“Defend actively and find space!”
It wasn’t just the Hertha squad, but also their coach Sandro Schwarz who has looked in an upbeat, but focussed attitude since training got underway on Tuesday this week. At Thursday’s press conference, Schwarz allowed a brief laugh before looking forward with concentration on his face – representing the mood around the squad following their first win of the season – to go on and get even more points on the board. “We want to our opponents to remember that it can be difficult to play against us,” our coach explained before the clash with Bayer 04 Leverkusen on Saturday (15:30 CEST). Increased competition in the squad (“It’s important how the boys deal with their roles going into the game”) and resilience (“My perception of my squad is that they don’t get overwhelmed by individual phases of the match. That’s a good sign, and it gives us strength and awareness to stay in our game”) were two themes that Schwarz emphasised ahead of Leverkusen, who are in this season’s Champions League. The head coach discussed...
...what’s being worked on in training this week:
Sandro Schwarz: We’ve broken into down into the points we needed to address. Primarily is how we play out of possession, but we’ve also focussed on finishing and set pieces. This week of training is shorter than a regular week, but we’ve managed to cover everything. At the same time, it remains true that we need to be good on the ball and play cleanly away, create more chances for ourselves and finish with precision.
… Bayer 04 Leverkusen:
Sandro Schwarz: We can’t allow ourselves to be blinded by Leverkusen’s results. We know that their squad has a lot of individual quality and a lot of pace. They’ve got a lot of class up front, especially down the wings. For us it will be important to defend actively. Furthermore, we’ve got to find space in our positional play and in transition. We want to our opponents to remember that it can be difficult to play against us. Leverkusen have used different set-ups in their last few games, so we will need to adjust to that – that’s the challenge on Saturday.
...the team’s resilience:
Sandro Schwarz: In Braunschweig we came back from behind, against Union it was not so good. In Mönchengladbach, however, we were very resilient and came very close to getting a result despite being down to ten. My perception of my squad is that they don’t get overwhelmed by individual phases of the match. That’s a good sign, and it gives us strength and awareness to stay in our game.
...the rising competition within the squad:
Sandro Schwarz: It’s important how the boys deal with their roles going into the game, which is also something I told them on Monday. If they don’t start the game, they need to be ready as soon as they are subbed on. That’s an important factor for a group of players, and it’s something Davie Selke, Marco Richter and Márton Dárda did well in Augsburg. There is competition without the squad, and Jessic Ngankam is back and it’s good to see him healthy and working actively on the pitch.
… Lucas Tousart:
Sandro Schwarz: Lucas is rightly praised. I see him working very diligently in training and in matches. He gives absolutely everything he has, week after week. He is always extremely ready to run and tackle. Lucas is in very good shape and has a personality that allows him to leave nothing on the pitch, which he has done very well in the past few weeks.