Daniel Farke faced the media ahead of Gladbach’s clash with 1. FSV Mainz 05 on Friday evening (20:30 CET).
Daniel Farke on...
...the injury to Julian Weigl: Jule has to wear a special boot for the next three weeks after suffering a partial rupture to his syndesmosis ligament. An operation is not necessary, but he will still be out for six to eight weeks. It's a bitter pill to swallow for us because he is of key importance to the way we play.
…other squad news: Tony Jantschke suffered a meniscus tear yesterday in training and will have to undergo surgery. He will also be out for a number of weeks. Jan Olschowsky will miss the game in Mainz due to a tendon problem in his thumb. Tobi Sippel will return to the squad. Nathan Ngoumou is also a doubt after picking up a knock to his knee in training. With him though, I am hopeful that the situation will continue to improve until Friday.
…what the team can take into the game against Mainz from the Bayern game: Against Bayern, we showed a great willingness to put in the running, a lot of intensity and strength in duels – these values will also be important on Friday evening. Mainz are one of the most intense teams in the League, no other team has made more sprints in possession and they always do extremely well in all running metrics. We have to accept this way of playing and work against it and be on it. It will definitely be a very different game tactically.
Against Bayern, we showed a great willingness to put in the running, a lot of intensity and strength in duels – these values will also be important on Friday evening
Head coach Daniel Farke
…the 1-0 defeat in the game earlier in the season: The way that Mainz play was already clear to see in the game earlier this season. They had a lot of physical presence, played a lot of long balls and made runs in behind. However, I don’t expect that the first game will have a big effect on this game. We want to pick up points on Friday.
…Hannes Wolf’s development: Hannes is a good lad who hasn’t had an easy start here. He has worked his way back into the starting eleven again and absolutely earned that through good training performances. He is full of energy and intensity, he works hard off the ball and makes a lot of good runs in behind. In the previous games he has done well , even if he definitely still has room to improve in certain areas. He can be a bit more composed and effective on the ball, but he's still a young lad.
…his current appraisal of Alassane Plea: We know that he's got great pace, but that desire to make the run in behind that can hurt opponents is something he can show more often. Last weekend against Bayern he did brilliantly in a lot of situations. In other situations, perhaps even more could have been possible with a bit more precision. Nevertheless, the game definitely did him a lot of good.
