„Great respect, but we are full of confidence.“

It’s a remarkable effect Uwe Rösler has achieved in Bochum – in terms of points, but also regarding the team’s style of play. VfL Bochum has a good mix of experience and youth. Their style is clearly focused on counter-attacks and set pieces. Furthermore, you can’t forget their early crosses and their aggressive box coverage, sometimes with up to six players. Bochum radiates incredible energy overall. This is primarily what has led to this turnaround. They’re picking up points and playing the kind of football everyone expected before the season. Moreover, the Ruhrstadion in Bochum is a special stadium – compact, loud, and very demanding. I really like it. The match against VfL Bochum is a very special challenge that we’re really looking forward to.

During our preparations, we had a few issues with illness and injuries. Nevertheless, we’re full of confidence. We know what we’re capable of. Now comes the decisive phase; now it’s about points again. We’re aware of the difficulty of the task in Bochum. We have great respect for VfL Bochum. But we’re confident enough to say: We have a plan for how we want to win in Bochum.

We’re incredibly excited. Competition is why we do all this. Of course, competition brings pressure. Sunday will be the first time you’ll be judged on how good you are. We’re really looking forward to it and are all eager for the game and the second half of the season.

We were very satisfied with our points total in the first half of the season and were also happy with many of our matches. However, we weren’t completely satisfied. At times, we didn’t always execute the basics well. Am I disciplined enough with these simple things and implementing them consistently? We didn’t always manage that. Therefore, for all of us, it’s crucial to do the basics well. Then we have a great chance of winning games. This applies not only to the game itself, but also to our preparation. We must always be diligent and always well-prepared.

As a club, we’ve become so structurally stable that absences don’t derail our work. We’re a far cry from the injury situation of last year. I’d like to remind you that, for example, we travelled to Braunschweig with only eleven fit outfield players. We’ll be traveling to Bochum with a 20-man squad. And when I look at the squad, there’s a lot of quality there. We’ve been given a few obstacles. But the question is how we deal with them. I can feel it in myself, in the staff, whom I must commend highly for the past few weeks, and in the team, that we’ll overcome these obstacles and not use them as an excuse.