point. Making the top four again is the bare minimum but the way in which Leipzig achieve it will dictate whether the coach continues his mission or not – as he well knows. Sign up to Football Daily.

Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football. after newsletter promotion. Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 Hoffenheim, Bayern Munich 4-3 Holstein Kiel, Bochum 0-1 Freiburg, Eintracht Frankfurt 1-1 Wolfsburg, Heidenheim 1-2 Borussia Dortmund, St Pauli 1-1 Augsburg, Stuttgart 1-2 Borussia Mönchengladbach, Union Berlin 0-0 RB Leipzig, Werder Bremen 1-0 Mainz. It was all about Harry Kane in his 50th Bundesliga appearance for Bayern, scoring twice against Holstein Kiel to give the leaders a win and take his league goal tally to an astonishing 55. Or it should have been all about Kane; his landmark was almost overshadowed by an erratic closing chapter to the game in which Vincent Kompany’s time fluctuated from leading 4-0 to being pegged back at 4-3 in stoppage time. The former Schalke man Steven Skrzybski’s brace came too late to put Bayern in genuine danger of seeing their six-point lead over Bayer Leverkusen diminished but irritated Kompany and made clear that their poise could be affected by the upcoming involvement in the Champions League playoff with Celtic, the two legs either side of the crucial visit to the reigning champions in the league.