Nuri Sahin has been a professional footballer for twelve years. It has experienced it all, on multiple occasions evens, highs and lows, championships and fears of relegation. After only one win from the past six matches, the 29 year old emphasised how important it is that the club and Manager stay calm.

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“He isn’t doing voodoo and turning everything upside down. As a player I think that’s the right approach,” said Nuri Sahin about the Manager on the day of the 1-1 draw against APOEL Nikosia and highlighted the importance of Peter Bosz not changes things for the sake of it, but rather staying matter-of-fact in his dealings with the team. “In the part of the game where we kept shooting way off target, he wouldn’t come back beaming at us. It was also critically analytical, held many meetings and showed us ways to improve. That certainly hasn’t changed”.

Regarding the question as to whether the relationship of trust between the team and Manager had been affected, the midfielder assured “not in the slightest. I can say that quite honestly. Of course it’s normal to ask questions like this”.

From the start of preparations, all those involved – Manager as well as players – had emphasised that a new playing style doesn’t come round in a day, and that there will of course be setbacks. “Even when we were winning everything, it wasn’t always completely rosy,” emphasised Sahin. “But we were aware of that. We are continuing developing in all areas and need to improve in all aspects of our game. At the start of the season we were standing just as tall, except nobody was talking about it”.

"Tricky situation with no secret formular"

The experienced pro seems relaxed to his teammates. “We have to help ourselves at the same time and get ourselves out of this situation. There is no secret formula to ease us back into the way we were at the start of the season. Wins will do us a world of good. Then our self-awareness will come back and things will be on the up after that, which will be perfect timing for when we play Bayern. You can really straighten yourself out in such a game. Each and every player can give it their all before the international break. If we win, we will be top of the league again.”

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Nuri Sahin weiß, wie man gegen die Bayern gewinnt.

 "The Momentum is on Bayern's side"

Naturally he understands the difficulty that lies ahead. “The momentum is clearly on Bayern’s side. To claim otherwise would be ridiculous,” said the 29 year old. “Yet past matches have shown that against Bayern – especially at home – can produce open matches and I hope this time around will lead to a better end result for us”.

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Oktober 2010: Nuri Sahin verwandelt ein Freistoß gegen Bayern München.

Regarding the question of how to beat the champions, Sahin had a rapid response: “Be courageous! Anyone that has played courageously against Bayern has either fallen flat on their face – or won”.

Boris Rupert