Three days after the win at St. Pauli, the 05ers started their new week of training on Tuesday morning. With almost half of the squad away on international duty, the remaining players, along with some reinforcements from the U19s and U23s, worked up a sweat on the training pitch at the Bruchwegstadion. Jonny Burkardt’s nomination for the Germany national team had left head coach Bo Henriksen feeling particularly proud. “Jonny is an outstanding player. I get goosebumps talking about this because I know that it has always been his dream to be nominated for the German national team,” said Henriksen about Burkardt’s call-up, which he was personally informed about in advance by Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann. “He has truly earned it through his incredible talent for one as well as his willingness to work on himself every day to improve.” The nomination is not only a huge honour for the home-grown player himself, but “it’s also a very big thing for the club, of course. It shows that even as a Mainz player you can make the national team if you perform well,” said a very happy head coach.
Clean sheet in Hamburg
The Dane also spoke about his satisfaction regarding the recent away win. In addition to the convincing attacking performance, the head coach also emphasised the impressive performance from the back line. “It was very important for to get that first clean sheet of the season. In the second half, we didn’t offer St. Pauli any further chances on goal. We defended well, which gives us a lot of confidence,” explained the Dane with regard to the match at the weekend.
Heavy rotation in the defence
However, Henriksen will once again be forced to change the FSV defence for the next match against Leipzig on 19th October (kick-off 15:30 CEST), after Dominik Kohr picked up a fifth yellow card of the season in the St. Pauli match, meaning he will be suspended. “Of course it’s a difficulty and a frustration having to change the back three so often. We’ve had to go with a different defensive line-up in each of our six Bundesliga games so far, including with some players who joined us very late in the transfer window and had to get used to how we want to defend,” explained Henriksen.
The primary cause of the lack of continuity in defence has been due to players getting sent off and therefore suspended. “I don’t see it as a problem if players are cautioned, that’s part of football. But getting two yellow cards in a game is not a good thing,’ said the head coach, reflecting on the events of the first few weeks of the season. “We were down a player for around 60 minutes both in Augsburg and against Heidenheim, and we have to avoid that at all costs in future.”
On Wednesday evening (kick-off 18:00 CEST at the FSG Partenheim/Jugenheim Sportplatz in Wiesenweg), FSV will play a charity match against a team comprised of players from the region with the aim of collecting donations for 7-year-old Liam Brummer, who has been diagnosed with a brain tumour. From Thursday onwards, the coach will then allow his team to use the time until Sunday at their disposal, with each being provided with an individual training plan. Team training will then recommence next Monday afternoon at 15:30 CEST, and will be open to the public.