The Bundesliga serves up another round of exciting matches this weekend and the eighteen trainers have been giving their pre-match thoughts ahead of what promises to be another fascinating matchday. Here you’ll find all the key thoughts ahead of matchday 24.
Freiburg v Bayern Munich
Christian Streich: “It is now about the boys recovering. Not training too much. I hardly took any video of Augsburg. I think it will look different tomorrow because we had two more days. Bayern are always considered to be in trouble when they have lost a game. And if they lose more than one game, the world ends. But they won the last one, against Leipzig.
“Bayern come here and will try at all costs to win the game. As always, we do everything we can to make it as difficult for them as possible. And that we find moments for ourselves. This is only possible through exceptionally good performance. We assume that Bayern will be strong. Then we just have to be very strong to stand up to them. I trust the boys to do that.”
Thomas Tuchel: “It’s been a good week. A win always helps everyone, particularly a last-minute win. It’s given us confidence and a positive general feeling. We’ve had a good week, the messaging hasn’t changed much. We’re carrying on. Tomorrow it’s about being ready. The focus is more than ever on the here and now.
“They’re [Freiburg] very flexible, very variable and do a lot of running. They carry the ball well down the right with Doan. Grifo on the left tries to be a threat with crosses from deep. They also use long balls with up to seven attacking players. We need answers and that’s what we’ll prepare the team for. It’s always passionate in Freiburg, too.
“There’s not less pressure – the pressure comes from within, which I do myself. You know you’re working at the highest level. I expect myself to stand up to that. It’s about the here and now, training and the meeting are the next steps. Of course we try to win every game and achieve our goals. We know our situation in the Bundesliga and in the Champions League. We have to give it our all tomorrow and deliver. That’s where all our energy has to go.”
Union Berlin v Borussia Dortmund
Nenad Bjelica: “Dortmund are one of the top teams in the league and are strong both offensively and defensively. But we think we have a chance because we know that we can beat anyone at home. We are counting on our fans and are looking forward to this game in a sold-out stadium.”
Edin Terzic: “We weren’t happy with the games against Wolfsburg, PSV and Hoffenheim. We turned the game around against Hoffenheim, but then dropped down a gear. We don’t want that. We want to generate momentum. We discussed that again this week and we want to do better at the weekend.
“Now it’s about getting the next wins ourselves by keeping a clear head with the things we analyse, staying sharp in the things we train and staying calm and confident in the things we do.”
Mainz v Borussia Mönchengladbach
Bo Henriksen: “We’re only thinking about winning this game. We’re not thinking about anything else because that would be completely the wrong approach. It’s also about the mentality. That’s what we’re here for. However, we’re building on a foundation that has been developed over many years. We’ve got everything we need, so there are no excuses in this regard.
“Responding to an early setback like we did [against Leverkusen] is something that we can take from this game. This strengthens the belief that anything is possible, as well as the trust in each other. You can see footballers’ quality when they’ve got a clear head and follow their instinct because the bigger picture looks good.
“They’re a good team – they score lots of goals, but also concede a fair amount. We know exactly how they want to play and we’ve been focused on them for five days. It’s always predominantly about what we can do better. If we focus on ourselves, then I’m convinced that we’ll put in a good performance. Too much thinking can have a debilitative effect – the boys should go out there, leave their heart out on the pitch, thrill the fans and have fun together. I’m looking forward to the stadium being full and I’m sure that this will help us to get a positive result.”
Gerardo Seoane: “We also want to show the energy and emotion that we had against Bochum in Mainz. We want to continue in this direction – trying to win possession back, counter attacking quickly, immediately chasing down the ball when we lose it and making up for our teammates’ mistakes. We would preferably like to show this basic attitude in all of the remaining games.
“Due to the last two games, we’ve got a clear picture of what awaits us on Saturday. The way Mainz play football has changed under the new head coach. They play with a lot of energy and press aggressively at home. If you take the last two games as a benchmark, then our task certainly hasn’t become any easier.
“This game is just like any other. You always try to find the right words to describe your next opponents. Mainz are going to play with grit and aggression. We’ve got to make sure that we play at the same level and seize the initiative in order to create problems for them.
VfL Bochum v RB Leipzig
Thomas Letsch: “The roles are clearly assigned. We have to give it our all again, like we did against Bayern. We were bad in Gladbach, the gaps were too big. We analysed the game. The training week was very good, there was fire in it.
“Football doesn’t work without the luck factor. But you also have to earn luck. There were two penalties in the first leg, but we didn’t give them many other opportunities. The point was important for us.
Marco Rose: “Coach Thomas Letsch has a clear idea for the game, which he conveyed brilliantly. In the first half of the season they threw their basic idea overboard and did it completely differently. But they quickly found their way back to where they felt comfortable.
“A very strong home team awaits us tomorrow and they will play very aggressively. They have scored points at home in eight games. They will try to put us under pressure in a very man-oriented way. Games there are always very wild, VfL also scored a few goals in the last quarter of an hour.
“Bochum always wants to get into the final third clearly and purposefully. We’re preparing for that, we want to win the game tomorrow.”
Heidenheim v Eintracht Frankfurt
Frank Schmidt: “We are promoted, if you see what Frankfurt has invested in the squad, it is clear that we are of course not going into this game as favourites. On the other hand, they have recently conceded a relatively large number of set-piece goals and have offered the opponent something in transition situations.”
Dino Toppmöller: “We need physical presence but we also want to play well with the ball. We need better structure and forward play to create more goalscoring opportunities – that’s our plan. We’ll try and hold our own from the first minute, focus on our game and want to finally pick up three points again.
“We know what 1. FC Heidenheim are capable of and are aware of their strengths. They’re a team who are good in transition, very dangerous at set pieces, play passionate football and defend with passion too. Heidenheim are a team who let the opposition have the ball, which makes sense because their transitions are really good. It’ll be up to us to make good decisions and be structured in our approach in order to nip those counterattacks in the bud.”
Darmstadt v Augsburg
Torsten Lieberknecht: “This game will include everything. Tactics will of course play a role. For the first time in a long time we face an opponent who will probably play with a diamond. Accordingly, there are tactical considerations as to how we should act against them. We also prepared for a lot of aerial duels on defence.
“We have to act quickly to collect the first and second balls. We want to find solutions with the ball to put the opponent in trouble. The intensity and toughness of duels are always high in the Bundesliga. That will also be the case against Augsburg.”
Jess Thorup: “We have to build on our performance against Freiburg, then three points are also possible in Darmstadt! We know what awaits us in Darmstadt but we are primarily looking out for ourselves. We want to play our game in Darmstadt.”
VfL Wolfsburg v VfB Stuttgart
Niko Kovac: “Mattias Svanberg strained his calf while warming up in the game against Frankfurt. He sat out this week and it won’t be enough for Stuttgart. Tiago Tomas already trained last week and is now in the second week. He absolutely has a chance of getting into the squad.”
Sebastian Hoeneß: “Wolfsburg have an experienced coach in Niko Kovac. They have a lot of quality in the squad and recently played on equal terms against the top teams in the league in the games against Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt. And they showed that they are highly motivated to achieve their goals. We have to play to our limit on Saturday in order to survive in Wolfsburg.
“Atakan Karazor and Deniz Undav have signalled that they can play in Wolfsburg. We are still waiting for Alex Nübel’s final training, but we are confident that he can also be there.”
Köln v Bayer Leverkusen (Sunday)
To follow…
Hoffenheim v Werder Bremen (Sunday)
To follow…
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