Markus Gisdol: "Foundation needs rebuilding"

Markus Gisdol on…

…the opposition:

They are a great team who played attractive, but also high-risk football last season. They have lost Spahic, Castro and Rolfes, and are missing Toprak through injury, so their defence might not be as strong as it was last year, but all their strikers are top class. They’re all what you could call “international standard” players.

One aim is to avoid conceding free kicks within 25 metres of the goal. Calhanoglu can be very dangerous from there and Kießling is a player that can always skilfully draw fouls.

…personnel:

Fabian Schär looked to be badly injured. We feared the worst but fortunately it was only a bruise. He will return to normal training on Thursday, and then we will see how his body reacts. It is, however, more realistic that he will be rested for the Leverkusen game. We are less optimistic about Mark Uth. He will try and train with the team today, as he was able to do quite a lot in individual training on Wednesday. We have to wait and see how his knee will react.

…the current situation:

We were all annoyed after the game against 1860 Munich but it is always a possibility that you will be put out of the cup by a second-division team. It happens. It is clear that we didn’t go into the game with the right attitude. Still, we’re full of anticipation for the Bundesliga.

We are going through a transitional phase and the team still have to find their feet on the pitch. I’m sure that we can manage that and that we can achieve something great. When you lose an instrumental player like Roberto Firmino, you have to take a step back. A lot of foundations that were solid last season now need rebuilding. That takes time.

Pirmin Schwegler on…

…the opposition:

Leverkusen was a great place for me to start off in the Bundesliga. There’s not much connecting me to my time there though these days. I think the only still active player from my spell with Bayer 04 is Stefan Kießling.

…the current situation:

I am looking forward to playing the upcoming games against Leverkusen and Bayern. They are the best, but the most difficult as you are going up against the best. Afterwards we will know exactly where we stand because every mistake is punished in games like these.

The cup game was of course a downer, but we’ve cleared our mind of it and now we can get going. Everyone was annoyed at themselves and it wasn’t easy to shake off. We still need some time to become a perfect unit on the field, but we are working very hard to achieve that.

Previous meetings:

With two victories, one draw and twelve losses to their name, TSG don’t exactly have the best record against Leverkusen in the Bundesliga or the cup. Hoffenheim celebrated the most recent of their two victories against Leverkusen in the second half of the 2013/14 season.

The form of the opposition:

In the last few weeks Roger Schmidt’s team have been preparing to compete in the Bundesliga, the cup and the Champions League. That’s nothing new for the team from the Rhineland, who have featured on the European stage for several years now. Leverkusen, who were successful last weekend, winning 3-0 in the cup, now come up against Hoffenheim and will then play Lazio in the Champions League qualifiers.

It is a busy schedule for the first week of the new season to which their new captain Lars Bender will want to bring the "best of the pre-season." Bender has worn the black and red of Leverkusen since 2009 and takes over the captaincy from Simon Rolfes, who announced his retirement at the end of last season. Leverkusen also have to deal with the departures of Josip Drmic, Stefan Reinartz and Gonzalo Castro.

They have, however, wasted no time getting in replacements. Christoph Kramer returns from his loan spell at Gladbach more mature, experienced and as a World Cup winner. In attack, the team strengthened with the arrival of the long sought-after Admir Mehmedi, who transferred from relegated Freiburg.

Key battles:

Stefan Kießling is a classic striker. He is in the right place at the right time, is always ready to pounce and scores a lot of goals. He scored nine times last season, 15 the season before and 25 in the 2012/13 campaign. The 31-year-old has also scored in the last five games against Hoffenheim. The battle between him, Niklas Süle and the rest of TSG’s defenders could be the game-deciding factor. The Hoffenheim defence will have to get to grips with the Leverkusen attackers quickly in order to keep them quiet.

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