You said at the start of the season that your aim was to make 20 appearances. You’re now up to 28 – the most of anyone in the squad. Have you surprised yourself?
Fischer: “I’ve got to say that I didn’t expect to be playing so consistently. It’s great that I’ve earned the trust of the coach, and I’ve managed to stay injury-free as well. I’m enjoying the role I’ve been given and I hope that I’ll get to play the rest of the matches this season.”
But – and it’s a big but – what’s been happening to the team of late?
Fischer: “I think it’s a combination of a lot of things. We haven’t had the best of luck with injuries, and we really didn’t make a decent fist of things against what were meant to be some of the lesser teams. In the first half of the season, we really took our chances and got so many goals on the break. Things have been different in recent weeks though – we’re creating chances but not making the most of them and instead of that, we’re letting in goals in the blink of an eye. All of the matches have been very close and we’ve never been really out of it in any of them. On the other hand though, we can’t ignore the fact that our performances just haven’t been good enough, particularly at home.”
The defeat against Leipzig wouldn’t have felt so bad if you weren’t already on such a bad run…
Fischer: “I agree. We were lousy in the first 20 minutes, we know that. We were punished again, made some pretty simple errors and paid the price. We really turned it around after that though.”
Your goal seemed to release a lot of tension. It felt as if it was a shot in the arm not only for the team but for the whole Volkswagen Arena. Does the way you played after getting it back to 3-1 give you some confidence back?
Fischer: “The way the fans spurred us on was just fantastic. You could really feel the energy that it poured back into the team. And at least it proved that we could put a team like Leipzig under some proper pressure. And now we need to show that right from the off away to Mainz.”
How are you feeling ahead of the trip?
Fischer: “We’ve got some fire back in our bellies. We’ve obviously got some catching up to do from the last five matches, no two ways about it. And I think that we can take a lot of confidence from of our second-half performance against Leipzig.”
Your opponents have also had their struggles over the past four matches. How do you rate your chances of getting the monkey off your back on Saturday?
Fischer: “Overall, Mainz are having a great season. They’re an incredibly aggressive side that we’re going up against, but at the same time, teams don’t constantly have their backs to the wall against them. The Bundesliga is incredibly tight. It’s going to be a really tough test, we know that, but I also think that in games where both teams go into it looking to play their football, we stand a chance.”
