One point from three games, Mainz 05 is looking for a way out of their sporting misery. From coach Bo Svensson’s point of view, this includes a clear speech, and he also wants to “extremely cultivate the how”.
Demanding: Mainz coach Bo Svensson pushed his protégés on during training. IMAGO/Martin Hoffmann
Playing against the ball, high pressing and quick transitions are part of Mainz 05’s recipe for success. This requires tactical discipline, precise processes and a great will to commit, of which there was little in the 4-0 defeat in Bremen and the 4-1 defeat at Union Berlin at the start of the Bundesliga was recognizable. “We have to be extremely careful about how,” Svensson describes the result of his analysis, which he announced after the Bremen game. He wants to put more emphasis on the basics of the 05 game again.
After the ups and downs in performance since the first competitive game of the season, the coaching team is trying to bring more consistency to the performance through “changes in details”. Since the DFB Cup victory at SV Elversberg, positive and negative experiences have alternated. In the last home game against Eintracht Frankfurt, Mainz performed well, but didn’t create enough great chances and were punished for this with the 1-1 equalizer in stoppage time. On Saturday against VfB Stuttgart (3:30 p.m., LIVE! on kicker) there is the next chance to do better. Over 30,000 spectators are expected, there are only tickets left.
Svensson gets loud during training
Small changes in daily interactions also include “addressing things very clearly,” as Svensson explains. There was a sample in the only public training session this week. First of all, the 05 coach pushed the players hard in offensive actions, demanding that they “go more sharply towards the goal”, be “more eager to finish on goal” and “reward themselves”. Svensson’s good mood was over when the defense made a mistake. “Open your mouth, we don’t have to be surprised that we concede goals when we defend like that in training,” the coach complained loudly and interrupted when one team let one of the other’s players run towards the goal alone.
Hanche-Olsen and Weiper are on the brink
However, all of this happened with a very small training group; due to injuries and international absences, there were only ten professionals in training. All six national players have returned since Thursday and without any injuries. The personnel situation in Mainz is also easing because Ludovic Ajorque, Anthony Caci and Aymen Barkok, who were recently missing, have trained the entire week and are fit for action again. There are still question marks behind Andres Hanche-Olsen and Nelson Weiper for Saturday. The game against Stuttgart comes too early for Maxim Leitsch, Silvan Widmer and Jonathan Burkardt.
2023-09-14 13:50:33
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