05ers in Marbella: Digging deep

The head coach really upped the ante for Mainz 05’s players on the second day of their winter training camp. After the low-intensity, late session on Tuesday afternoon, making aggressive runs from deep, counterattacking and improving their shooting were on the agenda for the 05ers on Wednesday morning.

Siewert analysed the club’s games so far this season with his coaching staff, who collectively concluded that the defence has looked solid when pressing in all areas of the pitch. Although they perhaps still lack the necessary intensity when pressing the opposition, the number of goals Mainz have conceded has now decreased dramatically. In the attacking department, the 05ers have been creating more opportunities, but haven’t been clinical enough in front of goal to add to their tally of 13 goals this season.

Direct build-up play

“We’ve been spreading the play too much and need to be more direct when going forward. Teams in the Bundesliga don’t tend to lose their compactness and shape very often. We need to make this happen more frequently by making runs in behind, which is what we practiced today,” explained Siewert after the afternoon session. “We want to use our runs in behind to create pressure down the middle, on the diagonals, and down the wings. At the end of the day, it comes down to the players making the right decisions on the pitch. I’m convinced that, by practicing this in a more confined space in training, we’ll be able to transfer it onto the full-size pitch.”

The 05ers have been practicing exactly that in the hot Spanish sun: Two teams aimed to keep possession on a narrow pitch, pressing and gegenpressing with intensity in a confined space and aiming to score in one of two goals, with the option for one of the teams to play a cut back into a third net at the edge of the box. The drill was also intense for head coach Jan Siewert, who followed the teams' movements. The head coach directed from the sidelines, interrupted play to explain to his players what he wanted to see, before applauding them and praising their performances.

“I enjoyed seeing that today”

“There was definitely determination and intensity on show in the session. It’s important that we make these runs and provide options, even if we don’t get the ball from them, as they’ll stretch the opposition. I enjoyed seeing our strikers’ play with intensity and desire when they were driving into the box in order to score goals today.”