Hoffenheim coach Markus Babbel blamed "naive" defending after watching his side allow their former striker Vedad Ibisevic the room to score twice and help Stuttgart to a 2-1 win in their Baden-Wurttemberg derby last night.

Ibisevic left Hoffenheim less than two months ago to join Stuttgart and he came back to punish them with both goals at the Rhein-Neckar Arena, only this time, few were celebrating in the Sinsheim stadium.

"I think the team which was more naive lost today," said Babbel afterwards. "We let Ibisevic have the room he needed to score goals."

Both Stuttgart goals came in the first half, after which Babbel tried to put things right in the interval.

We only have 30 points and that is not enough to stay up with.
Markus Babbel, Hoffenheim coach

After seeing his side go down 7-1 at Bayern Munich last weekend, he was at least pleased with their reaction in the second 45 minutes. "At half time, I told them that we can lose, but not like this," said Babbel at the post-match press conference.

"I said we need to go out onto the field and get something out of it because we owe it to the fans, and we did that very well in the second half.

"But we shouldn't have done that only in the second half. We have a fantastic stadium, fantastic fans and a great team and you would presume we would win here more often, but we are struggling."

And Babbel admits he is now worried about his side's Bundesliga future. He told Sky: "We only have 30 points and that is not enough to stay up with."