Peintinger: "Our full focus is on the match"

With Adi Hütter in self-isolation following his positive Covid test, assistant coach Christian Peintinger joined sporting director Roland Virkus in today's press conference to answer the media's questions about Saturday's Bundesliga home match against Hertha BSC. We have rounded up the key quotes.

Assistant coach Christian Peintinger on…

…squad news: Jonas Hofmann suffered a muscle strain in training and will be sidelined for a while. There are a number of other players where we aren't sure if they will be an option for Saturday. Stevie Lainer, Marvin Friedrich (both ill) and Tony Jantschke (knee) have only been training at 100 percent since Wednesday. We will have to make a late decision regarding the squad.

…his coaching style: Our approach will not be significantly different on Saturday; we will follow our shared philosophy. We have obviously been tinkering with a few things during the week, all in close discussion with Adi though. I won’t be in contact with Adi during the game on Saturday, Armin Reutershahn and I will focus solely on the match. I will definitely be emotionally invested and will try to impact the game positively from the touchline.

…analysing the Stuttgart game: We didn’t defend as a unit for all three of their goals. It was probably the case that somebody was relying on someone else in those situations. We’ve realised that we’re often too passive when we’re defending with 10 men behind the ball. We didn’t take enough responsibility and didn’t try and stop them from scoring at all costs. We’ve worked on that during training this week. Everybody needs to try and prevent the other team from scoring.

Sporting director Roland Virkus on…

...his expectations for the team: I’m not a fan of punishments because they just instil fear and we certainly don’t need that in our current situation. We need to use our quality on Saturday. The lads have had some setbacks, but have recovered from them each time. I’m convinced that we’ll recover from this one and show what we’re capable of. The coaching team and players have all been really focused this week. Everyone is concentrating on this upcoming game. I’m expecting the team to show what they’re made of on Saturday.

…supposed cliques within the dressing room: There are obviously little groups within the squad, but I don’t think there are any that are working against each other. It’s totally normal that some players spend more time with others that speak the same language.

…the current table: Everybody can read the table. Our situation is really complicated right now. Three points against Hertha would really help us. We all need to get fired up and get the fans involved too.

…Christoph Kramer’s criticism: Chris Kramer showed his emotions with his comments after the game in Stuttgart because he was so frustrated. We spoke with him about it and said that he should say things like that internally and not in the public eye. That’s all that needs to be said on the matter.