Neuhaus: “We are a real unit”

Borussia midfielder Florian Neuhaus spoke the media about the strong start to the season, the new way of playing and the upcoming match against Mainz 05.

Flo, you’ve picked up eight points from the first four games, how do you rate your start to the season?

Neuhaus: We remain unbeaten. That of course gives us a good feeling, but we have only played four games. It is important for us to stay on track and get the three points at home against Mainz on Sunday.

What do you put the good start down to?

Neuhaus: We prepared really well coming into the season. Right from day one there was a good atmosphere in the team and in the club as a whole. Every fan and every member of staff can sense it. It’s a real joy to play for Borussia at the moment and we are a real unit. This is exactly what we need to maintain over the next few games and across the season as a whole.

What new changes have been brought in by the coaching staff?

Neuhaus: There are many things that are new. Above all, the way we play is different and it suits everyone in the team. The whole thing fits and it has worked really well so far. Our goal is to successfully continue to put these things into practice.

How do you feel about the new way of playing?

Neuhaus: I am a real fan of maintaining possession and we have certainly had more of the ball this season. We have to look at the game against Bayern in a different light but we still played well. A lot of that is down to Yann Sommer who gave us the performance that we absolutely needed that evening.

What did you think of Yann’s performance against Bayern?

Neuhaus: Fantastic is probably the word that describes it the best. Everyone saw the outstanding performance he put in that evening. We wanted to make Yann’s job as easy as possible. Bayern had lots of shots on target, but they also had a lot of shots from distance and it was a tad easier for Yan to adjust and deal with those. We tried to close them down to the best of our ability but that isn’t always easy against Bayern.

Yann broke a new record in this match with 19 saves. Were you aware of this during the game?

Neuhaus: It was wave after wave of attack but we got more and more into the game every time Yann made a save. We were only partially successful in our attempts to pick holes in our opponents so we are happy with the point overall.

What sort of game do you expect against Mainz this Sunday? (17:30)

Neuhaus: It will be a completely different game to the one in Munich, not least because we’re playing at home with our own fans behind us. We want to be on the front foot, dominant, have lots of possession and of course celebrate the win with our supporters at full time.

How would you assess the upcoming opponents?

Neuhaus: Mainz will almost certainly play with a back five. That will make it difficult for us to find the breakthrough. Against their 5-3-2 system, it will be important for us to make them do lots of running so we can find gaps and spaces. We’ll have to work our way towards goal and create lots of chances.

The stadium is almost sold-out. What effect does that have on the team?

Neuhaus: It doesn’t get any better than a sold-out BORUSSIA-PARK. That’s the best place to play football. We’ve won both our home games so far and we’d definitely like to win our third.