"Find simple solutions and play forward directly"

Sandro Schwarz has contested a total of twelve games against FC Augsburg as a coach and a player – Frankfurt are the only team that he has also taken on this many times. But, the head coach isn’t just looking to this wealth of experience for the 13th clash; instead, the 44-year-old and his coaching team are fully focussed on the here and now. The Blue-Whites want to show determination and put in a convincing performance to pick up a crucial three points at home on Saturday (25.02.23, 15:30 CET). “We should set ourselves up for a competitive game against a well-organised and aggressive opponent. To do that, we will have to find simple solutions, play forward directly and defend aggressively ourselves,” explained Schwarz in his press conference before the game and was pleased about the support from Hertha fans. “Recently, the fans kept spurring us on sensationally. We need this atmosphere and we want to give something back to the fans for it,” underlined the head coach. herthabsc.com have summaried the key points from the head coach on…

Schwarz: We should set ourselves up for a competitive game against a well-organised and aggressive opponent. To do that, we will have to find simple solutions, play forward directly and defend aggressively ourselves. Second balls will also be an important area! These are the key points in our analysis.

Schwarz: It is an important game, no question. Nevertheless, there are only three points for a win. I am not a fan of terms like favourite and underdog – the three points should always be your aim, not excluding any games from that. We are concentrating on our performance. We have already shown that we can perform well in so-called high pressure games. Continuing to do this is important. Games like the one against Mönchengladbach, the second half in Frankfurt or the performance in Dortmund are the benchmark.

Schwarz: Florian Niederlechner works really hard in training, has good physicality, also out of possession and almost got his first goal against Mönchengladbach and in Dortmund. Dodi Lukébakio with his runs from deep is a completely different type of player, Derry Scherhant is also doing well – we have a lot of options and are keeping them open. The lads up-top are working a lot on our pressing, which we need and it is also good to be able to thrown on fresh legs near the end. I unfortunately still can’t say how long Wilfried Kanga will be out for. We can at least give him things to do from an athletic perspective and he has not lost much fitness, but he has problems with the ball at his feet.

Schwarz: We want to win the game in front of our fans playing our football. Recently against Mönchengladbach, the fans kept spurring us on sensationally and also reacted very well to going behind. We need this atmosphere and want to give something back to the fans for it and are doing everything we can to make sure that everyone goes home happy after the game.