Ein Destiny it is not yet. Not for Jan-Moritz Lichte, whose job is safe regardless of the outcome of this encounter, as his sports director Rouven Schröder assures. And also not for Mainz 05, which in the event that he also loses this seventh game of the season in the Bundesliga on Saturday (3:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky), there are still 27 more opportunities to compete against the Bring the descent.
However, the Rheinhessen have to be asked when they want to start scoring, if not at home against their only table neighbor, FC Schalke 04, whose cross-season record looks even more bleak than their own. The Gelsenkirchen team have not won for 22 championship games. The change of coach from David Wagner to Manuel Baum did as little to change the mighty negative trend as did Achim Beierlorzer to Lichte for the Mainz team. Both took place after the second game day. With the difference that since then the 05er have delivered at least two good, albeit fruitless, games, but the Schalke players have drawn twice.
Lichte knows that not only the environment but also his players are concerned with the question of the first sense of achievement. “Against an opponent who is in a similar situation, you have the feeling: If not now, then when?”, He says, referring to the hit of a Cologne carnival band. “Nevertheless, we mustn’t be tense, we also have to be able to develop a certain degree of joy.” Not that his team runs across the field for 90 minutes like a Höhner bunch. But what kind of game is this going to be when the last without points meets the penultimate table, who is only two points better?
Lichte expects an aggressive approach from both sides, both teams wanted to take the reins of action in this way, to make their absolute will to win clear. The joy hoped for by the trainer must be earned by his people through many small positive moments. Unlike in the first half in Augsburg, it must be possible to force the game and opponents into small spaces again and again. “If we manage to turn the large field into a smaller one, in which we play football together, win balls by counter-pressing, and get in front of the goal quickly, then that is a pleasure.”
The 05 coach believes that it will be hectic on Saturday afternoon, given the table constellation. However, this does not necessarily have to be negative. It is good for his team’s game if they spread hectic in certain rooms. “But we also have to keep calm in the crucial areas.” That applies, roughly speaking, to the first and last 20 to 25 meters of the pitch. At the front, the Mainz team need a little more coolness in the end, at the back they have to stay cool so as not to invite an opponent with their own mistakes to score goals again.
Schröder justifies the fact that Lichte does not have to worry about his position even if he loses a duel between the basement table clubs, with the daily work of the coach. “Jan-Moritz is doing a very good job,” says the sports director. Nonetheless, it is time that this was reflected in the game results.
.
