“Düsseldorf has a high individual quality”

This morning, I met Uwe Kuhl in the hallway, who scored a goal in our last victory in Düsseldorf’s in 1988. And I asked him how to win in Düsseldorf. It doesn’t seem to be an easy place for the Lilies, traditionally, and winning there will be a tough task again on Sunday. But of course, it’s also a task we want to and will face.

Düsseldorf has recently hit their stride; they haven’t lost in four matches, including the cup game, and have collected seven points. They’re very difficult to predict systematically, having frequently changed their system, even within matches. So, we don’t know exactly what to expect systematically. However, we do know that they’ve acquired some absolutely top players in the transfer market and have expressed their ambitions for promotion. Accordingly, their goal is to beat us on Sunday and close the gap to us in terms of points. Perhaps we can turn this situation to our advantage.

Set pieces will be a decisive factor in this game. I’m sure of it. Düsseldorf conceded goals from set pieces when they were outnumbered against Bielefeld, which doesn’t make their statistics look so good. But they’re a team that’s very strong at set pieces and have strong aerial players. I don’t see any size advantages for us there. We’ve also been practicing set pieces this week, of course, and had a very lively session. We’re very careful defensively, and for us, it was especially about how we defend set pieces.

It’s clear that Düsseldorf has a high level of individual quality, especially Muslija, and both strikers are exceptional players for this league. Muslija is a superb one-on-one player, and he also takes good set pieces. Both forwards up front have a lot of power and are good finishers in the box. Appelkamp will be out injured, but otherwise he’s also outstanding. I think El Azzouzi is very good, and then there’s Oberdorf, who’s always good for a goal from a set piece. We have to be very vigilant there. In addition, we have Kastenmeier, a goalkeeper with a very long shot and a great ability to play balls and intercepts behind the back lines.

In my opinion, the total running distance, in particular, is meaningless. First, you have to consider the data you’re looking at. The publicly available data is rarely reviewed and isn’t subsequently corrected. We work with other data. It’s also important to note that Greuther Fürth ranks 18th in this statistic. However, they played with a man down for 95 minutes against Kaiserslautern, which is obviously difficult to catch up with.

It also depends on the positions on the field. For example, a team with a high total running distance probably doesn’t play with three standing central defenders. Therefore, the question always remains: How is this data generated?

Of course, you can’t not run at all. But what’s more important is that you run intensely. And when. If you run intensely against the ball, that suggests that the team is often chasing the ball. We usually have a lot of possession, so for me it’s more about what our sprint distance with the ball is like? How intense are our runs with the ball? And how do we attack the opponent? If we had an extremely high number of sprint meters against the ball, then that would be a sign to me that we need to work tactically on not being outplayed. Overall, it’s a pretty complex issue. Just saying: ‚They need to run more.‘ It’s not that simple.

We are relatively controlling through possession, and we want to build momentum from this control. That’s why it’s all about sprint metres, repeated sprints, and intense runs. We’re not finished with that yet, of course, but we’re good in the areas where we want to be.