Mr Skibbe, were there any players coming back from injuries?
Not really, with Benjamin Koehler we have to wait whether he will be ready for Saturday’s game or not. He was not able to fully participate in the training sessions. Maik Franz is definitely out, Chris will receive further treatment next week. But the trend is that he will be out until the winter break, like Maik Franz.
Seems like you are running out of players for the defense?
Yes indeed, it will be very tight. Luckily Giorgos Tzavellas is returning, but in defense it will become very hard to show the stability of the successful weeks and to achieve as great results as before.
Is it really bad timing to play against Mainz then?
There is no good or bad timing, that does not matter.
But you do want to win the derby one way or the other?
Of course we want to win the derby. But we will need our fans more than ever to achieve that, they need to be totally behind the team. We’ll play with a line-up that might struggle to compete. For example Aleksandar Vasoski – I do rate him highly but he has not played regularly in a very long time and will now be thrown into the game. It will be really tough for his body and a huge strain. That’s why we need to bank on our fans on Saturday, we need the ‘12th man’ in order to be able to cope with Mainz.
Do you need to act during the winter transfer window?
Currently Chris is getting better although he probably won’t recover before the winter break. Maik Franz hopefully will return to training start January. If Chris’ prognosis changes for the worse we might have to think about transfers.
Will the tactics change for Saturday?
I am considering things, but I do not want to talk about that right now.
What do you think about the opponent?
I watched them play Leverkusen away and they showed a really good game. I respect their performances which were mostly outstanding.
