Hecking: “It’s an exciting first game“

...the squad situation:Raffael (fractured collarbone), Mamadou Doucouré (thigh rupture) and Keanan Bennets (thigh strain) will all miss Saturday’s game. Matthias Ginter, Lars Stindl and Jonas Hofmann are all candidates for the starting line-up....the game in Leverkusen:We know that we will get chances in Leverkusen, but also know that we will have to be disciplined and find ways to nullify their pace. We need to give them problems to deal with too of course. During our analysis, we have seen parts of their game which we will target. It’s an exciting first game, as two sides who like to play football are coming up against each other....Bayer Leverkusen’s quality:We all saw what they are capable of during the 5-0 defeat in the DFB-Pokal. We did beat them 2-0 on the first day of the season though, so we know that we can be successful against them. We are excited to see if everything is as positive as it seems there....Peter Bosz’s way of playing:I think everyone knows how Peter Bosz likes to play football. You can already see some parallels from his time at Dortmund. This style of play isn’t new for him, but it is for that team. They had a quality squad before he arrived, so perhaps they will better with this new style. We are well-prepared and ready for what is coming....the approach for the Rückrunde:We have 33 points on the board, which is great to start 2019 with. There are still 17 games to go and no-one will be handing out any gifts. We cannot take our foot of the gas during this complicated Bundesliga season. We have to try and start every game positively and trust our own quality. So far, we have taken things game-by-game and haven’t set ourselves any end goals, which has worked well for us. We have to all work seriously hard and will start doing that in Leverkusen....the expectations:People are saying that it is a must that we qualify for the Champions League. I don’t think that is the case, because it will be very hard to repeat our Hinrunde again. I would warn people who expect to qualify for it that it will not be that easy. Obviously we want to be as successful as we were before Christmas, but success can never be guaranteed. We are the only people who can decide how well we play after the break, or how well we react to setbacks or defeats. We cannot allow ourselves to get unsettled when things aren’t going as we would like. We have to go our own way and not be distracted by others. We will need to soak up the pressure people put on us.