Retain our intensity and defend better

A short turnaround this week sees 1. FSV Mainz 05 already back in action on Friday (kick-off 20:30 CEST), where they will have the chance to put the bitter defeat against a 10-man Werder Bremen team behind them and grab their first win of the season. The game away in Augsburg will be Bo Henriksen’s team’s fourth of the league campaign, with around 1,000 travelling fans ready to offer their support. “We have to defend better after the ball has been turned over,” emphasised the Mainz head coach, giving a nod to the missing piece during Sunday’s match and the area of improvement for the next against FCA.

In his press conference, the Mainz head coach spoke about...

...the unusual feeling after Sunday’s defeat: “Of course, we were disappointed, but that is totally normal in football. It’s important that we know what we have to do better and also know what we did well. We had promising spells in both the first and second halves. I know that my team is capable of turning that promise into results and hopefully we can secure the win on Friday.”

...squad updates: “I hope that Andreas Hanche-Olsen is fit again for Friday. He trained today, but we do have good options for the starting line-up besides him.”

...training this week: “We did not open training to the supporters this week, because we needed to change a couple of things tactically. If you had watched our training session then you would have known the starting line-up, so it would not have been the best idea to allow people in. I know my counterpart Jess Thorup very well and he would have been able to recognise our whole game plan if he had watched us train. We always enjoy training in front of the fans, but we had to make an exception this week.”

...the team’s footballing approach: “We have retained more or less the same style of play from last season, since we haven’t changed anything. It is not our priority to dominate the ball and I don’t find possession overly important. I just want to win. I don’t need us to be playing Barcelona-esque football because we aren’t Barcelona. We are Mainz 05 and we know what we need to do in order to win. That is what we showed in the first 60 minutes against Bremen and I also think that we were the better team, but after that we played too centrally. We also spoke about how taking too many risks in the middle of the park can lead to counter-attacking opportunities for the opposition. I hope that we will have learned from that and so will have a good chance of winning in Augsburg. But football is unpredictable. The most important thing is the performance. In some defensive situations we need to be a bit cleverer. However, we play as a team and we can score goals and are good on the ball. We just need to defend better and that was our focus this week.

...the match on Friday and FCA: “I am looking forward to it because I know that the boys are raring to go. They are ready to give everything so that we can win. Augsburg are a good side, who play with high intensity. Against St. Pauli they played with five at the back, so we are not 100% sure which formation they are going to go with. However, Augsburg are not our primary focus, rather that’s our own game, which we hope to be full of intensity and dynamism. I have faith in my team, in every player. I know that we will have a good chance if we can demonstrate the intensity that we showed against Bremen in Augsburg.”