Harnessing the spirit of Augsburg as we move into a new week

The 05ers completed their only open training session of the week late on Tuesday morning. FSV will then focus on fine-tuning from Wednesday onwards as part of their preparations for the game away at Bayer 04 Leverkusen on Friday evening (20:30 CET).

After an intense 75 minutes on the grass, the 05ers’ new head coaches immediately flipped the switch as he initially chatted with fans and stewards, before taking care of his media duties. He used this time to underline that he will face an entirely different challenge to the one against Augsburg in his first Bundesliga away game. However, his side are certainly not travelling to the league leaders to marvel at their footballing quality. “We believe in ourselves and I’ve seen bigger surprises in football than us winning on Friday,” Bo Henriksen told the journalists.

Three days after the second win of the season, the approximately 50 fans present were able to see for themselves that there’s still a fire in the team’s belly. Amidst constant feedback from the head coach, who praised the players and corrected things, but was mostly enthusiastic (“I love it”, “What a ball” etc.), the 05ers’ players are already working at an intensity (over 72 hours before kick-off) which will also be required at the BayArena. “The players will be ready. Today’s training session showed that they want to get stuck in and would like to be active rather than passive. The intensity needs to be as high because we need aggression. I hate it when you just hope and wait – you need to believe in your chances,” explained the Dane, who is eagerly looking forward to a “fantastic game”, in which the 05ers want to take the initiative. “They’re a great team, who we have a lot of respect for. We know how they can play if we let them. We will lose if they have 80 percent possession.”

Harnessing the spirit of Augsburg as we go into the next few weeks

Nadiem Amiri explained yesterday that it would in his opinion be pointless to shut up shop against Leverkusen in the hope of coming away unscathed. His boss agrees: “If we go there, have faith in ourselves and stick together, then I’m confident that we’ll be able to get something. That’s our aim. We’re not going there just to defend. We also want to attack. Otherwise, it’ll be just a matter of time before they punish our passiveness. I’m very pleased because the boys showed a side of themselves on Saturday that I liked. This experience, together with our courage, is our most dangerous weapon.” Their first success together should be the basis to start increasing both their confidence and the points tally.

The confidence that Henriksen has brought daily since his arrival seems to have rubbed off onto his players. They are behind him, knowing full well that a difficult path to our aim awaits. But the coach likes a challenge and feels at home in his new place of work after just one week. “I’m lucky. I’m in a fantastic place with a familiar atmosphere. Everyone takes great care of us. We found an apartment in Mainz today and are settling in more and more. Everyone here’s doing their best and is humble. You need that and it’s the perfect foundation.”