“The team is very willing to learn”

Fraser’s injury is a real shame. He was in very good form and has helped the team extremely in the last few weeks. But we are somewhat happy that the diagnosis is not quite as dramatic as we might have feared in Fürth. He too had expected worse and is therefore in a positive mood and is approaching what will hopefully be a short rehab with a lot of enthusiasm. We are confident that we will see him back on the pitch relatively soon.

Of course, it is a weakening that we will be missing Fraser, a top performer from the last few weeks. I have great confidence in the squad that we can provide different variants with high quality. In addition to Lakenmacher or Vilhelmsson, Marseiler or Corredor can also hold the position. We can still play with two strikers or, as in Dresden, sometimes with three attackers. These are all considerations, nice considerations. Because we can position ourselves variably.

Of course it’s nicer to talk about such topics. But on Saturday at 1pm it doesn’t matter what happened before. That’s the beautiful and sometimes terrible thing about football. Of course you have a different atmosphere during the training week, you may also interact differently with the people around the club because a lot of things are positive. If something like that leads to security, then it’s good. If it leads to false looseness then it is the biggest problem.

The basic trend of the past few weeks has been largely positive. The factors for this lie first of all in the team itself. The team is very willing to learn. Beyond a level that I have ever experienced in professional football. For example, when it comes to video analysis, they are extremely inquisitive, don’t switch off and stick with it. My speaking times are correspondingly long. The team wants to learn. They developed very quickly offensively, followed by mental development and in the last few weeks we have also found a way of defending that suits our style of play. We absolutely have to continue with this development.

Hertha has a high level of individual quality. Cuisance and Maza in particular have nothing to do with the second division. They have a lot of speed on the wings and two different types of strikers in Niederlechner and Schuler. In defence, of course, they have some failures at the headquarters. The question then arises as to what they will do. Do you play with a back four or a back three? We definitely have to prevent them from bringing their individual quality into play. And then we have to adapt our offensive game to what we will see on Saturday in terms of the basic order and idea of ​​defense at Hertha.

When dealing with talent, I always try to find the right moment. I’m not a fan of giving out gifts. Of course, it always seems great to give a young player minutes or include him in the squad. But if you do that even though he’s not ready yet, then the question arises as to what will happen to this player in the coming week. Then he’s suddenly missing from the squad or doesn’t get any minutes and sees it as a defeat. These topics are always on my mind. If I don’t have complete conviction with a young player, then I’m not doing any of the boys any favours by giving out gifts. In the first step it is up to them.