Seoane ahead of #BOCBMG: “We have to hold our own in the individual battles”

Head coach Gerardo Seoane answered journalists’ questions ahead of the Foals’ Bundesliga came against VfL Bochum on Saturday (15:30 CEST). Here are his most important quotes:

...on the personnel situation: Tomáš Čvančara hasn't trained with the team yet. His involvement is still in the balance. Alassane Plea has had a slight eye issue during the week. Everything's fine with him now. Apart from the long-term absentees, everyone's available.

...the upcoming match: It'll be a challenging task. When I look at Bochum in their previous home games, I see a team that can make it difficult for any opponent with their energy. It’ll be important that we battle hard from the start and control the situation. We must be ready to fight for the ball. We’ll also have to be clever in winning second balls. If we do that, we then want to impose our playing style on the opponent.

...his expectations for the game: I’m expecting high intensity on Saturday. That’ll make positional play harder, which is why that’s not our number one priority. First and foremost, it’s about our defensive mindset. Our first aim is to be ready in the opening stages and be prepared for Bochum’s long balls and physical play. It’ll often be individual battles all over the pitch. We’ll have to win those and hold our own in the battles with and without the ball.

...the tactical set-up: We need robustness, heading ability, a willingness to tackle and to win second balls. But we also want to play football. In Bochum, we'll have to strike a balance between our physical game and calmness in possession and playing the ball forwards with fewer touches and the highest tempo possible.

...preparing for the coming opponents: We have a good video and data analysis team. For the Darmstadt game, we analysed the cup match from last year, as they were a promoted side, and we expected a similar style of play. It doesn’t have to be like that for every opponent though. These days, you have the ability to look in detail at many things about the coming opponents. In the build-up to a game, you can do that infinitely. But the focus was more on our team this week.

...Florian Neuhaus’ current situation: We’re generally pleased with Flo, who’s training very well at the moment. There's a lot of competition in midfield and every player has to prove himself in training every day. Then it’s up to the head coach and his staff to make a decision. It’s nothing against Florian Neuhaus that he hasn’t started twice recently. It’s just a decision in favour of other players who just brought different attributes.