“It’s an absolute added value that we have this team”

sv98.de: Hey, Björn! Before the start of the season you emphasised that the table position initially only plays a minor role. Now the team is in a strong 6th place in the Lotto Hessenliga after 22 match days. So did you enjoy looking at the table these days?

Björn Müller: „Yes, of course you like to look at the table (grins). Because this placement means that we have played a successful round so far. We are all competitors. We play all football games in order to win them in the end. Ultimately, our discussions are more about the development of the team than about the table. How has the individual players developed? These are the questions we are concerned with.

10 wins, 5 draws, 7 defeats: How satisfied are you with the newly formed team after a good six months?

„It’s an absolute added value that we have this team. I’m really very satisfied – especially since we only knew to a limited extent what to expect from this young team in this league. Nevertheless, we were completely convinced from the start that they would quickly adapt to men’s football and there will be a steep learning curve. We have taken into account all the possible scenarios and series of defeats. And it’s all been there in this six months: we’ve had a lot of wins and sometimes we’ve played draws. We had to endure tough defeats in which the boys had to pay a lot of lessons. But these defeats were extremely valuable and instructive. Our young team has completely embraced men’s football. However, we have still come a long way in our development process not at the end.“

After a decent start to the season, the team got into a small negative vortex with five defeats in a row. How did you experience the group especially during this phase?

„I perceived the team as dissatisfied and self-critical and very willing to learn, which is very good. They pushed themselves to the maximum in every training session to overturn this small negative series. That was super helpful for the learning process and certainly helped the team move forward. The team and coaching team didn’t change much during this phase; instead, the boys themselves always believed that their performance was good enough to win many games.“

Was that the key to the strong phase leading up to the winter break? The U21s have finally won 8 of the last 10 games…

„Believing in your own strengths was certainly a factor. And once you find yourself in such a positive series, it obviously does something to you. The boys managed to turn the negative experiences into something totally positive. That’s what happened, they have gained self-confidence through their hard work and were able to play more freely. This process and this positive development in the first half of the season speaks highly of the team and the coaching team.“

How would you describe your playing style?

„The U21’s style of play doesn’t differ much from the other teams in the academy. We want to maintain a style of play that includes the highest possible level of training and action for the players. We also want to solve things in a playful way. We want to prevent the opponent from pressing We want to try to play out from the back and not just hit long balls. We want to be active and not wait and see, especially in the possession game Third. After all, it is a kind of supreme discipline in football to patiently create scoring opportunities and goals against deep opponents and not to play a kind of “happy-go-lucky football”.

“A good defense is the basis for success,” said coach Daniel Petrowsky before the game.  The U21 is the team with the fewest goals conceded in the league. An outstanding fact.

„It’s of course very nice to see that we have the best defence in the league. That speaks for the entire team, because all the players are defending from front to back. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of potential here too. The development is both defensive and as well as offensive behavior is far from complete.“

A new transition coordinator, Immanuel Höhn, was added during the first half of the season. How well has he already been able to contribute?

„We are all very happy that Höhni is here. He brings a lot of experience with him and had a good connection with the trainers in the academy. He has been contributing his ideas from day one. But at the same time you can also feel that he I was really keen to learn a lot. I knew him personally from my time as an assistant coach with the professionals when Höhni was still a player. So there was an immediate connection between us and it’s nice to see him into the club now immersed in a new role.“

Since September, a new head coach with a new game idea, Florian Kohfeldt, has been working at the Lilies. How well does the exchange with him work?

„Fortunately, I also knew Florian Kohfeldt from my time at the DFB, when I supervised the participants in the football teacher training course. When it was clear that he would be the head coach here, he called me directly and we arranged a meeting. We exchanged ideas about the academy. I thought it was a great respectful gesture from him. The exchange with him is fantastic. He also brings in ideas about how we can develop our players and introduce them to the professional field more quickly.“

Back to the U21. What do you need to work on during the winter break and then in the second half of the season? And what is your goal for the next six months?

„Our very clear goal is the individual development of each player. That is our top priority. The consistency and reliability of the boys on and off the pitch is also important. When youth players knock on the professional door, the coaching team wants to have reliable players and not Surprises. We work on that every day. In addition, the team’s success develops, but our focus is not on the individual players. We want to develop each and every one of them prepare the next steps and tasks.“

Thanks for the conversation, Björn.