"Behind defensive lines"

During the latter half of the current Bundesliga season, late Sunday afternoon games for VfL Wolfsburg have proven successful, with the Green-Whites claiming four points from a 0-0 away to Borussia Dortmund and a 1-0 win away to Hannover 96. On Sunday, February 11th (kick-off 18:00 CET) the Wolves will be looking to add to that tally away to Werder Bremen, where they close a matchday with an away tie for their third time in succession. At the obligatory pre-match press conference ahead of the clash on the banks of the Weser against the league’s 15th placed side, VfL head-coach Martin Schmidt spoke about…

…the up-coming opponents: Bremen distinguish themselves not only in their industriousness, but also in the quality of players they have on the pitch. It will undoubtedly be a battle at eye-level. Werder have built up some momentum in their recent games, only suffering defeats to Bayern and Leverkusen. At home, with their dominant and enterprising approach, they are slightly in the role as favourites.

…the personnel situation: Ignacio Camacho, Jakub Blaszczykowski, John Anthony Brooks and Felix Uduokhai are out of the reckoning, as are Marcel Tisserand and Yannick Gerhardt now too. The fact that we are without half a possible starting eleven hits us hard. Marcel has a thigh muscle injury, which keeps him. Yannick has an ankle injury. We’ll have to wait and see how bad that is, but he is definitely not an option this weekend. That hurts! Together with the others, it’s a massive number of absentees.

…finishing: One of our most significant characteristics is that we don’t concede many goals. What we are not managing at the moment is being efficient, getting into the final zone and then proving dangerous. We need to get in behind our opponents defensive line – that’s the task facing us. Otherwise we will remain solid and not lose often, but not win often enough either. Changing exactly that is what we demand of ourselves. We need wins – to get them we need goals! That’s what we will be setting out to do from the very first minute on Sunday. I think there will be goals and I firmly believe we will score one more than our opponents.