„I’m incredibly excited about this game.“

We’re really looking forward to Paderborn. Not because we’re looking at the league table, but because I’ve noticed since Sunday’s final whistle against Münster that the team is incredibly eager to play this game. It will be a challenging match against a very good team. We’re going to Paderborn with the feeling that we’ll get our chances. We have a full squad to choose from. We’ve also been training well. I would even say that we trained exceptionally well today, especially in our final training session. We’re looking forward to a top-class match against one of the league’s top teams. We want to deliver another excellent performance and, ideally, take all three points home.

Paderborn had the longest winning streak this season, winning eight games in a row at one point. They have a lot of self-confidence – especially at home. Their style of play is characterised by a mix of a possession-based approach and a lot of long, deep balls with frequent switches of play. This makes them very difficult to press. They have excellent defensive organization and are very compact. They also have many young players with high individual quality. Paderborn has a home game on Friday and gained a lot of confidence in Karlsruhe. They’ll have high ambitions. I think it will be a pretty exciting match.

I haven’t given any thought to Christmas or the winter break because my focus is solely on Paderborn. Therefore, I won’t be drawing any conclusions about the first half of the season yet. We’re only concentrating on what’s coming up, and that’s the game on Friday in Paderborn. What’s characterised us in the first half of the season since day one is that we’ve focused only on the games and have been fully present in 99 percent of cases. We have great respect for Paderborn, but we’re full of energy that we want to show on Friday.

With Fraser, we could have taken a big risk against Münster. However, we decided to give him a normal week of training. He had a good week and is in my considerations for the starting eleven. Whether he’ll be ready for 90 minutes, I don’t know. The fact that Fraser and Fabian Nürnberger are back is very important overall. Nevertheless, we’ve shown in recent weeks that we can find other solutions. The fundamental DNA of our team is the high and aggressive pressing, which we’ve implemented for a very high percentage of playing time this season. Having both of them back expands our options.

Not many games were truly in doubt in recent weeks; we just didn’t have a comfortable lead in them. If there’s one thing we need to discuss in recent weeks, it’s our efficiency. Just one goal against Münster and only three against Karlsruhe were insufficient considering the chances we created. That’s why the games looked closer in the end than they actually were. Overall, though, we’ve developed a certain composure, allowing us to see out close games calmly and without panicking.