“The loss is an incentive”

Julian Nagelsmann on...

...the opponents:

Replacing Yunus Malli certainly isn’t an easy task but they’ve brought in two players who play in his position. I presume one of them will be in their starting XI on Saturday. Bojan is a very creative player in the final third and knows where the goal is. Currently, it’s hard to assess individual players but Mainz won’t change their general way of playing, therefore we’ve been able to analyse our opponent well.

...the personnel:

Kevin Vogt had a headache at the start of the week, but on Wednesday was back in team training and almost pain-free. If training goes well today he’ll be available on Saturday, but I can’t be 100 percent sure about that. Danilo Soares played with the U23s on Wednesday and is getting slowly back into his rhythm. I’ll give him time because he’s been out for a long time, but he’s ready to be used as a substitute in the Bundesliga. Jeremy Toljan is making good progress but won’t be available against Mainz, we hope he’ll return to training next week. Lukas Rupp will also be out, he’s making smaller steps as his knee is still inflamed. He’ll slowly increase his workload, we, as well as Lukas, have to remain patient.

...the current situation:

The loss in Leipzig did temporarily dampen the mood. I don’t like to lose but when the opponents are better, like Leipzig were, I can accept it. We didn’t play a bad game and I didn’t expect to go through the season unbeaten. Losing is however a part of sport, nevertheless, the defeat serves as an incentive to improve.

In the 4-4 in the first half of the season, Mainz countered very well and we weren't good at defending against that. Since then, we’ve improved that part of our game. Trying to stop the counter early or at least stop it from reaching the last line of defence is a good strategy but it doesn’t always work of course. Above all, the team’s reaction after half time has stayed with me most.

Of course I’d prefer to have Sandro Wagner at my disposal but he’s suspended. It’s not the case that our attack will breakdown without him. We played against Schalke without him this season and played a good game. We have depth up front and have many different types of players who could replace him.

Head-to-head:

TSG and Mainz have faced each other 15 times in the Bundesliga. The head-to-head record isn’t in Hoffe’s favour, as we’ve won just three of these encounters while five have ended in draws and the “Zerofivers” have taken all three points on seven occasions. TSG’s last win didn’t come long ago, specifically, it was on the 22nd matchday of last season when Nagelsmann’s men won 3-2 at home thanks to goals from Nadem Amiri and Mark Uth (2).

The opponent’s form:

Mainz have started the year with two draws in front of their own fans – a 0-0 against 1. FC Köln first and then a 1-1 with BVB. Against Dortmund, Martin Schmidt’s men conceded early on but fought back to take a point.

The key battle:

Mark Uth vs. Jhon Cordoba. The Colombian striker is returning after sitting out because of a red card (two games) and the Zerofiver has good memories of TSG, scoring two in as many games against Hoffenheim. Hoffe will have to face Mainz without key striker Sandro Wagner (suspended for two games after a red card). Maybe Mark Uth will step up to the plate, as he’s scored four goals in three matches against this weekend’s opponents, including a brace in his last two.

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