Daniel Farke spoke to the press ahead of Tuesday’s clash in the DFB-Pokal against SV Darmstadt 98 (20:45 CEST). Here are the most important statements:
Daniel Farke on…
…team news for the game in Darmstadt: Christoph Kramer, as well as long-term absentees Florian Neuhaus, Ko Itakura and Hannes Wolf, will not be available. All of the players apart from that are ready to play. The game in Wolfsburg was Alassane Plea’s first start. It was an intense game. I think that he did well for the 80-odd minutes he was on the pitch. We will have to wait and see if he is able to play 90 minutes tomorrow. Ultimately, there is also the fact that there is only two days between the two games.
…possible rotation for the DFB-Pokal: As long as he doesn’t get injured, Yann Sommer will be in goal tomorrow. As a rule, we always want to go into a game with our strongest eleven. I trust all of my players. Nathan Ngoumou is working hard in training and pushing himself. He deserved his appearance in Wolfsburg. But, to make a change it also always means that another player has to be left out. Conor Noß is also training really well at the moment. I am really pleased with him. But to start him would also mean that we would have to leave out Marcus Thuram, and he is also in brilliant form. So, making changes to selection are always difficult decisions.
…his approach to the game: To me, the DFB-Pokal has the same value as the Bundesliga. We are hungry for more and we want to go as far as possible in this competition. We are expecting a game at Bundesliga level. SV Darmstadt are a candidate for promotion. The team is currently in first place and that is no coincidence. They are full of self-belief, and have a home game under the lights in front of a sell-out crowd. Their fans will push them on and the team will be highly motivated. As a Bundesliga side we are obviously the favourites, but it will be a difficult and emotional game.
…practising penalties: We practice penalties every now and then. Ahead of a Pokal game I don’t consciously look to practice penalties though. If you do that, then there is an unconscious message that we might not manage to win the game in 90 or 120 minutes. I think in general that it is important to practice penalties. But it is also difficult because you can’t exactly simulate in training what the situation is like with the atmosphere in the stadium and the pressure.
…the goals conceded in the last few games: We have talked about it. Obviously, we want to get back to being defensively solid, but it is also clear that in the course of the season there will always be periods like this. You also have to accept that sometimes the opponent scores a lot from not many chances. Especially with the first goal in Wolfsburg, we could have set up better. It is our aim to get back to keeping clean sheets and to regain our defensive solidity over the next few weeks.
