News
Edin Terzic: "The start of the second block was good"
Edin Terzic on the first match:
"It was a match that you have to separate into the first and the second 60 minutes. We settled into the match well in the opening minutes but then lost a lot of simple balls and had to defend against a very high number of counters. We didn't like that at all. But the first 30 minutes of the second block in particular were really good. You could then see the energy with which we wanted to open up the spaces and how we supported each other. We had good pressing moments, won a lot of balls back in the counter-press and were able to turn the game around quickly. But we of course wanted to win in the end and we're not satisfied with the result."
…the starting line-up at kick-off:
"There's nothing to read into. We're using these two friendlies and the few days that we have to rehearse several things and consolidate a few things. What's important is that everyone is involved. We frequently had to make up for personnel shortages in the first half-season. We travelled with a large group of 28 outfield players. Now it's a case of giving every individual here the opportunity to prepare for what lies ahead of us in the Bundesliga starting from next week. But the remainder of January will also give us plenty of time to fine-tune things in training."
…Mateu Morey:
"Mateu played a really great game. You couldn't tell that there were almost two years between his most recent appearances and the one today. He's consistently fought hard in recent months on his journey back, so we have to be a bit careful with him. The aim was to have him on the pitch for 45 minutes. He played outstandingly well. This was one of the good stories. Today was the fifth day since we started up again. We deliberately raised the intensity and wanted to send the lads into the game today with a level of pre-fatigue that would provide some resistance but allow them to play a good game. To have Mateu and three 17-year-olds on the pitch at the end, and seven players from the youth academy in total, was really good today."
…the injured duo of Guille Bueno and Nico Schlotterbeck:
"Bueno signalled that he could not continue. We didn't want to take any risks with him and took him off. Schlotti suffered two knocks in different places, but he grit his teeth and carried on. We're assuming it won't result in any time on the sidelines."
…Schlotterbeck as a left-back:
"Nico is very confident on the ball. He had some good moments today when it came to accelerating the game and was always able to drive forward. He has a great sense of space. He played two or three very good low diagonal balls into the half-channels. That's what we want from our left-back."
…the next week of training:
"When we come back from Marbella, we will also work on the topic of freshness. We still have major issues to address, particularly in terms of comfort on the ball. We tried to readjust a few things today in terms of pressing and counter-pressing. But we also want to further consolidate the processes that we've worked on in possession of the ball and bring even more confidence and dominance into our game. We will use the next few days in Marbella to do this."
…the newly assembled coaching team:
"The first days have been outstanding. In Sebastian Geppert, we have an assistant coach with whom I've already been working a long time. Not much has changed there. In Sven Bender and Nuri Sahin, two boys have joined us who should help us to make decisions. In modern football, an extremely high number of games have been added in. The requirements and challenges for coaches are becoming ever greater. The size of the squad is getting ever larger. You need strong supporters. In the course of recent years, I have done a lot of thinking and communicated with many experienced and successful coaches. Then I considered what strong characters I could have by my side to support me in not only bringing the right ideas into the team but also making the right decisions in a very short period of time. The three of them do that extremely well in different ways. I want them to be in front of the team, to lead training and to be active in the meeting room in order to make us better together. If we get better as a coaching team, we'll also manage to work our way up to our full potential as a group bit by bit."
…the division of responsibilities:
"All four of us work in the tactical realm. There is nothing that one of us does exclusively. But of course we have a focus on certain areas. Sebastian Geppert's role has changed the least, because Geppi is responsible for preparing for our opponents. Nuri is supposed to focus on our offensive processes and our play with the ball. And with Sven, it's the other way round: he's the one who's supposed to stabilise our defence. My job is to closely coordinate and use this information to make the right decisions on match day."
Transcribed by von Christina Reinke