Oliver Glasner on ...
…opponents FC Augsburg: “Augsburg play a very high press and get it to the forwards quickly. There are always lots of goals in their games because a lot of overloads arise from their style of play. We want to take advantage of them.. In order to return to Frankfurt as winners, we’ll have to draw on all our capabilities.”
…personnel: “Timothy Chandler and Daichi Kamada will miss out because of illness. We need to get through one more week. I'm curious to see where we're at mentally. Anticipation and reaction begin in the mind.. Makoto Hasebe is still injured and returned straight home after our stay in Lisbon. He will join our Japan tour as head of delegation.”
We still have three games against three good teams in the space of a week.
Head coach Oliver Glasner
…a possible drop in tension: “By winning 2-1 in Lisbon, we achieved a big goal of ours. Getting over that and rediscovering our focus isn’t easy, but the lads seem very settled. After all, the defeat against Dortmund didn’t unsettle us either. The game in Augsburg is the type of encounter that has caused us problems in recent months. We coped well against Stuttgart and we’re doing everything we can to get it right again this time. Anticipation and reaction begin in the mind. Physically, I’m not worried about any of the lads.”
…Ansgar Knauff’s return: “Ansgar said he could play for half an hour [against Sporting]. After he came on it wasn’t just his assist that I was pleased with. He took players on and had a great game. In general, I’m happy about every player coming back [after injury]. We still have three games against three good teams in the space of a week. I’m obviously pleased about the low number of absentees during the season. Once again, credit to the medical and fitness department.”
…motivation within the squad: “I gave them the day off yesterday. I did a bit of training myself here – it doesn’t do me any harm either (grins). I then bumped into Evan Ndicka and Almamy Toure in the gym – they wanted to train for 15 or 20 minutes. I almost had to tell them not to do too much. That makes me feel good because I have to slow them down rather than push them. The lads are hungry, even though they’ve had a lot on their plate lately.”
