The winter break is over and the start of the second half of the Bundesliga season is upon us. The Green-Whites travel to Schalke on Matchday 18 (kick-off 18:00 CET on Sunday) and ahead of the match, head coach Bruno Labbadia spoke to the press about…
…his team’s impressive away record: “For all our possession football, we’re also good on the break. We’ve had tough opponents both away and at home. I can’t put my finger on why we’ve won a lot of away games so far, but it’s not that important. What’s more important is that we’re picking up points.”
…his excitement ahead of the restart: “I’m absolutely looking forward to the second half of the season. Right from the very start, we’ve tried to make sure we don’t waste a second and don’t just throw away a season. My primary objective was that we play with enjoyment. That obviously only happens if you’re getting results as well. I was pleased with a lot of the things we did in the first half of the season, but that’s in the past. Now it’s about continuing to do exactly that, refining things and seeing progress.”
…the personnel situation: “We worked extremely hard during the winter break and didn’t lose anyone until Daniel Ginczek got injured in the last friendly. Of course we’ll miss him. Josuha Guilavogui has a slight muscle tear but we hope he’ll be back as soon as possible. William took a heavy knock to his calf and has a big bruise, so we’ll have to see if he can play on Sunday. We’re also still without Ignacio Camacho, who’s due to have another operation.”
…the plan if William is not fit: “We need to keep easing Sebastian Jung back in and get him up to speed. It’s good that he can now train for a long time. You can see that he’s on the right track, he’s just lacking match sharpness. Paul Verhaegh is an experienced player and would fill in if William can’t play.”
