Hütter: “End the year on a positive note”

Head coach Adi Hütter spoke to the media after the final training session ahead of Saturday’s match against Hoffenheim. We’ve put together all the key statements from today’s press conference.

Head coach Adi Hütter on…

…the squad: In addition to the injured Jordan Beyer and Jonas Hofmann, Nico Elvedi will also be unavailable for tomorrow’s game due to stomach flu. Manu Koné will also miss out with a yellow-card suspension, so we will have to see how we compensate for both their absences. It also depends on what formation we start with, whether it’s a back three like we’ve done lately, or a back four.

…the upcoming opponent:  Hoffenheim have picked up lots of points lately. They are the team of the hour in the league right now, and have a lot of confidence. On the other hand, we’re still dealing with having lost all of our last four games. However, we still believe in ourselves. We delivered a much improved performance against Frankfurt and played well for much of the game. Unfortunately, we made too many individual mistakes in defence that kept us from getting a positive result. We need to give it everything again tomorrow in order to end the year on a positive note.

…the first half of the season: Of course we’re not happy with the first half of the season. Especially when looking at our latest results. We were on a good path halfway through, but we’ve thrown that progress away with our last four results. I think the team will need a few days after the Hoffenheim game to spend time with their families and recharge. Of course we all had hoped to be in a better position by Christmas. In any case, we will need to pick ourselves back up and fight. After a short break, we will resume training on 29th December.