Julian Brandt: “TSG are having a fantastic season”

Julian, you have just turned 20 years old and yet who have made almost 100 appearances in the Bundesliga. You’ve also played in the Champions League and are an international player. Did you anticipate that you would develop as a player so quickly when you moved to Leverkusen from the Wolfsburg youth set-up?

Julian Brandt: You always hope to improve like that but you certainly can’t predict it. Everything has moved forward so quickly since I’ve been in Leverkusen. It has all been ideal for me especially because I was given the chance and confidence to play regularly at Bayer 04.

How agonising was it for you in the match against Bremen to miss a penalty with the last kick of the game?

Brandt: We don’t have any time to dwell over these kinds of things. We’ve had the Champions League match against Atlético Madrid since then. That is definitely also a positive, that things just keep going. You can and must analyse mistakes but then you have to look forward again. We played well in Madrid but that is already behind us. We want to build on that.

Tayfun Korkut has only been your head coach for a few days. What are your first impressions of him and what more can he bring to the team?

Brandt: The coach speaks well and he knows what he needs to look at. He has by no means tried to start changing loads of things around. After all we don’t have a pre-season, we are now into the final and most crucial part of the season. We’ve changed a few key things but we will carry on with what is working well.

You are currently in tenth place in the table. What are your objectives in your next ten Bundesliga games?

Brandt: Of course we want to improve our position in the table but we will try to do that step by step without looking too far into the future. It is important for us that we consistently pick up points and find some stability. If we can do that, then we will be able to kick on.

What are you expecting from Saturday’s clash with Hoffenheim and what do you make of TSG’s season so far?

Brandt: Hoffenheim have had a fantastic season and deserve to be near the top of the table. Clearly they now want to qualify for Europe. It will be a really tough task for us but it is also clear that we want to come away with something.

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