Msome questions simply cannot be answered. For example, the one that Bo Svensson was asked at the press conference before the fifth Bundesliga match day: “At what percentage” he would put the performance level of his team – he did not have to “give a number now”. The trainer of FSV Mainz 05 leaned towards his microphone and grinned. Percent? No number? “It will be difficult.”
The fact is: The Rheinhessen have nine points after four encounters, two more than after the entire previous first half of the season, which of course cannot be a benchmark. What this early interim report has to say is difficult to assess. His team played a good game in the most recent 2-0 win in Hoffenheim, “but there were things that I didn’t agree with. We’ll need more games to come to an interim conclusion. ”Ultimately, however, it is a matter of“ delivering continuously ”.
Also on this Saturday afternoon, when the SC Freiburg guest in the Arena am Europakreisel (3:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky). “I have great respect for the work that is being done in Freiburg,” emphasized the 05 coach, referring to the eight points that the Breisgauers had won despite a difficult opening program, including victories against Borussia Dortmund and in Stuttgart.
Close games against Freiburg
“That shows what class we are in for.” Against SC and his coach Christian Streich, he expects a similarly balanced encounter as in the second half of the previous season. “We won 1-0, but it could have gone the other way.” In a way, the two opponents are similar. Both in terms of the structure of the clubs (“As small clubs we have to find our niche”) and in the clear, courageous way of playing football. It is no coincidence that the teams have often neutralized each other at an attractive level in the past, the games were mostly tight and also closer than the results sometimes indicated.
In the Mainz 0-3 defeat at the start of the 2019/20 season, for example, the goals only fell after the 80th minute – until then there were no signs of such a result. And the 3-1 away win of the 05er in November last year was still in great danger after an outstanding first half with three goals from Jean-Philippe Mateta.
Everyone involved is expecting a tightly contested game.
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Image: dpa
Moussa Niakhaté, who left Hoffenheim after half an hour due to a thigh injury, will not be there. With his playful class and his personality, he will be missing from the team, said Svensson. “Moussa likes to take on responsibility and has recently taken a step forward on several levels” – it is no coincidence that Svensson appointed the French captain before the start of the season.
But the coach is far from dramatizing the subject. “It will definitely not be the last time that an important player is out for us,” he said soberly. He has confidence in the strength of his squad. “And now it’s the next person’s turn.” Even if Svensson did not want to name a name, it should be Alexander Hack, who had already come to Hoffenheim for the injured. Defense chief Stefan Bell will wear the captain’s armband.
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