Jentzsch : "One of those days…"

In round 21 away to Schalke, the Wolves played below par and lost for the 4th match in succession. Simon Jentzsch, the Wolves skipper knows that days like those a re part and parcel of professional football. To his credit, the new Wolfsburg captain is not sticking his head in the sand. On the contrary, in his weekly interview with this website, Jentzsch explains how he sees the current situation at the club, and how he thinks the Wolves will end the dreadful run that they are having at the moment.

vfl-wolfsburg.de: Simon, what hurt more about the 0-3 defeat away to Schalke? The way the Wolves lost the match or the fact that the club has slid into the lower half of the Bundesliga table?

Simon Jentzsch: Both. The way we played at Schalke means that we have alt of work to do this week.

Against Bremen the team showed passion and a will to battle for the ball. For some people that performance was a sign of better times to come. At Schalke there was no comparison to the performance against Werder, how come?

Simon Jentzsch: There are days in football where nothing goes right for you, that is a sad fact. We lost the most important tackles in the game and lost because of it. Every team goes through such phases. We didn’t do enough to mount a decent challenge against Schalke.

Dead ball situations were no problem for the Wolves defence during the first half of the season. The first two goals in Schalke proved that that is no longer the case. Why have things changed so much?

Simon Jentzsch: I think we are out of luck at the moment. During the first half of the season, many free kicks or corners flew past the post or over the goal. Now they all seem to be finding their target players, it is something which we will have to address during training this week.

"Training, Training, Training and hard work", you said after the Schalke game. How must the team prepare for the visit of Hansa Rostock?

Simon Jentzsch: It is crucial that we putt he Schalke game behind us and that we free our minds. We dealt with the Schalke game for three days, and now we must concentrate on the job at hand and return to winning ways. We know that it will be an all or nothing match for Rostock and of course for us too.

As you quite rightly point out, Rostock are grasping at straws in an effort to stay in the Bundesliga. Can the Wolves and expect a nervous match or will the return of players like Hofland, Petrov, Schnoor and D'Alessandro give your side the right balance?

Simon Jentzsch: We plan to perform better than we did in Schalke. We will adopt the same attitude that we did when we played Bremen. Of course having those players available for selection again helps, but Rostock has their backs to the wall and will be unpredictable. We must be prepared for anything.

Thanks very much Simon