Play football, don't battle football

Berlin- The mood in the Hertha camp has been low following the defeat to Hamburg on Sunday. Neither Pal Dardai nor the players themselves were satisfied with the outcome. But the team does not have a lot of time to feel sorry for themselves with Borussia Dortmund set to visit the Olmypiastadion on Saturday afternoon. Ahead of the first closed training session of the week on Wedensday, Pal Dardai spoke about about courage, Ondrej Duda and Mitchell Weiser ahead of this weekend’s clash with Borussia Dortmund. 

...the game in Hamburg: We were ready to go on Sunday, but the first half did not go to plan and we didn’t play any football. We were getting better and better in the second period before Marvin Plattenhardt’s mistake. We’re not blaming him at all, we simply have to learn in future, and there was enough time to clear the ball and save the situation. Overall we only really had one good opening and that just is not enough. If we don’t play to our strengths of moving the ball quickly and playing killer passes then we will make life hard for ourselves. We didn’t do that in Hamburg, although the effort was there to see.

...his side’s counter attack: We had a great chance to score on the counter attack through Genki Haraguchi, Vedad Ibisevic and Vladimir Darida, but we couldn’t make the most of it. You need to be dynamic and fast for a successful counter and we gave them too much time to get back in position. We move the ball well, can pass it around and are very good technically. It’s not a coincidence we get score our goals through slick moves or set plays. But we will have to keep working on our all around game.  

...Ondrej Duda: He looked good and ready to go in the lead up to the game but gave away some sloppy passes in the match. He still has to get used to and adjust to the difference between training and a competitive match, but he’ll get there. He’s someone who can make things happen on the pitch. 

...Mitchell Weiser: Mitch is ready to go. He’ll be in the squad if he can come through this week’s training. We’ll decide then if he starts or comes on later as a substitute. Our game flows better with him on the pitch. He changes games and he can do it so quickly. We can also vary it up a lot with Mitch.

...the start of his XI: We have to be brave and continue to trust our passing game. We missed that in Hamburg. We were too afraid of making mistakes and limited ourselves. But I won’t be biting anyone’s head off if they make an error. It’s all a learning process. You cannot prepare yourself for certain situations. We made a big point against Frankfurt but threw it away against Hamburg. We want to play football, not battle it. Hamburg is out of our system and it is now all eyes on Dortmund.   

...Saturday’s game against Dortmund: There is a big difference between Hamburg and Dortmund. We have to be alert. It is a home game. We will try and play football, Dortmund have seen that already this season. We have to play like we did in the cup and in the reverse fixture- our absolute best.