"Win the home game with maximum consistency!"
Back to the regular schedule! Hertha have the chance to get their first points after the international break on Sunday, as they host a fourth-placed TSG Hoffenheim side in front of their home crowd. "It’s going to be a real test, but we’ve got the self confidence to go out and win the home game with maximum consistency,” said head coach Sandro Schwarz at the press conference before the clash in the capital at the weekend. HerthaBSC.com has summarized his important answers – here is what he had to say about…
... the recent international break:
Sandro Schwarz: The international break was very emotional for us, especially with Djanga’s news, which is why we are very happy, as we have that positive news from him. Of course, we now hope for a similar course of recovery to that of Marco Richter. The national players have returned gradually, and we had almost the complete squad together on Thursday. Therefore, we were able to get in some good preparation for Sunday, and we still have two days to discuss one or two other topics – based on what we learned from the Mainz game. We’ve definitely had a long week to get ready!
... what’s been worked on in training in the last few days:
Sandro Schwarz: We firstly put the returning players to individual work when they got back, and they joined up with team training on Thursday. We had to consider their long flights and travel times. In general, we’ve been able to make good use of the time – with a friendly and some good work last Friday. We wanted to set targets in terms of the boys’ athleticism. Physically, some of them had to face some resistance which they dealt with well. After three days off, on Tuesday we started focusing on Hoffenheim and worked on the principles necessary.
... our own counter-attacking strength, and the opposition’s qualities:
Sandro Schwarz: That André Breitenreiter spoke highly about our counter-attacking qualities says a lot about how strengths in this department. If you want to hit them on the break, you’ve got to get the ball first - and we have developed very well in this area, knowing that we have got to find that precision going forward. At TSG, Andre has already made his mark is, they are not in fourth place in the table for nothing. Hoffenheim are very good in possession, they get up the pitch well and have a a lot of individual quality. They are also good at their own individual jobs. It’s going to be a real test, but we’ve got the self confidence to go out and win the home game with maximum consistency.
... the supposed pressure of having to take points:
Sandro Schwarz: It's always about delivering performance on match day and implementing what we worked on during the week. That will once again be the case on Sunday, we are not going to worry about the points already dropped, as we did against against Leverkusen or Mainz. We are only concerned about our performance and what we need to produce on the pitch against TSG Hoffenheim.