"Pursue a clear philosophy as a team"

In his 44th Bundesliga game as a head coach, Alexander Nouri will come up against Fortuna Düsseldorf for the very first time in this capacity on Friday night (28th February, 20:45 CET). For the 40-year-old and his team, the game is of great importance: "We want to win the game, that has been made very clear and that is how we are approaching it," explained Nouri at Wednesday’s press conference ahead of the Matchday 24 curtain raiser. The former professional has therefore made it unequivocally clear to his team that he expects to see a completely different performance on Friday from the one last weekend. "We need to find better solutions on the pitch and support each other as a team. We need to re-establish the feeling that we are all working hard for one another and are pursuing a clear philosophy as a team," he said.

Before talking about the game at hand, Michael Preetz responded to a current media report, in which former Hertha coach Jürgen Klinsmann had spoken out. "We were deeply shocked to hear these accusations made by our former coach. I can endure this kind of criticism, but I strongly repudiate these disgusting, outrageous attacks against our staff. I would also ask for understand that we do not wish to address each individual accusation," said the club director, before turning his attention to the important game in his hometown. "We want to try and find the right balance now and shift our attention to the difficult away game against Fortuna Düsseldorf. We want to transform all of this into positive energy, pull together as a team and get a positive result," he concluded.